Bill Clearlake Photography

i'm an industry brat from way back to the 1970s. my father was a television and documentary film producer and ran a modeling school and photo studio for a time. i was an assistant on some of his productions and worked in his studio loading film and still cameras, mixing chemicals, setting lights, etc. i also volunteered at wqed tv making titles, floor directing, pulling cables, building and tearing down sets. i also worked on the lighting crew for mr. roger's neighborhood and did some extra work for that show. i've always had an interest in photography and film-making and one of my hobby cameras was a 16mm bolex. but i've also used hasselblad, nikon, minolta, pentax, bell & howell, sony, and minox cameras. i was still in high school when i scored my first published photo. it was a portrait of a local politician, joe rhodes for his congressional campaign poster. i moved to california in 1973 and studied natural and available light photography at what is now academy of art un