Buy it now and save 35% off plus free shipping in the U.S.! Just go to the link below, choose the eBook or book, and enter the discount code EXPOSED512 during the checkout process. Here is the link:

http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321811232

Code: EXPOSED512
Expiration Date: 6/1/12

My thanks to PeachPit and New Riders for offering this discount on the book. Feel free to let me know what you think of the new book here on the blog, on Amazon or send me an email directly.

This book is the most interesting of the three that I have written because it includes detailed accounts of many of my most adventurous assignments. For more information on the book, check out the full description on my website here.

Join photographer and author Michael Clark for a lively Twitterview about his adventures as a professional photographer and his advice for others looking to go pro.

Michael Clark, author of Exposed: Inside the Life and Images of a Pro Photographer, will answer your most pressing questions in easy-to-manage 140-character bites via Twitter on Thursday, May 17, at 11 am PST.

To tune in, just follow @Peachpit and @michaeljayclark. You can even set up a Tweetdeck group with just those 2 tweeps and follow along or search for this hashtag: #MichaelClark. You can also follow along with the interview at http://twebevent.com/MichaelClark.

In the Twitterview, @michaeljayclark will offer an inside look at his most demanding assignments and tips for how photographers can improve their skills and find inspiration.

Send your questions for Michael to @Peachpit or post them as comments to this blog with your Twitter name. We’ll pick a few random questions to ask, and if yours is chosen, you win a free copy of Exposed: Inside the Life and Images of a Pro Photographer!

This book is, once again, chocked full of info, and also includes a fair number of adventure stories as well. Even if you are not an aspiring pro, if you are just looking for a book with some good adventure stories or need some inspiration, this book might be of interest to you. Below are a few screenshots of some of the spreads. As you can see there are stories about the images and how they were created, post-processing tips and techniques that I use regularly, and finally there are quite a few lighting diagrams that show exactly how I had my gear set up to create certain images.

For a full description of the book visit my website. The idea behind this book is to strip some of the glamour off this profession and share a wide range of stories and experiences to give the reader a very clear view of what it is like to be a working professional photographer. I also discuss twelve images in detail and tell how they were created, the story behind the images, how they were shot and also how they were worked up so that everyone can see the entire process and what it took to get the shot.

This book has been a long time in coming and explains why there have been a lack of blog posts the last three months and no winter issue of the Newsletter. Right now I am also updating my digital workflow e-book, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographers Workflow for Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6. That updated e-book should be available in late May. Lots of new publications in the works these days!

I don’t usually create blog posts talking about a specific piece of equipment, but in this case I am so stoked on Nikon’s new cameras I just thought I would put a blurb up on the blog here about the Nikon D4 sitting on my desk. The image quality is superb and the video capture features are pretty impressive (for a DSLR). I have the D800 on order as well so it will be very interesting to see how these new cameras perform. Of course, I will have full reviews of both the D4 and the D800 in my upcoming Newsletters. Look for a review of the D4 in my Spring 2012 Newsletter coming out here in the next few months. You can check out all the specs on these cameras on Nikons website.

In the last ten days or more that I have had the camera I have been very impressed with this new pro offering. As you might expect, the image quality is superb—as confirmed by DxO Labs, which rated the new D4′s image quality as third only to the Nikon D800, which got first place in their tests, and the Phase One IQ180 Digital Back. It beat out a host of medium format cameras in terms of image quality though it only has a 16 MP sensor, which is saying a lot. Nikon now has four cameras in the top ten on DxO Labs top-rated cameras.

There are some on the internet talking about how the D4 image quality isn’t much better than the Nikon D3s, but from what I have seen it is better in almost every respect. Sure the high ISO noise is not that much improved from the D3s, but considering the image file size is 4 MP larger (16 Mp vs. 12 MP), I find it amazing that they were able to keep the amount of noise in the images at high ISOs on par with the D3s. The Nikon D4 will be the low light camera to beat in terms of low noise at high ISOs. So far, the image quality I have seen from this camera at all ISOs up to 12,800 is brilliant. At ISO 12,800 the lack of noise is astounding. While I was wishing for a 24 MP pro body, with the same high ISO noise characteristics of the D3s and the ability to shoot at 10 fps, the resolution of the D4 and the image quality is a nice update.

