:: michael clifford photography :: the blog

More press for flora&fauna.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:03:00 +0000

There's been a whirlwind of press around Pauline Siu's eco-fashion line flora&fauna the past couple weeks. Much deserved attention as f&f debuted their Fall 09 collection at Vancouver Fashion Week.

flora&fauna (and my photos) were featured in the Vancouver Sun, Scout Magazine, and the Georgia Straight. Shots of the clippings are on flora&fauna's blog.

Congratulations Pauline!

t-shirts.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:21:00 +0000

I'm looking for people to help me out with a new project. It involves you, your t-shirts, and changing them as fast as you can. The process is kind of fun, albeit superfluous, but it's really about documenting and learning where our clothing comes from and where it's made.

If I get enough people to make a decent data range, hopefully I can put together some wizzy bar graphs and maps and such.

So far I'm the only one, so if you would like to take part and are in the Vancouver area let me know.

View the full gallery here.

Okay, so it's been a while.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:35:00 +0000

So wow, my last post was in November and it's nearly March. So either it appears I've been up to a lot, or not much at all.

In reality, it's been a bit of both. Busy with some print design, product photography, a fashion shoot, and getting more into web design. But there's been some space in between where I haven't been up to much, just a lot of research and continuing to learn (and looking for work obviously).

It's a hard time to be a freelancer, especially when it's your first foray into the freelance world. The hardest thing for a first-time freelancer to get used to is the uncertainty and instability, and what that does to you psychologically. The second hardest thing is getting clients, and therefore work. So unless you're this guy, it's a difficult thing to do.

It is especially difficult when you see where the photography industry is going at all levels. Every year that goes by it gets harder for photographers, and doesn't look likely to improve. So at least thankfully I can do a variety of things together or separately, which is fine by me, I enjoy it all.

I hope to write a little more from now on, no more three month gaps.

Granville magazine.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:12:00 +0000

I've got a photo in the Winter 08 issue of Granville magazine, no photo credit of course. But if you'd like to check it out it's available at Whole Foods, Capers, and MEC in the lower mainland.

Congratulations to flora&fauna for the much deserved press!

Congratulations Tiffany.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:07:00 +0000

I want to say congratulations to my friend Tiffany Poirier for publishing her first children's book Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosphy. A teacher specializing in philosophy for children, she's written and illustrated a fantastic book introducing kids to the integral questions in philosophy.

I helped out in my way by photographing her illustrations and colour correcting them, so I'm also excited to see it in print.

The book is available for pre-order at Amazon, .ca .com or .co.uk, where ever you happen to be.

Congratulations Tiffany.

flora&fauna website launch.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:46:00 +0000

Since I don't have a blog for my design work (and probably won't), I decided it would be great to post it here. Plus you can follow the link and see more of my photography work in the collections tab of the site.

It's been a great and rewarding experience designing the site, so I hope you enjoy it.

Go and check out flora&fauna's wonderful clothing.

A fantastic model.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:09:00 +0000

A visit to the Vancouver Aquarium last weekend was a great experience. A nice break from the everyday, and a chance to see some spectacular wildlife.

The jellyfish however were wonderful models, and a graphic designers living dream. Lines and shape and texture languidly floating through space.

A million pictures.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:53:00 +0000

I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's book "A Man Without A Country". It's enjoyable, and an enjoyably quick read as well. A great little book with great insight.

But right at the end there is some great insight for any visual artist or appreciator of visual art. (or of any art come to think of it, but it's simpler this way.) It isn't even something Vonnegut said or wrote. He had asked the painter Syd Solomon how to tell a good picture from a bad one. He said, "Look at a million pictures, and you can never be mistaken."

Now that should take care of the complaints I've been getting to update my blog. I apologize that I haven't been keeping it up to date. Hopefully you'll hear more from me soon.

Sun & Surf.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:17:00 +0000

What could be better? The sun shining on your face, the ocean lapping at your feet, and a flash perfectly rim lighting your hair.

It may sound ideal, but the sun wasn't enough warmth, and the water cold enough to make your toes hurt if you stood in it too long. But it's all part of the job as we worked away on the flora&fauna photoshoot.

We were blessed with a good break in the weather as we used up our only rain date. We all got up bright and early and were out by the water as the sun continually ducked in and out of the clouds. It was a great shoot and went smoothly thanks to everyone involved. Pauline Siu, creator of flora&fauna, Hayley Snarlidge did amazing hair, Savannah Larsen did a beautiful job with make-up, Kyle Little was my unsung assistant, and of course our model Kimiko Yoshida did a fantastic job.

