12 months in Assessment » Michael Clark Images

2022 has been the busiest 12 months but for the reason that pandemic started in 2020. With that mentioned there have been nonetheless some clean areas on the task calendar however this previous fall was very near regular by way of journey and assignments. No matter some holes on the calendar this previous 12 months, I used to be nonetheless capable of create some wild pictures. I’m hoping 2023 is quite a bit like this previous fall with extra journey and even grander adventures.

This 12 months additionally introduced with it some superb experiences like witnessing the launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 because it began it’s journey to the Moon and past in addition to diving into the world {of professional} bull using with a brand new consumer. As you will notice beneath, this 12 months was everywhere in the map by way of photographic genres and purchasers–possibly extra so than any earlier 12 months I can consider. With out additional ado, listed below are what I think about the very best pictures I’ve created this 12 months.

Alamos Vista Path
Santa Fe, New Mexico — USA

Proper at the beginning of the 12 months, I went again up on the Alamos Vista Path above Santa Fe, New Mexico to recreate a movement blur picture I created in 2021. The truth is, that picture of Golden Aspens was in my 2021 12 months in Assessment weblog publish as nicely. This new winter model of that picture (proven beneath) has a very completely different really feel and the precise solar within the picture.

It appears wanting again over my profession I’ve photographed a variety of forests and timber–and a few of these pictures are amongst my finest recognized pictures. At this level I might do a complete e book on varied timber across the World. There was no plan to create so many pictures of timber however it simply sort of occurred. Therefore, maybe it isn’t that stunning that one other picture aspens reveals up in my newest 12 months in Assessment publish.

Purple Bull Air Pressure — Airplane Swap
Arizona — USA

Sadly, as a result of method this task performed out I can’t present you the epic pictures captured whereas documenting this unbelievable endeavor. This picture (proven beneath) was the one shot of mine that appeared to guide all the newspaper tales world wide after the Airplane Swap broadcast. Maybe someday I will present some extra pictures from this occasion however I’d not maintain my breath on that one. Let’s simply say it was the most important challenge of the 12 months that I used to be part of–and it was unbelievable to be proper there hovering in a helicopter to doc it. The photographs I can’t present are completely breathtaking and are most likely hands-down the very best pictures I created this 12 months.

Above is an aerial shot of Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington on the Airplane Swap run in Eloy, Arizona, USA, on April 24, 2022. Congrats to Luke and Andy for dreaming massive and going after it. I hope they get to do this once more sooner or later.

This task concerned a group of photographers to seize pictures from all completely different angles. It was a complete blast to hang around with Keith Ladzinski and Predrag Vučković for just a few days whereas we labored out one of the simplest ways to doc this intense enterprise. I had by no means met Predrag earlier than however each Keith and I had been blown away by his unbelievable pictures–and his superb work with GoPro cameras as nicely. It isn’t that usually that I get to hang around, examine notes and swap tales with my friends so when it does occur it’s a variety of enjoyable.

Frank Wilczek — The Templeton Basis
Tempe, Arizona — USA

Having completed a little bit of portrait work right here regionally in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the famend Santa Fe Institute, it was good to get an task with one other powerhouse within the science world when The Templeton Basis known as. Renown physicist Frank Wilczek, who has obtained nearly each different award there may be–together with the Nobel Prize–was slated to obtain the Templeton Prize for his work on the elemental legal guidelines of nature in each cosmology and on the atomic scale. I used to be despatched out to create a sequence of portraits at Arizona State College in Tempe, Arizona in March 2022 earlier than the announcement later in Might 2022.

Frank was extremely accommodating and simple going. And he was even up for getting inventive and heading exterior underneath the total moon later that night. Likewise, the Templeton Basis was very receptive to numerous concepts for creating all kinds of pictures over the course of a full day. The photographs proven listed below are a simply two of the various we created collectively.

From the Templeton Basis web site, “Wilczek joins an inventory of 51 prize recipients, together with St. Teresa of Kolkata (the inaugural award in 1973), the Dalai Lama (2012), and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2013). The 2021 Templeton Prize went to ethologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall. The Templeton Prize, valued at greater than $1.3 million, is likely one of the world’s largest annual particular person awards.” You too can watch a video produced by Templeton on Frank as nicely on YouTube.