The video capabilities are also far superior to anything Nikon has ever done on that front. The video capabilities, which were highly anticipated, have lived up to the hype. I have been duly impressed with the video quality straight out of the camera. It beats anything I have seem from any other DSLR, including the Canon 5d Mark II. In my testing so far the video footage is tack sharp and has very little noise at high ISOs. And the crop factors (1X, 1.2X, 1.5X and 2.7X) along with the clean, uncompressed 1080p footage make this an extremely capable HD video camera. I am definitely looking forward to shooting more motion projects with this camera, and with the forthcoming Nikon D800.

You can bet that I will continue to run a lot of tests on this camera before my next assignments. I will say this though, with the camera firing at 11 frames per second it sounds like a machine gun going off. I can’t wait to shoot some serious action with this puppy! Stay tuned…more to come soon.

Pictured above: Nikon D4 with the  AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G lens

Above is the “Valigostudio” case for the 13-inch MacBook Pro and below is the White Glossy case for the 13-inch MacBook Pro. These are only two of fifteen different designs. The graphics they have chosen for the cases are really quite beautiful. And of course you can choose a design that matches your personality. 

For the ad campaign, I was asked to shoot adventure sports images of four different sports: rock climbing, mountain biking, surfing and snowboarding. The client needed action, portrait and lifestyle images of each athlete or groups of athletes. Most of the assignment was shot over four very long days last October in California and Oregon, and I also shot some of the surfing images while I was in Tahiti last August. We shot four sports in three days and had an extra travel day  to get up to Mt. Hood. It was an incredibly compressed shooting schedule and we had to make the most of it. One of the toughest parts of the assignment was finding a location to shoot snowboarding in September, which as you can imagine in North America is about the worst possible time to shoot snow sports – unless you are willing to travel to northern Alaska. We did manage to find a year round snowboarding camp on Mt. Hood, near Portland, Oregon that had year round snow on a glacier. The snow was very soft but they kept a groomed jump built year round for training purposes. In the end it worked out perfectly. I just had to choose the angle I shot from wisely so as not to reveal the lack of snow on the rocky background.

Most of the images were shot in and around the Los Angeles/Ventura area. We shot rock climbing at Stoney Point Park in Chatsworth, California. Stoney Point Park is an old school climbing area in the heart of a city and it also happens to be where many of the old American rock climbing masters like Yvon Chouinard cut their teeth. The mountain biking was shot in the Lake Elsinore area, just south of Los Angeles. The first day of the assignment was a 22-hour day. I woke up at 3 AM to meet up with Lydia McDonald, our rock climber, and the client at Stoney Point Park and got back to the hotel at 1 AM. We shot both the rock climbing and the mountain biking images on that first day. The second day we were up at 5 Am to shoot surfing in Ventura. Needless to say, we were burning the candle at both ends on this assignment.

The client used a large variety of images on their website. They also used a super-saturated color treatment for all of the images, which is all the rage right now in Germany. [Note: I have had two assignments with German clients recently and both are using super-saturated color treatments for their ad campaigns.] You can see an example of the color treatment below. The top image is how I processed and delivered the image to the client and the bottom image is a screenshot of the opening page on their website. The super-saturated colors definitely give the image a lot more of an edgy feeling, which is what the client wanted. They wanted to convey to the customer that these cases provide serious protection for your computer or tablet — so much so, that taking your computer with you on your next adventure, wherever that may be, is not as risky as it might be with any other product.

CAPTIONS — Above: Lydia MacDonald rock climbing at Stoney Point Park in Chatsworth, California and a screenshot of how that image is being used on the Lifstil website. Below (top left): Lydia MacDonald crimping down on a small hold while bouldering at Stoney Point Park in Chatsworth, California. Below (top right): A still life shot of one of the more colorful laptop cases resting against a downhill mountain bike. Below (bottom left): A portrait of downhill mountain biker Anthony Solesbee. Below (bottom right): A portrait of surfer Rick Alter. Image at the top of this blog post: Anthony Solesbee getting some serious air off a small kicker while downhill mountain biking near Lake Elsinore, California.