Here's a little taster of the shoot and of the Spring 09 flora&fauna line.

Here's an outtake from the shoot as well. The tide was coming in pretty quick as were finishing up on the beach and headed into the forest for the second half of the shoot. So I had my assistant Kyle hold one of the flashes so we could keep moving with the water.

Can't take the design out of the boy.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:45:00 +0000

I've been getting a lot of inquiries lately about graphic design work, but since I haven't been focused on design for the last while I didn't have a site to show. (except for a pretty old site which I won't give the address for.)

That's all changed now though. I've really focused this week and worked out something that I'm really proud of. I'm also really looking forward to keeping both sides of my professional life engaged, and allowing them to creatively influence each other.

Although it still doesn't have any work up yet (that will come soon), I think it's a great site that I hope you check out.

clifford-design.com

End of an odyssey?

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:28:00 +0000

It's been a couple weeks now, but I am back in Vancouver after traveling around the North and Southwest states for nearly 2 months. Camping in my Westfalia in snow and sand, giant redwoods and sage brush, experiencing brutal colds and brain melting heat. It has been an eye opening experience professionally, but even more so personally.

View Larger Map

Originally I had planned on passing through Vancouver a few times as I criss-crossed the continent. I didn't think much about the total cost of gas as I went, I just knew where I wanted to go and it just takes gas to get there. However, thinking ahead about driving across Canada to Ontario I realized that it was going to cost quite a bit to do it.

Unfortunately I've had to end the trip and sell my home on wheels. I'm going to be settling in Vancouver again, but hopefully I will be able to head out onto the road at various points to explore the continent in smaller excursions.

Here is a little recap of some images I've captured throughout the trip.

: : Graffiti on a railroad bridge in Whitefish, Montana.

: : Cow between train cars outside of East Glacier, Montana.

: : A frozen Jackson Lake below the Tetons in mid-May.

: : A jet steering clear of a tree in Jackson, Wyoming.

: : Clochette the shaved sheepdog.

: : Earthship outside of Taos, New Mexico. (see the Paul Frank-esque monkey face?)

: : Home sweet home, west of Telluride, Colorado.

: : Dry lake bed in Nevada. (the haze is from the wild fires in California)

: : A scale replica of my van, next to some giant redwoods in California.

: : A helicopter ride from Newport, Oregon. Why not.

I'd like to thank my very supportive friends and family, and all the people I've met that have helped make this journey so much more enjoyable.

The paradox of our time.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:31:00 +0000

From a song by The Mammals called Industrial Park. From my limited research it seems the last paragraph came from Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech, but I'm not entirely sure where the rest came from.

It seems that spending a lot of time on the road traveling alone increases the resonance of messages like this. This always was a beautiful song to me, but really is powerful when you're out there in the world feeling empowered and vulnerable at the same time.

I am done with great things and big things
Great institutions and big success
And I am for those tiny, invisible, molecular, moral forces
That work from individual to individual through the crannies of the world
Like so many rootlets
Or like the capillary oozing of water
Yet which, if you give them time
Will rend the hardest monuments of man's pride

The paradox of our time in history
Is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers
We have wider freeways but narrower viewpoints
We spend more but we have less
We buy more but we enjoy it less
We have bigger houses and smaller families
More conveniences and less time
We have more degrees but less depth
More knowledge but less judgment
More experts but more problems
More medicine but less wellness

Disarmament with mutual honor and confidence is a continuing imperative
Together we must learn how to compose differences
Not with arms but with intellect and decent purpose
Another war could utterly destroy this civilization
Which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence
Whether sought or unsought
By the military industrial complex

The world's toughest bicycle race.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:48:00 +0000

I'm sure a lot non-cyclists are unaware of a race that's been around for 27 years and traverses the US across 3000 miles from coast to coast. It's called the Race Across America (RAAM), and this year was the first year for a sub-component of the race called the Race Across the West (RAW). The RAW is a 1000 mile race from Oceanside, CA to Taos, NM covering most of the climbing, the hottest places, and the highest point on the RAAM course.

How I ended up involved with the race was a situation of someone I met, knew someone who knew someone else, who referred me to a racer in need of a crew. Murray Wilmerding is a solo racer in the 50-59 category for the Race Across the West, racing for Team Zap USA.

