New Actor’s Professional Headshots

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by cleary

Inspired New Actor Needs Headshot To Help Launch Career

I was asked recently to create an actor’s photography portfolio to help him start a new career. For years he has dreamed of being a comedic actor. During the photography session, he performed a few of the many characters he has developed. He was pretty good at a variety of voices. I try to make people feel comfortable in front of the camera. Many people have a fear of being photographed. I hear the old saying, “I’d rather go to the dentist than have my photograph taken,” all the time. He was very at ease in front of the camera, which worked well for him. He’s probably not the most handsome, but I don’t think that will hurt him. Hopefully, my model photography will help show the many sides of his personality and help jump-start his acting career.

Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee

Posted on January 31, 2023January 31, 2023 by cleary

I just returned from Nashville, Tennessee, for the Professional Photographers of America annual convention. I attended classes on marketing, posing, and keeping myself creative. Whenever I visit a new city, I like to go out and see what I can create with my camera. I had some extra time late afternoon on Saturday, so I went down to music row to see all the honkytonks. I was there from about an hour before sunset to an hour after. Some people call this the golden hour of light. When the outside light dims, the city’s neon lights grow brighter. Around 5000 other people had the same idea. In Nashville, there is a four-block area lined with bars and people. I am always interested in visually finding things in places like this, and I found a guitar player perfectly centered in a window playing to the crowd inside. I call this photograph “Music City USA.” The blue effect in the guitar player comes from color temperature and some work on my part. There was stage lighting inside the club with a particular color temperature, and then the exterior lighting was another color temperature. Usually, I would try to get these two color temperatures to be the same, but here I like their opposite effect. My camera tried to correct the color temperature for the outside lighting, which left the interior lighting shifted to the blue side. In my post-production work, I did enhance this effect. Blue and yellow are opposite colors but complementary to each other. I also liked the layering of the neon lights and signs in the window reflection. But the blue guitar player was what drew me to this image.

You can see more of my fine art photographs at ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.

2022 Photography, Wright Brothers and Cyber Monday

Posted on November 28, 2022November 28, 2022 by cleary

Thanksgiving is over, and the Christmas season is upon us and, like many of us, I also have two family Thanksgiving Dinners to attend on different days. I am very thankful for another great year at Cleary Creative Photography. I’ve met many new clients and heard from many existing clients I have worked with in years past. For those who don’t know, I published my book Wright Brothers: Then and Now and have sold copies all over the country. I am doing more artwork that people and companies have hanging in their homes and offices. I did one public art project for the Burkhardt branch of the Montgomery County public libraries. I’ve worked with numerous companies creating photographs of their employees—my usual number of high school seniors, babies, and family portraits. I even received a phone call at 4 pm on a Sunday from an organization asking if I could take photographs at their once-a-year black-tie event because their scheduled photographer had an emergency. I was onsite by 4:45, ready and creating photographs.

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I started working on my photography project about the Wright Brothers six years ago. Among all their many talents, they did their photography and had a darkroom at their house. This series involves me taking historical photographs by and of the Wright Brothers and then going back to those same locations to create another photograph that I can layer with the historic photo. I’ve done many public talks about the series, and the first talk was at the Oakwood library, someone asked when the book would come out. That was three years ago, and about a year ago, I finished and published the book Wright Brothers: Then and now. The book and prints from the series are available from my website: ClearyFineArtPhoto.com. If you have someone on your Christmas list interested in aviation and American history, this would be perfect for them. You can buy the book from Amazon, but copies purchased directly from my website are signed and can be personalized. On Saturday, December 3^rd, I will be in Indianapolis at the 2022 Holiday Author Fair at the Indiana Historical Society, signing copies of my book. Click here for more information, Indianahistory.org. I am offering a 10% coupon with free shipping for everything on my website this week. Just enter 10% in the coupon section on the shopping cart.

My wife Maria retired from teaching last year, so we decided to add outdoor art fairs to Cleary Creative Photography. Art fairs are juried; not everyone is asked to show their art work at each city. We went to the Cincinnati Summer art show, Talbot Street art fair in Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, Kettering Art On The Commons, Dayton Art Institute Octoberfest, and Ohio Mart in Akron. I also have images from local small towns in Ohio, like Tipp City, Troy, Piqua, Springboro, and Kettering. You can order prints from all these places directly from my website under the landscape photography section. Remember, I am offering a 10% coupon with free shipping for everything on my website this week. Just enter 10% in the coupon section on the shopping cart.