CAPTIONS — Above: Colin Langlois posing for a portrait while snowboarding on Mount Hood near Portland, Oregon. Below: Professional snowboarder Colin Langlois getting some serious air off a 40-foot jump on Mount Hood near Portland, Oregon. Bottom Image: Pro surfer Dylan Longbottom riding the tube of a sizable wave at Teahupo’o, Tahiti.

My thanks to all the athletes that helped us to create these images: Lydia MacDonald, Colin Langlois, Anthony Solesbee, Daniel Bleicher, Rick Alter and Leah Christensen. Without your talents these images would not exist. I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank Rebecca Schatten at Arpen Productions for her help in tracking down models, locations and dealing with a large part of the production for this assignment. Thank you to Oliver Hellriegel at Lifstil for making such a stellar product and hiring me to create images to help promote it. And finally to Jessica Williers at Raumbrand for your tireless work on this project. If you travel with a laptop and want to protect it you will not be disappointed with the Lifstil cases. I can’t tell you how much I love my laptop case. It goes with me on pretty much all of my adventures now. And as you might have guessed, look for a full review of these stellar cases in the next issue of my Newsletter. Check out the Lifstil cases at www.lifstil.com.

My apologies I have been so lax here with the blog posts. I am just now going over the last edits of my latest book Exposed: Inside the Life and Images of a Pro Photographer, hence I have not had a lot of time for the blog or the newsletter these last few months. But, I did teach, along with my good friend Brian Bielmann, a surfing photography workshop in January on the north shore of Oahu. The workshop went fantastically well. It was our first ever surfing photography workshop and Brian did an excellent job. This was his first ever workshop and he was a natural. Everyone loved him, and he regaled us with a barrage of humorous stories and anecdotes about the north shore culture and the surfing community. Above is an image that Brian shot of Rodrigo Ungaro and myself while swimming and shooting from the water at Off the Wall. This was my first time ever swimming out to shoot at Pipeline and it was a blast, and quite a lot of work. I will be swimming out at Pipeline a lot more in the future as the possibilities from the water are pretty amazing.

We got really lucky with the waves, there were some very nice days with sizable waves for the students to photograph. And Brian even got TransWorld SURF to put up a gallery of images from our workshop participants which you can see by clicking here. My thanks to all of the workshop participants for making it happen and for coming out to Hawaii and joining us for this spectacular workshop. Brian an I are currently discussing when and where to put on this workshop again so stay tuned for updates on that. Below are a few images from my time in Hawaii this past January. These images were shot before the workshop began.

Register for this workshop on the Mentor Series Website.

I am very excited to announce a fun workshop in Dubai that is coming up quickly, in just a few months. Here are the details from the Mentor Series website:

Ramp up your photography skills this spring in Dubai, where change and rejuvenation are at every turn. Join the Mentor Series in this once-sleepy fishing village and now budding metropolis where Nikon professional photographers David Tejada and Michael Clark will match that energy and more. Pack your camera and prepare for a journey you won’t soon forget!

One of the world’s most luxurious hotels and the city’s most famous landmark the Burj Al Arab towers over the skyline like a luminescent yacht with the wind captured in its sails. Present Dubai’s story in a shot: Just as the hotel seems to glide from its private island toward the coastline, the ancient city is currently riding the wave of opulence and modernity. Allow your mentors to guide you through creating images in the unique desert light, a technique that will come in handy for the remainder of the trip.

A stop at Jumierah Mosque will prove that Dubai is still steeped in tradition. Cameras are permitted, so focus on the intricate stone carvings, painted ceilings and Arabic calligraphy. The Bastakia Quarter, a relic of the old Dubai, offers a glimpse into the past. Follow the zigzag of wind-towered buildings to the souk, or marketplace. Turn your lens toward merchants unfurling vibrant textiles before boarding the abra (“water taxi”) to snap images of the spices and wares across the creek. Gild your portfolio at the Gold Souk, Dubai’s hub of precious metals and gems. End the day on the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and fill your frame with an aerial view of the city below.

