Remembering a talented photographer and friend, SantePhoto
Freddy’s tribute at the celebration.
Last week, I had the opportunity to celebrate a talented photographer. Freddy Clark was an amazing beverage photographer, but more than that, an incredibly kind, generous, and honorable person.
His wife created this tribute for him, and I can't think of a better tribute to a photographer than to "retire" the camera. I thought that was incredibly touching.
I met Freddy when I was still working at Canon USA. We were always on the lookout for great talent we could feature in our workshops, and someone in the office brought him to my attention. I went to meet him at one of our workshops and took to him almost instantly. We did a couple of classes together. Since leaving Canon, we stayed in touch, grabbing dinner a few times to catch up. I was always impressed that his ideas were all so thorough, from strategy to tactics.
Freddy’s IG post when he discovered how to create digital backgrounds.
In many ways, he was way ahead of most of us. Before AI was the ubiquitous thing it is now, Freddy was using it to create realistic backdrops for his photos and put his storytelling on steroids. I suppose the IG post with this article is when he began going down that road.
During the pandemic, while I was at home grousing that there was nowhere to go and nothing to photograph, Freddy was churning out incredible beverage photography images. He used that time at home to produce and went from very good to mastering that niche.
At one point, I was so blown away by what he was creating that I asked him if I could share his talent with my groups. He agreed without hesitation. Here he is in the interview I did with him. He also spoke on a webinar for my Meetup groups. You can witness his genius below. :-)
Here's to Freddy Clark. Cheers, my friend!
