The "NO KILL" Campaign

I've been photographing cats and dogs for the SPCA of Southwest Michigan for their "NO KILL" Campaign to increase awareness about the plight of pets in SW Michigan. The campaign was started by SPCA Director, Katie Timber, with the ultimate goal of reducing euthanasia in SW Michigan and increasing the number of adoptions.

It's been hugely rewarding and terribly fun working with the animals, even though it's often saddening to think about the fate of so many cats and dogs at the Kalamazoo County Animal shelter (SPCA does not euthanize as a matter of policy). As you may know, there is a ticking clock for those animals not adopted.

The resulting photographs will be on display for a fundraiser at Tempo Vino in downtown Kalamazoo for the May Art Hop. The winery will also be dedicating a red and white wine to the cause with photos of a dog on the red and a cat on the white. 

Please join me, the SPCA, and Tempo Vino for the event. There may even be a four legged friend in attendance!

Fishing at Dusk

Wildlife Photography 101

Have you ever wondered how I (or other wildlife photographers) get the shot? Well, if you live in SW Michigan, here's your chance to find out! I'm teaching Basic Wildlife Photography at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) in a four week course that starts April 16th - which is coming right up!

You can register as late as April 15th. Click HERE to learn more about the class and how to register.

This class--and a summer class I'm teaching that focuses on photography from a kayak or canoe--are the last two classes I'll be teaching for an indefinite period of time. I'm shifting towards full time production and exhibition. So, we'd love to have you join us for this great intro into the world of wildlife photography. Now's the time.

Peregrine Missle

Peregrine Missle

The Peregrine Falcons residing on the 5/3rd bank building in downtown Kalamazoo have taken to the nest box the DNR installed last year, garnering a great deal of local press. All this means the falcons are right on target for perhaps their first successful clutch! 

ANIMALS AMONG US Screening at Kalamazoo State Theater

If you haven't seen ANIMALS AMONG US yet (or even if you have), you've got a chance to see it on the big screen at the People's Food Co-op Annual Meeting this Sunday, March 23rd. They'll be screening it at noon at the State Theater in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Click HERE to learn more about the event. 

Thank you to the Co-op Board of Directors for inviting me and the doc to be a part of this great event! Interestingly enough, the documentary, and my pursuit and passion for wildlife, began in large part because of a fundamental food choice I made about a decade ago: my decision to not eat industrial meat. If you come to the event, I'll briefly share the story behind this life changing choice in my life. 

The Origins of my Art

If you’re familiar with me and my work, there’s a good chance you know me as the guy who did the documentary on wildlife in Kalamazoo, ANIMALS AMONG US. And if you know me personally, you may very well attribute my love of nature in that film to my late dad, Gene Clysdale, an avid birdwatcher and card-carrying Audubonite. 

However, very few people realize it was my mom who not only helped fund ANIMALS, but was the root inspiration for my journey into video and documentary. It all springs from mom and her super-8 camera, and her own exploration into the craft of home movies.

An english teacher by profession, mom left teaching early on in her career to devote herself to raising me and my brother. And for a smart, bold, talented woman, coming of age in the era of women’s liberation, she may have sacrificed some her own simmering ambitions. It's hard to know. 

Having said all that, she loved being a mom and managed to keep her intellect, politics and creativity alive through volunteering and a number of activities, including the art of home movies. Mom loved capturing our early lives with her hand-held Kodak super-8. In fact, the home-movie footage in ANIMALS AMONG US comes straight from mom’s film reels. 

But mom went a little further than most with home movies. 

The early 70’s in America was a period of tremendous racial upheaval, and my brother and I were the first generation to experience busing, a grand experiment designed to integrate the country after years of racial segregation and inequality. My mom, a political animal by nature, was very interested in that effort.

Channeling her political passions and moral compass, mom decided to craft a simple, home-made documentary on the implementation of busing in Kalamazoo. 

So, on the first day of school in 1971, mom not only escorted us to the bus stop for that historic day, she brought along her super-8 camera and filmed the entire event. She focused on the kids, the parents, the teachers, and the picketing protestors who opposed the whole idea. 

The film was low-tech, with credits crafted out of those old plastic letters used on felt boards in schools, and lots of great jump-cuts. In fact, I think the sound-track had to be played on a separate tape recorder. But there was a directness and innocence to the film that matched the smiling children getting off the buses. We were sweet kids of 6 or 7 and pretty innocent to the big picture. Kids both black and white stepped down off those buses and into the sunny day, and mom contrasted that image with the anger of the protesters. There was no narration, just the images and music. And if I remember correctly, she showed the film at school board meetings and/or other community forums as a document of the event and it’s success. It was a simple, cinematic, political tool, all born out of mom's passion for home-movies, politics, and her pursuit of fairness.

Unfortunately, some of the specifics of mom's film remain unclear, and the precious luxury of calling her up and asking is forever lost: my mom, Barb Clysdale, passed on December 19th of 2013, the exact same day my dad passed two years prior.

I’m forever indebted to "Barb" for her exploration into film, as well as her prowess with the english language, her political savvy and instinct, her kindness, her toughness, her love of cinema, her ability to critique a film like no other, and all the other parts of her being that help make me who I am as an artist and person. Thank you mom.


(Mom's passing is why I haven't posted for so long. I'm glad to be back on my blog and look forward to posting again soon.)

Life after death, and the return of Rutger

I recently discovered a few doe groups that feed daily at the Riverside Cemetery, and particularly love the fact that they're nourished by the grass growing over the dead. 

I personally don't believe in an afterlife or heaven or hell, but firmly believe in the beauty and miracle of the food chain, and find solace knowing our bodies can enrich the soil and life surrounding our grave. 

The unfortunate truth is our modern burial custom sequesters the body in a concrete box, separating it from the rest of the food chain; a form of spiritual blasphemy in its own right. Or, considering the junk that goes into some of our bodies, perhaps that's a good thing. 

I don't think the deer really care.

I haven't seen a whole lot of buck action this year, and haven't been able to devote as much time to the pursuit as I normally do, but I sat a blind I have situated in a friend's backyard in Portage and was thrilled to see the return of an old buck I simply love, Rutger. 

I met Rutger two years ago and was astonished by the size of his typical 8. I was concerned that he might have been poached last year, but he made his way into my friend's backyard and still had a grand rack, albeit a tad shorter than last year.

Below is Rutger on Thanksgiving day, 2012, in what turned out to be my favorite buck shot of the year. You can see the huge spread and height of his rack. You can also see that he's a monarch of Portage Creek Bicentennial Trail. 

"Foggy Pursuit"

I'll post a few more shots of Rutger in the future, and explain how he got his name. 

The Gift of Local Art

Our studio/gallery will be open for the December Art Hop and you'll find all kinds of great gifts for friends, family, and maybe even yourself.

And if you're looking for an alternative to mass produced goods, I proudly offer locally made art that can add some meaning and integrity to the art of gift-giving.

So, I hope to see you December 6th. I'm also now accepting major credit cards because of the magical Square! It's an amazing little device and will bring me squarely into the 21st Century economy. Cash and checks also accepted. Physical barters (chickens, eggs, goats, firewood, etc.) need to be worked out in advance. 

  

Scrapyard Coyote

A New Creek - A New Landscape

Below are two images from a photography workshop I led with photographer and environmental historian, Lynne Heasley, on urban landscapes. Our focus was the PCB cleanup of Portage Creek by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

We got up real early to capture the surreal pre-dawn light of this transformed landscape. The big pipes are where they literally pumped the creek further downstream so they could work on the dry creek-bed. That is a creek in a pipe.