Dubai comes alive on Al Seef Street after dark, when the temperature drops—the perfect opportunity to capture all the electric action. From a vantage point over Sheikh Zayed Road practice slow shutter speeds to show motion as the cars on the United Arab Emirates’ major thoroughfare zoom past. Stop to capture Jumierah Mosque once again—this holy locale radiates at night.

The adventure never stops, especially when we travel to the Arabian desert. Explore the dunes on an off-road vehicle and take in a camel caravan against the arid landscape as the sun sets. Enjoy a bedouin dinner in the desert, complete with a belly dancer. A day trip to the East Coast takes us through spectacular mountain scenery, a local market, a picturesque fishing village, a lunch by the Indian Ocean and much more. End this exciting trek on a high note—literally!—with an early morning hot-air-balloon ride, photographing from high above as the sun greets the desert landscape.

Your experience in Dubai will not only build your portfolio and improve your photographic confidence, it will be the experience of a lifetime you won’t want to miss. Sign up today!

Over the course of the last nine months or so, between assignments and all of my other work I have been working on a new book, my third with PeachPit Press for the New Riders “Voices that Matter” Collection. As you can see from the image at left the title of the new book is “Exposed: The Life and Images of a Pro Photographer.” The idea behind this book is to strip some of the glamour off this profession and share a wide range of stories and experiences to give the reader a very clear view of what it is like to be a working professional photographer. I also discuss twelve images in detail and tell how they were created, the story behind the images, how they were shot and also how they were worked up so that everyone can see the entire process – and what it took to get the shot. Along the way I make sure not to leave out the embarrassing parts or any of the gory details so you the reader can learn from my experiences.

This book includes a DVD with a primer on Lightroom and Photoshop where you can watch me work up twelve images – and see exactly what I do and how I work (at least in the post-processing). I view this book as an advanced version of both of my books because it takes the theoretical and puts it into practice. Hence, if you have read my other two books then this one should be a natural progression from those with a lot more detail on how I produce my work.

At the moment I have one more month before the deadline to get everything into the publisher. Hence, this explains why I have been a bit lax with the blog posts. Also, because of the crazy work schedule for the next month, there will not be a 2012 Winter issue of the Newsletter. Rest assured that there will be a Spring Newsletter in a few months that takes up the slack. And at some point this spring I will also be updating my Adobe Photoshop Lightroom e-book for Lightroom version 4.

Here is the ad copy that the publisher wrote for the book:

Renowned photographer Michael Clark provides an inside look at the reality of working as a pro photographer in extreme conditions to capture and process his breathtaking images.

With an engaging writing style and cliff-hanging details, he offers a start to finish perspective on some of his most demanding assignments–including rock climbing, big wave surfing, B.A.S.E. jumping, and mountain biking–sharing the stories behind the images, his personal techniques, lighting setups, and post-processing expertise. He also talks candidly about the challenges and pressures professional photographers deal with on a daily basis. The hope is that by tagging along with Clark, you will gain insight into your own photography, improve your skills, and find inspiration to create images instead of just taking them.

Exposed: Inside the Life and Images of a Pro Photographer is for intermediate to advanced DSLR shooters. A DVD is included with a 90-minute video screencast of the author’s post processing workflow in Lightroom and Photoshop for images featured in the book. Clark’s valuable insights are relevant to any professional or aspiring photographers interested in turning their passion into a profession.

If you would like to learn more about the book, you can visit my website. You can also pre-order the book on Amazon.

If you happen to read Digital Photo magazine, the December 2011 issue has a three-page Nikon Advertorial that includes six of my images as well as information about those shooting areas and how the shots were created. The advertorial, entitled “Iconic Photo Locations of North America,” includes several of my favorite shooting locations in the USA: the North shore of Oahu (Hawaii), White Sands National Monument (New Mexico), the Ouray Ice Park (Colorado) and Mono Lake (California).

Nikon has been a long time client of mine and it is always a pleasure to work with them and promote their fantastic products. If you would like to subscribe to Digital Photo magazine you can do so on their website and if you would like to read the advertorial you can download a PDF copy of the three-page ad by clicking here.

My thanks to Nikon and the folks at Werner Publishing for putting this advertorial together and for choosing my work to promote the latest Nikon gear.