Late Fall Outdoor Family Portraits

Posted on November 18, 2022November 18, 2022 by cleary

You might think it’s too late in the year to create an outdoor family portrait. The leaves are down. It’s getting colder outside. But it’s not too late for your family to get together for a family portrait. The holidays are a time when all the family gets together. There is no better time to have a portrait created by me, Dan Cleary. I have worked with families for many years and at various times of the year. Yes, everyone is in short sleeves in the summer, and it’s 80 degrees. But I can create a great family portrait right now. I have a coat and gloves. I don’t mind being outside this time of the year. Plus, I can go to your house and do a family portrait in your living room. We can even come to my portrait studio.

You can see more examples of family portraits I have created at ClearyCreativePhoto.com/family-portrait-photographer. For people interested in learning more about their digital cameras and taking better pictures themselves, go to ClearyPhotoWorkshops.com. I create photographic art for individuals and companies. I’ve also published a book Wright Brothers: Then and Now. You can see more of my artwork at ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.

Outdoor Fall Studio

Posted on October 28, 2022October 28, 2022 by cleary

As a professional photographer in Dayton, Ohio, I get asked to do many things in many locations. This week in Dayton is the peak of the fall color season. I was scheduled to create business headshots for a company of about 25 people, plus a group photograph to be used on the company website. We had talked and had planned to do the headshots at an onsite portrait studio that I was going to bring and do the group photograph outdoors. When I arrived, the client asked if we could do both the group photographs and headshots outdoors. I said yes, and instead of setting up a studio indoors, I set up an outdoor studio. One of the main issues working outdoors is trying to coordinate my lighting with the sun that kept going in and out of the clouds. Not to mention that on Tuesday and Wednesday, the temperature was in the 40s. Ultimately, I photographed all the employees and the group outdoors, just like the client wanted. Luckily, it only rained and sleeted once for just a few minutes.

Dan Cleary is a professional photographer in Dayton, Ohio. You can see examples of his pictures taken for other businesses at ClearyCreativePhotography.com/BusinessPhotography. Dan is also a fine art photographer and creates photographs that many companies and individuals display in their homes. You can see a portfolio of his work at ClearyFineArtPhoto.com. Dan is also the author of the book Wright Brothers: Then and Now. You can see samples of the photographs from this series at ClearyFineArtPhoto.com/Wright-Brothers-Photographs. You can see the book at ClearyFineArtPhoto.com/WrightBrothersBook.

Dan also teaches a class The Seven Steps To Better Photography. You can read more about the class at ClearyPhotoWorkshops.com

Burkhardt Library Art For Wright Brothers Display

Posted on August 22, 2022August 22, 2022 by cleary

The Dayton Montgomery County libraries are finishing a multi-year reconstruction of all their buildings. The latest building to be completed is the Burkhardt Branch in east Dayton. This building is close to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and in the building, they have a children’s display of the Wright B Flyer. I was asked to create a piece of wall art to go behind the flyer. The library people knew I had made a series of photographs using historic Wright Brothers photos and asked me to create something showing the Wright Brothers flying at Huffman Prairie. I then showed an Air Force C-17 Globemaster, stationed at the base, passing through the air. And, at the top of the image, they wanted a rocket taking off into space.

I had the historical Wright Brothers photograph and created a new image at Huffman Prairie at the bottom. I layered these two images together. The C-17 aircraft stationed at Wright Patt flight path takes them directly over Huffman Prairie. Because Wright Patt wouldn’t tell me exactly when the planes would take off, I had to try and figure out when was t good time to be there to capture the next picture. Luckily, the cloud formation worked well with the bottom image, working together seamlessly.

I researched the NASAs website and found a clear photograph of a rocket taking off in March 2022. I emailed NASA and asked if I had permission to use this picture in my project. They said yes, I could use the photograph of the rocket taking off. I had the stars picture in my system and placed the rocket taking off on top of the stars to finish the whole image. The library was pleased with the result and was ready for the public opening on August 10^th.

Studio Commercial Photography

Posted on February 26, 2022February 26, 2022 by cleary

Product Photography

I received a call the other day asking if I did product photography. I said yes and asked what the project was. His company manufactured a product for a national brand. The national company was getting ready for a trade show and wanted to use its product prominently in its display. My client said,”I could have found someone with a nice camera to take a snapshot but knew wanted a professional photographer.” I finally asked what the product was, and it turned out to be an 18-wheel truck mud flap with the NAPA auto parts logo on it.

