"New" Black and White Portfolio

Just wanted to let everyone know I have updated my website this morning and added a new Black and White gallery to my Portfolio section. There are now separate web galleries for my color and black and white portraits.

Aurora Photos Action:Reaction Project

It has been quite a while since I have posted a blog here. As you might guess I have been so busy with work that I haven't had much time to blog. Between road trips, assignments and other big projects there hasn't been a whole lot of free time.

Recently I shot a few portraits as part of Aurora Photos Action:Reaction project which celebrates 15 years of being in business as a stock agency. The Action:Reaction project has been in progress since June 2008 and the basic concept is that every 48 hours a new image is uploaded to the site that somehow relates to the previous image. It is a very interesting progression of images by an incredible group of pro photographers.

Each photographer submits three images and then an editor chooses the one that goes live. Part of the project is that it brings photo editors and photographers together, for instance my set of images was edited by Sadie Quarrier of National Geographic Magazine. Some of the other guest editors include Rob Haggart of APhotoFolio.com, Sacha Lecca of Rolling Stone and Miki Johnson of American Photo Magazine.

Sadie chose the color image (as in the image above). Here are the other two images I submitted:


As you can tell these images are a bit off the beaten track for an adventure photographer but I am experimenting a lot these days with portraiture and especially black and white portraiture.

If you'd like to check out the project click here.

Hanging out of an Airplane

A few days ago I was strapped into the back of an airplane with the door removed. I had my climbing harness on and was anchored to three attachment points in the back of a Piper Cub. Dressed in a down jacket with windproof gloves and a face mask we took off to test out our system for photographing mountain terrain in the Sangre de Christo mountains above Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I was on a test flight with a friend of mine, Jerry Van Slambrook, who is an excellent pilot and is also very experienced at flying in big mountains. We are working on a project to photograph some Colorado peaks from the air. I can't reveal the full nature of the project just yet but it will be really fun to work on and should result in some wild images. I just thought I'd share a few of the test images here as it was a pretty cool experience and I am really looking forward to working on this project some more.


The best part of the day was when Jerry rolled the plane over so that I was looking down past my feet directly at the ground several hundred feet below us. All in all though it was pretty casual. Breaking the plane of the doorway was a little harsh since we were going over a hundred miles per hour but I was very comfortable having hung off 3,000 foot cliffs on several occasions. More to come on this project. Stay tuned.

Lightroom eBook featured on Adobe's Website

Adobe has been kind enough to feature my Lightroom workflow eBook Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographers Workflow on the Adobe website. It is a great honor to be included with other excellent Lightroom books by such well known authors as Scott Kelby, Seth Resnick and Martin Evening. This is a huge stamp of approval for my ebook. You can check out the Lightroom resources page here.

I have had several people email me and and ask what sets my book apart from all of the other Lightroom books out there? That is a great question. My response to that is, as far as I know, my eBook is the only book that details a complete workflow from capture all the way through to finished images. My book isn't just about Lightroom. Most of the other Lightroom books are an in-depth detailed discussion of all the features in Lightroom but none of them that I know of come from the perspective of a professional photographer and show how Lightroom fits into a complete digital workflow. Also, my book contains a lot of information on setting up the camera, a shooting workflow, detailed naming conventions, storing and archiving strategies and an overview of when I use Photoshop after exporting images out of Lightroom as well as many other topics that aren't covered in the normal Lightroom books. Basically my book fits all the pieces of digital photography together to take you from your current digital knowledge base to a much more expanded and complete understanding of the digital process. And it does it with straight talk and very understandable and concrete examples.


I have been working closely with Adobe (not as an employee) for a number of years now and they are a fantastic company to work with. From top to bottom they are a responsive corporation that listens to photographers and artists so that they can make better products. If you haven't downloaded Lightroom 2.0 yet then you don't know what you are missing. For me and my workflow, it is the best thing to happen to photography since digital came on the scene back in the late 1990s.

The latest version of my eBook has gotten rave reviews and has been reviewed independently on several blogs. My many thanks to all of you who have purchased my eBook. Your continued support guarantees that the book will be expanded and made even better as Lightroom is upgraded and when the next version comes out. And lastly, many thanks to Adobe and in particular Frederick Johnson (who has been a great resource and friend) and the entire Lightroom team.

Ok, I know I have been talking about my Lightroom book all over the place. Enough for now. If you want to check it out go to my website at:

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/workflow.html

Summer 2008 Newsletter

The Summer 2008 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 on burning the candle at both ends and the creative urge, a review of Adobe Lightroom 2.0, a new section named Inside Scoop which details the Anatomy of a Portfolio and much more.

The Michael Clark Photography Newsletter goes out to over two thousand photo editors, photographers and enthusiasts around the world. You can download the Summer 2008 issue and back issues on my website at:

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/backissues.htm

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

Ken Milburn writes a glowing review of Michael's Lightroom 2 eBook

I just got back from a five day trip in Colorado and saw that Ken Milburn wrote a glowing review of Lightroom 2.0 eBook Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographer's Workflow.

Here is an excerpt from his blog post on Inside Lightroom:

I did, however, get a chance to read the Table of Contents, Introduction, and his very, very professional procedures for setting up his camera(s) for the best possible RAW capture…including one of the most clear and understandable discussions of the importance of Histograms, how to read them, and how to expose in order to capture the most RAW data possible in order to be assured of having the most to work with when adjusting the image. It’s all very scientific and thorough, but totally understandable, logical, and just plain interesting.

What I learned from the table-of-contents is that he seems to be covering a very complete suggested workflow that is specifically aimed at high-volume production, advertising, and editorial photographers who are expected to produce the very best pictures and present them almost instantly. He also has an entire chapter devoted to what you should save for doing in Photoshop, when and why.

Check out Ken's full blog post at Inside Lightroom. And if you'd like to check out Ken's website click here. Please note that I did not ask Ken to write this review. He purchased the book from my website like everyone else. My many thanks to Ken for his great review.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom eBook Now Available

After spending more time than I want to think about updating the Lightroom eBook, I have finally finished the updated version of my eBook Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographer's Workflow. To purchase the updated version of this eBook click here.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom workflow, a 124 page PDF e-book, is a workshop in book form. This workflow, while not exhaustive will cover the main topics of a shooting workflow then move into a RAW processing workflow with Adobe Lightroom Version 2.0 and Photoshop CS3. This book gets down to the nuts and bolts of a real world workflow. With so many new updates and changes in Lightroom 2.0 this eBook was almost completely re-written and presents a workflow that can be adapted by any photographer, professional or amateur.

Below is a list of some of the new content:

Lightroom as a Digital Asset Management Tool *NEW*
Six Ways to Speed up Lightroom *NEW*
File and Folder Naming Conventions *NEW*
A Logical Editing Process *NEW*
Library Filters *NEW*
Adobe Camera Profiles *NEW*
Creating Panoramas *NEW*
Using Merge to HDR *NEW*
Localized Adjustments *NEW*
Lightroom 2.0 and CS3 Compatibility *NEW*
Photoshop Workflow *NEW*
Creating Photoshop Actions *NEW*
Running Batch Actions *NEW*
Storage Options *EXPANDED AND IMPROVED*

Please note that, true to my word, anyone who purchased the previous version of this eBook on April 1st, 2008 or after will receive a free copy of the updated version. I will be compiling a list of emails of everyone who has purchased the eBook since April 1st and I'll send the download link to those individuals over the next few days.