Home > Culture > Mentor Showcase > The 2006 Best-of Series: Michael Clark
The 2006 'Best Of' Series
For the second annual Best Of issue of the ASMP Bulletin, we selected twenty projects from a field of nearly sixty candidates. It was a tough decision and we thank all those who submitted their work. We hope you will enjoy reading about the projects featured in print and here on the ASMP Web site.
Advertising assignment on extreme mountain-biking for Adobe Lightroom
Thanks to his persistent marketing and communication efforts, Michael Clark’s adventure sports photography was on the mind of Adobe Lightroom’s marketing manager just as he was selecting a photographer for packaging and demo imagery to support the company’s new product launch. Now Clark’s images are highly visible to everyone with an interest in the software — complete with his copyright and Web site address.
Self-portrait of Michael Clark
All images in this article, except the final one, are © Michael Clark
ASMP: How long have you been in business?
MC: Approximately 10 years.
ASMP: How long have you been an ASMP member?
MC: Since 2004.
ASMP: What are your photographic specialties?
MC: I specialize in adventure sports photography for both editorial and commercial clients. My main specialties are rock and ice climbing, mountaineering, kayaking and mountain biking, as well as a variety of other outdoor adventure sports. I also shoot landscape, travel and lifestyle images.
ASMP: Please summarize the equipment used in this work.
MC: For this assignment I was shooting digital, since the images were for Adobe’s new digital image processing software. I shot mostly with a Nikon D2x and a little with a Nikon D200 and shot only RAW images. A variety of lenses were used, including a 10.5mm Fisheye, 12-24mm zoom, 17-35mm zoom, 28-70mm zoom and a 80-200 zoom lens. I’d say a good 40 percent of the images were shot using the fisheye, as it really lends itself to this sport and to creating an image that feels like you were there. It also creates a realistic sense of size for the riders jumping off the cliffs. The client preferred 12+ MP images, hence the D2x was my best option, with a high framing rate of 5 fps — it is the fastest high-resolution camera currently on the market. I had one assistant who also greatly assisted with the lighting. For one portion of the assignment, we were shooting motion-blur images, and I had my assistant running with a portable DynaLite battery powered strobe while I ran behind the mountain biker shooting images. We were trying to get new and creative images that had never been produced before in this genre of adventure sports. The mountain bikers we were working with were all riders I had photographed previously, and they are all professional riders near the top of their sport. This is critical to get the exciting images.
ASMP: How did you get this job? Can you tell us about the bidding and estimating portion of this assignment?
MC: This job came to me through one of my marketing efforts. Last fall I sent out a Christmas e-mail card to all of my clients and to everyone on my marketing list. The marketing manager for Adobe Lightroom had just seen my Web site the week prior to sending out the Christmas e-mail and e-mailed me back immediately. It’s kind of a long story, but previously I was asked by one of the Adobe team to help them produce better Nikon RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw. He contacted me after I posted a long e-mail on the APAdigital forum. Then I am betting that he passed my information onto the Lightroom Marketing Manager who then checked out my Web site.
I also produce a quarterly newsletter that I sent to Adobe and it was passed onto the Lightroom team. With all of this and my Christmas e-mail, the Lightroom marketing manager asked me to call him and said that “we needed to work together.”
I was asked to put a bid together with multiple prices for two different usage scenarios. In negotiations, my fee went up three times as the client wanted more and more usage. Expenses were estimated from previous photo shoots with the riders and with considerable research on locations and permits, etc.
ASMP: Please tell us about the usage terms agreed upon for these images. Was exclusivity or restrictions of use discussed and, if so, how was this addressed?
MC: In the end, we negotiated unlimited non-exclusive usage for three years with the caveat that no other software manufacturers would be allowed to use the images. This allows me to license the images for stock directly or through an agent and kept the price from going up radically for the client.
ASMP: What is the most important question you asked this client?
MC: What kind of images are you looking for?
ASMP: Was the demographic for this product important to the shoot concept and did you do anything specific to target this?