The race was an intense, inspiring, and brutally tiring experience. For Murray as well as the crew. The crew being myself and cyclist Rob Barnard packed into a VW Golf loaded down with all the gear, food and clothing for three people. Sleeping across the front seats, sprawled in the little space left on top of bags and coolers, and mostly in Murray's case just sleeping on any open space on the ground.

This psuedo vagabonding across the country allows for a lot of interesting experiences. Near hallucinogenic experiences where time and days mean nothing. Swimming in canals, herding goats, and getting used to the stares as we lay out in parking lots across the western US.

As much as attitudes towards cyclists are changing across the continent, there were still incidents of motorists following within feet and passing within inches. At least it's a far cry from things being thrown and getting run off the road. In fact, it seems more and more people are getting interested in cycling,. I hope it isn't only because of the rising gas prices, but an interest in health and well being.

The best thing about this race is that it takes participants to places most travelers don't see. The small towns that occasionally interrupt the beautiful landscapes whether they be endless farmland and ranches or unspoiled wilderness. It's a race that reveals all that America still is, in it's endless variety.

Unreal Landscapes.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:57:00 +0000

I went to a shopping centre in Broomfield, CO a few days ago. Typically I avoid malls and any place larger than an airplane hangar, but sometimes it's just the only place you can go.

This place however made it really sink in, how bizarre and unreal these places are. The scale of the buildings, parking lots, and the shear sprawl requiring a shuttle to take you around are not on a human scale. The parallel for me was the large and beautiful temples, churches and pyramids around the world exalting any number of gods where the scale and beauty serve a purpose. Whether you believe in that purpose or not, at least they are architecturally beautiful.

Do these buildings serve a similar purpose? Exalting their brand on high.

Beyond that, and even more superficial, is that the architecture and design of these places is nearly offensive. As if a company that designs office cubicle furniture decided to become an urban planner. Creating fake roads, fake walkways, unusable and superficial green spaces dwarfed by coloured concrete and steel facades.

These places are so commonplace that we don't even notice them anymore, it's just a part of life. I'm going to try to take a different look at these places and try to show the absurdity inherent in them with a photo series I'm calling 'Unreal Landscapes'. If anyone has any tips on good places to check out in North America let me know.

I want to have control.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:55:00 +0000

I was watching some great photo documentaries on MediaStorm tonight and came across this. It's a fantastic animation for a fantastic song. I've probably listened to Radiohead's Creep a hundred times, but a couple lines really stuck out to me on this listen.

I don't care if it hurts,
I want to have control.

It's reminded me of the sacrifice that it takes to do what you want to do in life. Not that you ever really get to do what you always want to do, but to be in a position where you can do what you want to do some of the time, or maybe half the time, is a pretty good place to be.

Conservation Summit.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:22:00 +0000

It's been a quick few days since the Conservation Summit ended on Friday, and I'm finally writing something.

This being my first workshop I don't have anything to compare it to, but from my perspective it was great. Full of opportunities to grow and learn. Although this workshop is heavily weighted to nature and wildlife photography, they don't even blink an eye when you go to shoot in a local tattoo shop. In fact the faculty enjoys the diverse subject matter.

The faculty itself were a diverse group of really top professionals, it was actually intimidating until I realized they were really nice and helpful people. Each day we submitted photos that were critiqued in an auditorium projected onto a screen. I found the critiques so helpful I'm working on the idea of a private blog so a select group of photographers can review each others work. Finding the right people for this will be a bit challenging I think.

It was a pretty tiring endeavour, getting up for early morning shoots, critiques, classes, presentations in the evening, and then getting to bed late to do it all over again.

I will definitely do a workshop again next year, but I'm sure I'll mix it up and do something a little different. I would however recommend this workshop to anyone, especially if you're interested in wildlife and landscape photography.

The best songs ever. (Part 2)

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:29:00 +0000

It's been a pretty intense week at the workshop, which I will comment on later. But I think it's time for something a little more frivolous.

I think this song needs no introduction.

The fountain of youth.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:32:00 +0000

After all that I've seen over the past 6 days, I'm reminded of a simple fact of neurology.

Our mind marks time by new experiences.

When we do routine things, and every day seems like the last, our minds don't even bother to make note of them. So I have no doubt that the more things you do and learn the less time goes by, therefore you ARE younger. Does this mean that we just feel younger, or are we actually physically younger?

