I recently shot an incredibly fun and exciting assignment for Red Bull with the Red Bull Air Force at their training camp just south of Phoenix, Arizona. Having shot with the Red Bull Air Force crew several times before I knew it was going to be an exciting assignment. For this assignment I had to come back with several portraits of each team member as well as lifestyle and action images. The team spent two days at Kirby Chambliss’ ranch where he has his own private airfield, allowing total freedom and privacy for the team to test out new maneuvers while skydiving with and without wingsuits.
The folks at Red Bull Illume saw the images that were uploaded to the Red Bull Content Pool website and contacted me to ask if I could share some tips for shooting skydiving and winsuit flying. Their introduction to that article started out saying, “Photographer Michael Clark recently completed another great shoot in Arizona with the Red Bull Air Force. Shooting B.A.S.E. jumping, skydiving and wingsuit flying is notoriously difficult even for top photographers – so Red Bull Illume caught up with Clark to discuss some pro tips.” You can read the entire article on the Red Bull Illume website.
After the assignment, I had to work up not only the action images of the team, but also close to sixty studio portraits. In all, I spent a few weeks working up all of these images but the end results were worth it. The client was supremely happy and I ended up with some stellar new portraits as can be seen below.
My thanks to Red Bull and the entire Red Bull Air Force team for their help in making these images possible. Also, my thanks to Kirby Chambliss, a world-renown stunt pilot for the Red Bull Air Race, and Team Chambliss for their hospitality and for putting on quite a show while we were out at the ranch. For more on this assignment check out my upcoming Winter 2014 Newsletter, which should be out in the next few weeks.