MC: At the outset, the Lightroom Marketing Manager wanted images that were interesting to everyone who would buy Lightroom and for demonstrations of the software. Hence, Adobe liked the mountain biking idea, as it was generic but still very adventurous, and appealed to everyone.
ASMP: Who were the models for this shoot and how were they selected?
MC: The models were elite athletes capable of doing this type of mountain biking. As there is a very small community of mountain bikers who can ride at this level, I used people who I have worked with and photographed in the past. They were selected for their skills and their reliability.
ASMP: What do you feel is the most challenging aspect of shooting action sports?
MC: Besides setting up the shot and getting the time you need with a pro athlete, just getting into position is the toughest part of the job. With rock climbing sometimes you spend days putting up ropes before the climber gets there — it can be a lot of work with insane amounts of gear. With mountain biking, kayaking and most other adventure sports, getting into position is much easier, but it is still hard to keep up. The actual photography is the easy part.
ASMP: Tell us about the technical considerations used in the flash blur images?
MC: For the flash blur images, I used a DynaLite Uni400jr strobe with a Jackrabbit battery pack, pocket wizard transmitters, and a small soft box and warming gel. The flash blur images were shot with two separate cameras simultaneously. One camera was mounted on the bike (on the seat post) and controlled with a pocket wizard, the strobe was controlled by another pocket wizard and was held by my assistant who ran with the mountain biker and myself — both the camera and the strobe were triggered by the camera I was holding and running with shooting from behind the mountain biker as he rode on the trail. To the passerby it probably looked pretty comical, but it worked flawlessly and we got some very interesting images.
ASMP: Please describe the specifics of your workflow and image storage while on location.
MC: My workflow on location involved shooting RAW images, custom white balancing either with the custom white balance eye on top of my Nikon D2x or with an EzyBalance white balance disk, and then downloading images to two Epson P2000’s for storage and backup. I had an assistant handling the downloading so I could keep shooting. Since we were far away from electricity for the entire shoot, a laptop was not an option. Luckily the art buyer didn’t mind — and that allowed us to get a lot more images than we would have if I would have had to stop and show images to the art buyer after every set up.
ASMP: Was there much post-production involved with this work?
MC: The only post-production for this job was working up the RAW images in Lightroom for delivery.
ASMP: Your name and copyright notice are displayed with your images in connection with the use of this product. Was this a point of negotiation or discussion with the client?
MC: It was never talked about directly, but rather understood. In fact, it was Adobe who asked me to make sure I had the copyright info saved in the EXIF metadata in camera so that it could not be erased and would show up in the software. Adobe was especially concerned because a few of the images will be included with the software for demo purposes, on the box and used in ads. With the current Orphan Works legislation, they did not want those images to be used illegally. It is refreshing to see a client have concern for your copyright! In the end I used ‘copyright 2006 michaelclarkphoto.com’ in my in-camera exif data so that clients would not only know who took the shot, but how to get a hold of me, and Adobe was OK with that.
I also knew from talking with other ASMP members who had shot demo files for Adobe what a great marketing opportunity this job would be, because my images would show up with my name and copyright. The software demo includes metadata being inserted to the images and my copyright appearing is a big part of this.
ASMP: Has this assignment had a positive effect on your career and, if so, are you doing anything specific to maximize or market this?
MC: This assignment has been a big boost to my career, as the images are being used to promote the Adobe Lightroom software (see below) and are being shown all over the country to both photographers and art buyers with my copyright and name right up there with the images.
I’ve already done a spread about the photo shoot in my latest newsletter. The newsletter started out five years ago as a marketing piece for my clients and prospective clients, and it continues to be the best marketing I have ever done. Every time I send it out I get new jobs, pretty much without fail. The Adobe marketing manager said he was blown away by the newsletter and it was a big part of why he chose me to shoot images for them.
In addition to these current promotions, I’m planning a direct mail campaign with a few of the Lightroom images for this fall when the software will be finalized and coming to market. The images will also be marketed via my stock agency.
The Adobe Lightroom software being demonstrated with one of Michael’s images at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit.
Photo © George Jardine.