It was an honor to spend a day with a world-class thoughts and one of many heroes of the physics world. Frank has labored intently with the likes of Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, and plenty of different illuminaries of the physics elite. Amazingly, late in my profession I’m assembly and photographing a number of the elite physicists that I seemed as much as once I studied physics method again within the day on the College of Texas at Austin. Congrats once more to Frank for one more well-deserved award!

Fly-Fishing — Aquatech Water Housings
Missoula, Montana — USA

Earlier this 12 months, I obtained an Aquatech water housing from Fujifilm for the venerable FUJIFILM GFX 100S digicam system. Shortly thereafter I used to be slated to show up in Missoula, Montana on the Rocky Mountain College of Images and took the water housing alongside to see if I might create one thing with it whereas instructing the workshop. As a part of the workshop we sometimes do a fly-fishing picture shoot on the Bitterroot River, simply south of Missoula. Whereas the scholars had been photographing round me I captured the picture beneath of Hudson Ruiz as he was fly-fishing.

Whereas this picture isn’t ground-breaking in any method, it’s simply enjoyable to create one thing out of the norm one thing completely different that what you usually see. With the sturdy present the water was effervescent up on the entrance of the lens port creating the refraction as seen on this picture. The colour steadiness distinction between the underside and the highest of the picture is as a result of minerals within the river water. It took thirty minutes or extra and snapping tons of of pictures to get the composition proper within the shallow river. I confirmed this picture to the scholars later that day to point out how pondering exterior the field can assist to create one thing uncommon and completely different than the plain kinds of pictures.

Purple Bull Air Pressure — Columbus Delight Parade
Columbus, Ohio — USA

On one more Purple Bull Air Pressure task, I used to be tasked with creating pictures of the group members sky diving with varied members of the LGBTQIA+ group as a part of the Delight Parade in Columbus, Ohio. It was a difficult task to seize the precise picture we wished as a result of it occurred in only a break up second–after 5 tries we lastly acquired it by utilizing a digicam that fires at 20 fps constantly and has no buffer. In the course of the course of that distant digicam picture shoot, we additionally captured the whacky picture proven beneath of Andy Farrington. You possibly can see the opposite wingsuit skydivers within the background however this picture simply has a wild really feel to it that challenges the minds notion. Therefore, it’s inclusion right here.

Paradise Seaside — FUJIFILM GF20-35mm lens
Melbourne, Florida — USA

In late July, I obtained the then top-secret FUJIFILM GF20-35mm f/4 lens from my good buddies at Fujifilm USA. I didn’t essentially have an task or something particular however they despatched it to me to get my suggestions and to see what I’d do with it. Shortly thereafter I left for the Kennedy Area Middle in Cape Canaveral, Florida and had just a few additional days earlier than the Artemis 1 launch was slated to proceed. I took my Aquatech water housing in addition to all kinds of drugs on that journey–and examined out the lens in a wide range of eventualities.

One afternoon, I went down the road from my lodge to Paradise Seaside in Melbourne, Florida and determined to do some whip-pan blur pictures of the ocean and the late afternoon sky. To create these I arrange my tripod within the shifting sand, stabilized it as finest I might and leveled the ball head. I then proceeded to whip the digicam left and proper with an extended publicity for near thirty minutes whereas watching the sunshine and the waves. I acquired fairly just a few wild pictures however just a few retained a crisp, sharp horizon line once I zoomed into 100%. The picture beneath is the very best of the pictures I captured that afternoon and it was an prompt basic in my thoughts because it simply has a painterly, dreamy really feel to it.

FUJIFILM — FUJIKINA 2022
New York Metropolis, New York — USA

Whereas attending the Fujikina occasion in New York Metropolis in September 2022 for the launch of the FUJIFILM X-H2, I took alongside my GFX 100S and the brand new GF20-35mm lens. I had an additional day to run round city and {photograph} a wide range of cityscapes, which was a ton of enjoyable as that’s uncommon for me typically. My first cease was the World Commerce Middle PATH Station, which as might be seen beneath, has some unbelievable structure. I then walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge and took the outdated basic picture of all of the man wires supporting the bridge. In all, I walked for about 5 hours straight, taking within the metropolis, and snapping pictures of something that I discovered attention-grabbing.