That's up to you to decide.

Where the shampoo goes.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:18:00 +0000

I'm currently traveling through Montana, and enjoying every minute of it despite the unseasonably cold and dreary days.

It's interesting when you're doing something like this, that you see your direct impact on the environment (if you're paying attention). So the shampoo I used to wash my hair in the sink of the van, which then pours out onto the campsite, which makes me realize that it isn't biodegradable. Then what do you do with the bottle of shampoo? Throw it out and it's worse, you can't give it away, because what weirdo gives away shampoo to a random stranger. Although this is an odd example, our society as a whole keeps putting us into these double binds, where you are screwing something or someone over no matter what you do.

I think the lesson here is just to do less of things, and the things you do, do better.

: : : I wrote about this in my personal travel newsletter, as well as things that I just don't need to bother with on this blog. So if you know me, or just want to receive my updates from the road, please send me an email and let me know.

Flash and natural light.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:54:00 +0000

One thing I really want to work on, and something that really interests me is mixing artificial and natural light. But specifically when it is seamless enough that it's hard to tell. Some photographers are great at it, and I would love to work with them to really see how it's done.

It's been a while, but I've been so busy the last two weeks that I haven't been able to comment. Thanks to Heather Morton's blog I've come across Lindsay Siu in one of her Lounge posts. Her first two photos are a beautiful example of this.

Here's a little sign I saw just across from the campground I stayed at last night on the first day of this trip.

I'm off.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:58:00 +0000

I apologize for the lack of posts. As you can imagine it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I'll be on the road within the hour, so not much time to chat. I'm sure I'll have more to say at the next coffee shop I get to.

The countdown.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:19:00 +0000

There are less than two weeks until I finally depart. Everything is pretty much taken care of, which means I'm spending my time in a barren apartment. I also slept last night in a sleeping bag on a thermarest.

People are asking me now "So are you excited, are you nervous?" But actually I've taken care of all the big things, and many of the small things. I've also taken care of all the fantasizing and day-dreaming and worrying a while ago. So now I'm on autopilot, confident in my plan and relaxed and open to whatever may come. Of course I'm excited, but I'm just doing what I'm doing until those last few days.

It's strange to live your life as you've lived it, knowing that it's going to turn on it's head any day now. Well actually, even stranger when you know what exact day it will.

Interestingly enough, I'm not the only one about to hit the road. Photographer David Alan Harvey is heading out to take his "portrait of America". (although he also has some sad news, for which I give my condolences) But hopefully our paths will cross and we can argue about who needs the gas money more.

I would like to bring up a quote that an anonymous commentor posted on here, I think it deserves more prominence given the circumstances.

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself."
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Thanks anonymous... and Kierkegaard.

Souls, robots, YouTube, Beck, Hell Yes!

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:05:00 +0000

I'm currently reading a book on the clash of science and spirituality called Challenging Nature by Lee M. Silver. It's an interesting and thought-provoking read so far.

But what does such a deep, and contentious book lead to?

A one hour session of watching YouTube videos of robots doing various amusing things, and then to a beautiful Beck video with said robots.

I think I learned something?

The plan.

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:38:00 +0000

So what exactly am I doing?

Well it seems my path in life has led me to a point I alluded to here. Through Art, video, design, and now photography. All the factors have led to this point, and I'm making the jump.

I've sold or given away most of my things, and bought more gear. I sold my car, and bought a van. I've resigned from my job, and in May I'm hitting the road.

First I'll be heading to Wyoming for the Conservation Summit photography workshop. Then the next 6 months will be spent traveling and working on my craft, educating myself in a way that only being out there (and broke) can do. I'm willing to make the sacrifices needed to make it to the level I need to be at, and if I don't, then I just won't be a photographer.

It's interesting that today Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua guest posted on Ed McCulloch's blog about fear and growth. It's interesting because through all the excitement I'm going through, every day or so I get a quick shot of fear, like when you almost trip going down the stairs. But it's a good fear, it gets the heart going, and gives me the determination to do everything possible to do what I feel passionate about.

So thanks to everyone who has helped and supported me. You're keeping the fear from getting too strong.

The best songs ever. (Part 1)

michael@clifford-photography.com (Michael) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:09:00 +0000

I'm currently compiling a list of my favourite songs ever. I'll share that list later on, but I wanted to share a beautiful video and an amazing song by one of my favourite bands.

This is Hardcore by Pulp