Creating the perfect photograph

It was a flat black rubber piece about 18 inches by 30 inches. What are the tricks to photographing a black piece of rubber? First, a small amount of dimension with highlights and shadows must be created. The rubber is a flat mat surface, but the NAPA logo is a high gloss. As a professional photographer, I must ensure the NAPA logo doesn’t have any blown-out highlights. NAPA would be mad if their logo didn’t look good. Last, the exposure needs to be the same on all sides. In other words, I don’t want one side to be light and the other to be dark. Luckily, my years of experience let me quickly create this seemingly simple photograph in the studio. The last part of the process is retouching all the manufacturer’s blemishes. When a truck travels on the highway, you can’t see all the flaws. As part of a trade show display three times its normal size, you would see every mark.

Dan can meet your deadline

Did I mention the client needed the photograph ASAP? My client dropped off the truck mud flap in the morning, and I had the photograph to him by the end of the day. He was lucky I had the time to work on it, and I am fortunate to have a new client to help with future projects. You can see more examples of my commercial photography at ClearyCreativePhoto.com

The Wright Brothers Make It To California

Posted on February 15, 2022February 15, 2022 by cleary

Wright Brothers Historic Photographs

Today, I sent two photographs from my series Wright Brothers: Then and Now to the Dab Art Company gallery in Los Angeles, California, to be part of the 8^th Annual International Photography Exhibition; People Are Starting To Notice. The gallery said they received almost 1000 individual entries, but only 52 were selected. I was lucky to have two chosen, Kite Flying and Horse Drawn Carriages. The photography show will be up in the gallery from February 26 to April 23. During the length of the show, I am offering a 10% discount on all photographs on my website, ClearyFineArtPhoto.com. This will be 10% off my book Wright Brothers: Then and Now or any photography prints. You can see images from my new series Latitude Longitude on the site. Just put “10%” in the discount box as you check out. Remember this is only until the end of the show on April 23.

History of Flight In Southern California

The Wright Brothers didn’t make it to California during their lifetime. However, a replica of their 1902 Glider, as seen in my photograph View From The Top Of Big Kill Devil Hill, is at the California Science Center. Very soon after the Wright Brothers became famous for their discovery of lighter-than-air-controlled flight, southern California became an entrepreneurial hub for flight. The Los Angeles International Air Meet was held in January 1910 at Dominguez Field. Many famous people took their first flight at this event, including Hurst. Cal Rodgers left New York City on September 17, 1911, in a Wright Flyer B and landed in Pasadena on November 5, completing the first U.S. transcontinental flight. The first municipal flight school and the first municipal airfield were located in Long Beach, California, in 1919. Southern California was also the home of Douglas Aircraft Company, Lockheed Aircraft Company, and the Hughes Aircraft Company, to name a few.

Dayton By Number Art Photography Posters

Posted on February 5, 2022February 5, 2022 by cleary

I started a series of photographs in 2021 that I have turned into posters. I call these Latitude and Longitude posters. This photograph is of the old Dayton Daily News Building in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The building is empty, and the only section left standing is the original parts of the building. I took this photograph in front of the building, looking straight up. I wanted to keep the tonality of the columns white with just a hint of color in the door and windows at the top. You can see this and the rest of the photographs from this series at www.ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.

This is the second photograph in my Latitude and Longitude series. I had taken several photographs in downtown Dayton during the day and thought I should look to see what I could find a night. This photograph was taken on 5^th street, next to the Neon Theater. I took several pictures at that location, letting cars pass through my 5-second exposure. When working on the final image in PhotoShop, I enhanced the taillights’ red line and the blue lights at the top of the picture. This photograph and the Dayton Daily News building photograph are part of this year’s Works On Paper show at the Rosewood Gallery in Kettering. The opening for the show is this Friday at 1 pm. There is so much great art being made in the Miami Valley, and this is a great showcase. Remember, Rosewood is a gallery, and much of the art is for sale. You can see more photographs from my Latitude and Longitude series at www.ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.

The Miami River flows past RiverScape Metro Park is in Downtown Dayton, Ohio. I have taken many photographs of downtown Dayton with the river in the foreground. I wanted to create a photo from putting the riverfront and center. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to be there as the sun came up. It was tranquil and peaceful. While waiting for the sun to come up, I was visited by a family of ducks and a beaver. The final exposure was a 10-seconds long, which allowed the water’s movement to be the star. Back in my office, when I was working with the image in PhotoShop, I had to edit out some debris from the other shoreline. I also wanted to mute the tone in the picture, which made the water almost turn black. You can see this and additional posters at www.ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.