This avenue model of pictures is a very international to me since I reside in a tiny metropolis in northern New Mexico, however it was enjoyable to take pleasure in only a pure photographic train. Thanks once more to Fujifilm for bringing me out for the festivities. I used to be capable of meet and hang around with true legends within the picture trade like Greg Gorman, Sam Abell, Victor Ha, Justin Stailey and my good good friend George Nobechi. We had a variety of fancy late night time dinners with nice wine and phenomenal tales. I depend myself extremely fortunate simply to have been with that group and to be part of the combo.

NASA Artemis 1 Launch
Kennedy Area Middle, Florida — USA

Early in 2022, I made a concerted effort to get a press cross for the NASA Artemis 1 launch. Sadly, I used to be not capable of get a press cross at the moment as the appliance interval had ended a 12 months prior. However, just a few months later I used to be notified of another choice, the NASA Social program, which brings in social media influencers to view the launch. I assumed to my self this isn’t precisely the place I must be however it may be the one choice if I wished to get on the market and {photograph} the launch so I utilized. As you would possibly suspect, I acquired in and that’s the program that allowed me to be on the press website–and to be as shut as anybody can truly get to the launch pad.

The Artemis challenge was described to me years in the past once I visited NASA Johnson Area Middle in Houston, Texas and gave a chat to the pictures group there. I used to be conscious that NASA deliberate to go again to the moon and set up a base there as a part of their quest to go to Mars, and for the reason that Artemis challenge was lastly getting off the bottom I wished to be there to see it and in addition to create pictures. I’ve been an area nerd for a few years so documenting this return to the moon appeared like an ideal private challenge. NASA and my fascination with house journey was the explanation I studied physics. Therefore, when the primary launch window opened I flew out and spent just a few days photographing the rocket on the pad from all completely different angles and doing the NASA Social tour, which allowed us to realize entrance into fairly just a few locations not proven to most people.

As many will know, the primary few launches had been scrubbed so I ended up spending every week or extra in Cape Canaveral, Florida (as might be seen in a number of the different pictures on this weblog publish). Beneath are a smattering of pictures of the Artemis 1 Rocket on Launch Pad 39b at Kennedy Area Middle on Cape Canaveral close to Titusville, Florida.

The precise launch date of NASA Artemis 1 launch occurred months later at 1:47 AM on Wednesday November 16, 2022 on the Kennedy Area Middle in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I used to be initially dissatisfied with the night time launch as a result of I knew it might be extraordinarily troublesome photographically to seize the acute distinction of the rocket’s exhaust and the rocket itself. However in the long run, it made for a wild and completely different kind of picture.

I used just a few completely different cameras to doc the launch together with my FUJIFILM GFX 100S and the Nikon Z9 (since it may seize pictures at 20 fps in full decision uncooked file codecs). In the beginning of this challenge it was only a private challenge however by the tip I had talked with just a few different colleagues that had been there photographing the launch and my pictures ended up being utilized by Amazon who had Alexa working full-time within the Orion house capsule.

I used to be so focused on photographing the launch that I’m not positive I acquired the total launch expertise. By means of my viewfinder, which was stopped down by about 5 or 6 stops all I noticed was a black display after which a burst of sunshine flying by way of the digicam’s EVF. It appeared as if the solar got here out beneath me as I noticed the sunshine from the rocket gentle up my ft and the bottom round me however the publicity on the digicam was tuned for the launch. The sound took actually fourteen seconds to get to us since we had been three miles away from the launch pad. The primary fourteen seconds of the launch had been silent, which made for a bizarre expertise along with your eyes seeing one factor and your ears experiencing one other.

Fortunately, by way of Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto YouTube fame, I met some photographers that had photographed tons of of launches. They clued us each into the publicity settings they used for night time launches, which had been vastly completely different than how I had my cameras arrange. The settings they really useful had been 1/2,five hundredth second, f/8 at ISO 100. After they first mentioned these settings I assumed absolutely they had been pulling our leg and I requested two or three extra occasions in the event that they had been critical. They went on to clarify the state of affairs to a beginner reminiscent of myself–and by chance I adopted their recommendation. With my GFX 100S I set my ISO to 200 as an alternative of 100 simply figuring out it’s laborious to blow out highlights with that digicam.

Whereas sitting on the airport with Jared at 3 AM, we had been each going by way of our pictures and at one level I simply hit the correct arrow key in Lightroom and zipped by way of all of my Z9 pictures captured at 20 fps. The Z9 has no buffer even at 20 fps so I had over 700 pictures from the launch all shot at 20 fps and whizzing by way of them like this confirmed me a fairly epic time-lapse choice I hadn’t thought of beforehand. Therefore, I exported a full 20 fps time-lapse and uploaded that to Instagram earlier than catching my flight. You will discover it on Instagram here. The producers working with Amazon noticed this and included it into their present reels, which I will share right here sooner or later.

