This summer has been the busiest I have ever been in my career, hence the lack of blog posts the last few months. Things have cranked up to a whole new level here at Michael Clark Photography and I am working on some very exciting projects right now – which I can’t disclose at this time but hopefully here soon I will be at liberty to say what is happening.

Starting in September my travel schedule gets nutty. I’ll be in New York city for a few days meeting with clients, then fly off to Portland Maine for the Aurora Photos stock agency meetings which are always a blast. Two days after I get back from those meetings I am off to Yosemite Valley to shoot for three weeks. After that I’ll be back here in New Mexico and dive right into assignment mode.

I also have finalized my latest print portfolio (the image above is one of the images from the book). If you would like to meet with me while I am in NY on September 9th and 10th please drop me an email and we can set up a meeting. I am excited to get back to the Big Apple and meet with many of my clients and many new ones as well.

I am happy to announce that just a few days ago I signed on with Wonderful Machine. Wonderful Machine will act as a rep for my work and also as a portal driving potential clients to my website. Wonderful Machine represents the highest caliber photographers from 44 international cities with a wide variety of specialties. I am honored to be a part of their stable of photographers. You can check them out at:

http://www.wonderfulmachine.com/

Michael made the cut on Rob Haggart’s A Photo Editor’s Slideshow of photographers he likes and would hire (and has). The image that made the cut (above) appears near the end of the show.

Rob initially asked for submissions and culled them to help photo editors find talented photographers to work with.

A faster thnumbnail version of the slideshow is available here.

This past week I heard from ASMP (American Society of media Photographers) National that two versions of the Orphan Works bill has been introduced – one in the House and one in the Senate. Photographers and artists alike have been fighting off this bill for a few years now. And it seems like the lead professional photography associations that have been working with folks on the hill – both ASMP and PPA – have given up to some degree stating that no matter how loudly we cry foul some version of this bill will be passed. They are just trying to limit the damage the bill can do from my understanding. If you are a photographer it is time to contact your senators and congress members.

Also, I found a very interesting article on the UK Editorial Photographers website by EPUK moderator Tony Sleep entitled Why the Orphan Works Act is Uncle Sam’s thieves’ charter that talks about the new bills in detail. It is very interesting to see just how much our own copyright legislation affects the rest of the world. Tony points out a lot of real world facts about copyright infringement that with the current laws that will be further strained if a version of this bill is passed. Stay tuned to ASMP, PPA, APA or EP for more information on how you can help defeat this bill.