Santa Fe Photowalk

Andy Biggs and I are organizing a photowalk in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 7, 2009. Since I have a workshop with Andy Biggs beginning on October 8, the next day, we figured it would be fun to organize a casual and fun photowalk of Santa Fe the day before our workshop begins.

The photowalk is open to anybody who would like to join us. Just bring along a camera, comfortable shoes, water and whatever else makes sense. We will meet up at 4 PM at the gazebo in the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, and will go from there. We don't have a pre-determined path to walk, so please don't be late. In fact, just show up early and be ready to go by 4pm. I am confident that we will end up at a restaurant with good food and margaritas at sundown which should be a blast.

You can read the offical photowalk information on the Photowalklist.com web site:

Santa Fe Photowalk, October 7, 2009

If you would like more information on our photo workshop that starts the next day check out my earlier blog post about the Adobe Lightroom & the Fine Art Digital Print Workshop.

Bogen Cafe Webinar with Michael Clark

Just a note, the interview I did with the folks at the Bogen Cafe is now available for download from their website. The Webinar gives a lot of insight into how I construct my images, the technical aspects of shooting digitally including a bit of my workflow and what it takes to be a pro. You can find the interview, entitled Adventure Sports Photography: Roundtable with Adventure Photographer Michael Clark on the Bogen Cafe website.

Click on the presentation title to download the complete webinar. The sound quality isn't perfect but we covered a lot of ground in this seminar and I heard from a lot of photographers they they got a lot out of the interview. Be forewarned that the .WMV file is quite large at almost 65 MB. And you will need to have the Windows Media Player software loaded onto your computer to play the presentation. You can download that here.

I do have to say that this interview delves into the nuts and bolts of adventure sports photography more than any other interview I have done in the last few years. If you are interested in gear, adventure sports or remote photography I think you'll find this very interesting. Enjoy!

NIkon World Assignment Article

The Summer 2009 issue of Nikon World Magazine includes an article about the 2009 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race which I photographed earlier this year for the Assignment section. Nikon World is one of those publications that I drooled over early on in my career (and still do) because many of the photographers I admired like Galen Rowell, Joe McNally, Pete Turner and many others were featured in the magazine. It was a dream of mine to be featured in Nikon World - and it came true in the Summer 2006 issue.

Before heading down to cover the race earlier this year I thought Nikon World might be interested in an article about the race - especially since I was going to be putting their gear (and myself) into some rough conditions. They loved the idea and the Assignment article was the result. I do have to say that Nikon takes great care when they print the magazine. My images, and all of the others in the magazine, look phenomenal. The images are nice and crisp and the colors are dead on. There are not many publications out there that can match their production quality. Add to that the great writing from Barry Tanenbaum and you have a class act. Thank you Barry and Nikon for including my work and adventures in the latest issue!

And of course if you missed it, my Spring 2009 Newsletter featured an extended article on covering the race and includes a lot more info on the adventures I had in remote Patagonia.

P.S. - I do have a high res PDF of the article and will post a link to that in the future.

Outdoor Photographer: Ask the Pros

Last month's July 2009 issue of Outdoor Photographer featured an article entitled "Ask the Pros" where readers submitted questions and a bevy of pro photographers answered them. Among the pro photographers included in the article were Art Wolfe, Moose Peterson, Tom Till, George Lepp, Glenn Randall...and myself. I am honored to be included among such stellar photographers. If you'd like to see the complete article, there is an expanded version on the Outdoor Photographer website.

Here are a few of the questions that included my input:

Q. I'm looking for information or recomendations on cameras and equipment that can handle below-freezing or below-zero temperatures.
—James Chilcote

A. James,
In my experience shooting ice climbing, skiing and mountaineering in frigid conditions, all the way down to -40° F, I’ve found that modern digital SLRs do quite well, especially the pro models. When the temps are above 0º F, you’ll have no problems with most D-SLRs, save for the batteries not lasting as long as normal. Keep a spare battery with you in a warm pocket and trade them out every half-hour or so. The main problems you’ll run into below 0° F are keeping the batteries warm and the LCD from freezing, which can happen.

To overcome these issues, I usually tape a chemical hand warmer over the battery compartment—either on the bottom of the camera or on the grip. I try to keep it as far away from the back of the camera as possible since heat will increase the amount of noise produced by your imaging sensor. In super-cold environments (e.g., -20º and below), this is less of a concern. To keep the LCD from freezing, I occasionally warm it up by holding a hand warmer on the LCD. I don’t tape it onto the LCD because it would start to heat up the CMOS or CCD sensor. I’d also suggest going with one of the top-tier cameras from any manufacturer because they have better weather sealing, which should help in the cold.
—Michael Clark

Q. I am just starting out with selling my photos and am wondering about ways other than my website to get my photos viewed and sold?
—Joseph Christy

A. Joseph,
I’d suggest starting with magazines, as they are the best way to get your images seen by huge numbers of people—and drive people to your website. When I was starting out, one of my very first submissions actually was to Outdoor Photographer. I submitted a few landscape images along with an article about a local area and they published it a few months later. Getting published in a magazine is one of the best forms of marketing—and you get paid for it, as well. Many photo editors also will allow you to include your website address in the photo credit which is another great way to drive potential clients and those interested in your work to your website.
—Michael Clark

PDN Great Outdoors Photo Contest

I just got the latest issue of PDN in the mail today and found out that my image from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (above) was a finalist in the 2009 Great Outdoors Photo Contest. My image appears in the magazine and will also appear in a soon to come web gallery on PDN. Stay tuned for that - I'll put up a link as soon as it appears online. The judges in this years contest were Mark Pinsukanjana (Modernbook Gallery), Julia Vandenoever (Backpacker), Brenda Milis (Men's Health) and Krista Rossow (National Geographic Traveler). My thanks to them and PDN for choosing my image.

Summer 2009 Newsletter

The Summer 2009 issue of the Michael Clark Photography Newsletter is now available for download. If you'd like to sign up for the Newsletter just drop me an email and I'll add you to the mailing list.

This issue includes an editorial with updates on the newsletter and other topics, a review entitled "A few of my Favorite Things", a portfolio of recent images shot this summer in Utah, New Mexico and Texas, an article about the future of magazines and much more.

The Michael Clark Photography Newsletter goes out to approximately 5,000 thousand photo editors, photographers and photo enthusiasts around the world. You can download the Summer 2009 issue on my website at:

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/summer_2009.pdf

Please note that the newsletter is best viewed in the latest Adobe Acrobat reader which is available for free at www.adobe.com.

Lowepro Photography Showcase

I have been working closely with Lowepro for the last year or more and they have now included me in their Photography Showcase which features images and bios of top photographers from around the world. It is an honor to be included in such talented company. I must also say, working with Lowepro has been a pleasure. In my conversations with the design team I have been very impressed with how much they have thought through their products before they bring them to market. My Lowepro packs and bags have taken an incredible beating over the years - one fanny pack even took a hundred foot fall with three lenses in it. Two of those lenses survived and are still in my camera bags. Check out my latest newsletter for more info on the Lowepro Vertex 300 AW.