Keep tuned for more information on this present challenge documenting the Artemis 1 launch as I’ll have a full report within the Winter 2023 subject of my Publication popping out in January 2023.

Arizona Ridge Riders
Glendale, Arizona — USA

This fall I acquired a name to {photograph} skilled bull using, which could appear method out in left subject for an journey photographer however it was significantly adventurous and appear to suit proper in with a number of the wild stuff I {photograph}. This task had me spending 5 days with the Arizona Ridge Riders at a PBR (Skilled Bull Driving) group occasion in Glendale, Arizona. This group bull using occasion was a brand new idea for PBR and this was the primary 12 months it got here collectively. I used to be given all entry to the occasion and principally shot from nearly each angle conceivable. Whereas the motion was wild to {photograph}, it was the preparation within the locker room that generated some actually superb pictures. Proven listed below are just some pictures from this task. For the entire story, try my Fall 2022 Newsletter which features a a lot bigger collection of pictures put collectively as a photograph story.

Elinchrom FIVE
Santa Fe, New Mexico — USA

As a very long time collaborator with the Swiss firm Elinchrom, one of many high studio and placement flash producers on the earth, I used to be fortunate to get just a few of their new location strobes to play with this fall earlier than they launched. The brand new strobe named “FIVE” is a 500 Ws battery-powered strobe that’s an multi function “monobloc” model unit. The unit has a built-in TTL mode, which makes it very simple to make use of for these not aquainted with off-camera flash. Whereas 500 Ws is often not sufficient energy for a number of the lengthy distance flash work I usually do, the FIVE proved itself fairly a bit extra highly effective than I used to be anticipating. For this task, the turnaround was very fast so we arrange the picture shoots regionally right here in Santa Fe.

For the primary a part of this task I photographed mountaineering with my good buddies Amy Jordan And Aaron Miller right here in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amy jumped on a route she had lately despatched named Las Golondrinas (5.13-) at a brand new crag close to Santa Fe. I used two of the FIVEs to gentle her up from about 100-feet away–and I used to be mighty impressed this labored utilizing the Excessive Pace Sync mode. Beneath are two completely different pictures created utilizing a FUJIFILM GFX 100S medium format digicam.

For the second a part of this task, I photographed motocross with Daniel Coriz on the Santa Fe Motocross Observe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Having labored with Daniel at this precise observe a number of occasions prior to now I had a good suggestion of what we had been going for. We solely had just a few hours to create all kinds of pictures together with a portrait, some movement blur pictures in addition to stopping the movement utterly utilizing Excessive Pace Sync. Once more the FIVE was as much as the duty. I used two FIVE mono blocs to create these pictures, and in some instances positioned them proper subsequent to one another for extra energy.

My because of Elinchrom for sending me the brand new FIVEs to work with. They are going to undoubtedly be a instrument I attain for going ahead together with the ELB 1200. Additionally, my because of Amy, Aaron and Daniel for going out with me on such brief discover.

Communication Arts Picture Annual 2022
White Sands Nationwide Park, New Mexico — USA

Within the Summer time of 2022, I used to be honored to have my pictures of the Astronaut on Planet White Sands included within the 2022 Communication Arts Picture Annual (as proven beneath). This was the fourth time my pictures had been included within the picture annual, which incorporates the very best pictures created that 12 months by a large swath of the promoting pictures world. These pictures had been initially created for New Mexico True, the New Mexico Tourism Board, so it was nice to see them get a large viewers within the CA Picture Annual.

So lengthy 2022. My because of Purple Bull, Fujifilm, Amazon, Nationwide Geographic, Elinchrom, Aquatech, New Mexico Tourism, Teton Ridge, The Templeton Basis and all of my different purchasers with whom I labored this 12 months. Thanks for taking the time to take a look at a few of this years highlights. Be at liberty to touch upon any of those pictures and inform me which one you assume is the very best of the very best from this 12 months. Pleased Holidays and a Pleased New 12 months to you all. Right here’s hoping your 2023 will get us all absolutely again to regular and is stuffed with adventurous travels and superb experiences!