Weinberg-Clark Photography
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Dan Clark Mimi Weinberg and Dan Clark met while studying photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, in upstate New York, but didn’t become a couple and business partners until they arrived, separately, in California. They ended up working together at an animation production company, started going out, then decided to leave the company and start their own commercial photography studio. Their clients include many of Silicon Valley’s high tech and medical device companies, ad agencies and designers. They started out shooting film with view cameras and doing darkroom work, but their interests have lead the studio into a new areas over the years. Photoshop and digital backs long ago became integral tools, as have all manner of close-up lenses and attachments. More recently they’ve delved into 3D rendering programs, including Maya, VRay, KeyShot and Maxwell Render. Dan hopes one day to get into scanning electron microscopy. In 1991, Dan started the first Adobe Photoshop users group, which still meets at Adobe Systems in San Jose. In addition to Mimi and Dan, the studio staff includes Raul Mayoral, Julia Lee and Pete Domiano. Raul and Julia both have many years of experience in photography, retouching, compositing and video editing. Pete is our medical illustrator and animator. 2
4:30 pm, Daniel Clark welcomes a new client to the photography studio. On the calendar today, he has portraits scheduled for one of their larger clients, Google. Wanting to give all of their employees professional portraits, the majority of people from Google have been through the Weinberg-Clark Photography studio. Unlike many studios they prefer to take a different approach with their clients, socializing and making the time as enjoyable as they can. They often start off shooting silly images jumping on a trampoline. From there they move to capture professional headshots for use by Google and the individuals themselves. Founded in 1986, Daniel Clark and his wife, Mimi Weinberg have been specializing in both portrait and product photography. From working with multimedia to building their own company Mimi and Daniel have stuck together through it all. After working together on projects, such as multi-projector presentations, they noticed how productive they were as a team. Further down the line they began to feel they could do their job better within their own company, leading to the creation of Weinberg-Clark Photography. While Daniel, who
goes by Dan, does the majority of shooting, Mimi handles the behind the scenes work. Mainly covering the bookkeeping, contact with clients, payroll, and outreach. While Weinberg-Clark offers shoots for people, the majority of their work revolves around providing product images for the presentation of medical devices. Nine times out of ten, there is a new medical item of some sort lined up to be photographed. Located in the Silicon Valley, the medical industry is rapidly growing and requiring new ways to showcase products. As technology grows more efficient, items tend to become smaller and safer. With medical devices this is very prevalent. As devices become smaller they also become more of a challenge to capture. When such items are unable to be visible easily to the human eye, “the role of 3D technology is really great in the healthcare sector.�(Huffington Post) 3D rendering has the possibility to come in and fill the gap, generating the images with high precision and accuracy to detail. Dan hopes to grow his clientele by offering 3D computer generated renderings of devices that could be invasive to photograph or simply too small. The ability to produce three-
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dimensional renderings also opens other doors. “Instead of products a lot of our clients only have mock-ups,” Mimi explained to me. “They don’t have prototypes and they want to produce their advertising before the product is made.” Having access to such tools marks a dawn of a new age. As technology advances the means of marketing follows along. At Weinberg-Clark, Dan has hired an animator to start “combining 3D graphics with photographs to get [started] early on in the advertising process…” Dan is currently working on generating product images for an outdoor pathway light company. When the company first came to their studio, they had not yet produced a physical prototype but were looking for promotional images. Dan was able to go out and shoot locations where the lights would fit best. From there, with the help of 3D rendering technology, he could stitch multiple images together to create individual, 3D environments where each light could be digitally inserted. One of Dan’s employees then used the CAD file, which explains in great detail the customer’s product, to create a digital picture of each light. Each light is then edited to fit the chosen environment, seamlessly
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blended together to produce what appears to be an ordinary pathway lined by the new light product. When companies, such as the creators of the pathway lights, come to Weinberg-Clark they often are unsure of what exactly they would like produced. Whether it simply be how they would like portraits to be set up to how a product should be showcased Dan and his team are ready to meet the needs of the customer. After being in business for 30 years, WeinbergClark has seen all different types of clients with the same view. From small mom & pop shops to tech giants such as Google, the wants of the customer are often very similar. Usually, there are two different types of clients, Raul, an employee stated, “some of them can be very friendly and get right to the point and tell you exactly what they want, and then some are very vague and don’t know what they want and you kind of have to ... make it up.” Although being given creative freedom sounds the best there is always the risk of the customer feeling unsatisfied with the outcome of the work. Showing something without knowing how the customer wants it shown often results in long processes of trial and error. Unlike the majority of giant companies,
Mimi Weinberg Her interest in photography began in high school where she learned to make black and white prints in the darkroom. It was magical to see the images appear on the paper. She has always loved the way light hits a tree or the color of the sky at dusk. Being a photographer allows her to capture a piece of the visual world. It is this process of shooting, of seeing, that is the most gratifying. After high school, she majored in photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, which is where she first met her husband/business partner, Dan Clark. They started Weinberg Clark Photography in 1986, and have weathered the changes of the digital age by keeping abreast of new technology. Having their own business has given them flexibility within their schedules. However, it has also meant working late nights and weekends to get things done. She is very glad that she has been able to make a living doing something that she loves.
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Raul Mayoral Raul Mayoral started up as an illustration major in college because of his enjoyment of drawing, but ended up changing his major to Photography by the end. He has always been interested in the arts and later with the revolution in photography from film to digital. He received a B.F.A in Photography and a minor in graphic design from San Jose State University. Then he became a teaching assistant at SJSU for a digital photography class. At the same time he started working as a photo printer at Foto Express in downtown San Jose. He also has worked at Alan Rosenberg Photography in Santa Clara, Genesis Photography in Mountain View and at Hewlett-Packard in Sunnyvale. He is currently working at Weinberg and Clark Photography in Mountain View where he works on the photography of products and people for the high tech and the medical high tech industry. His work includes retouching, color correction and creating high quality digital photography for clients in silicon valley.
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filled with thousands of employees not knowing each other’s names, Weinberg-Clark prides itself on their family environment. Helping them achieve this is the fact they only have 3 employees besides themselves. Like a normal family, when someone needs time off, as Mimi said, “[we] make sure it can happen…” This amount of care is rarely found in today’s job market. A perk of having a tight knit company is the ability to bring concerns and suggestions straight to the owners. During an interview Raul told me, “it would take a long time before what I have to say would go to the CEO ... here I can tell [Mimi and Dan] the same day right away.” During one of my visits to the studio the family atmosphere was clear, as I was packing up my equipment Dan was chatting up Raul, making sure the recent accommodations were helping. Another clear indication was the cards that could be found on a table next to their couch. The christmas cards showcased the amount of connection between the employees as they produce a new one each year including everyone together. One card showed Dan in a Santa suit with his tongue stuck to the North Pole, surrounding him were Mimi and their three employees following
suit with their tongues out, minus Dan’s pole predicament. After 30 years of open doors, Weinberg-Clark has accomplished numerous goals they had set out on. Always on the forefront of technology, switching from film to DSLR camera’s as they became advantageous to use on a professional level, Weinberg-Clark once again is taking advantage of the resources they have hiring an employee to specialize in 3D rendering and animation. Other accomplishments include receiving contracts from global corporations such as Adobe Systems, Genentech, Google, McGraw-Hill, Motorola Mobility, Pearson Education, Symantec, Texas Instruments and many more. Each contract furthering the capabilities and experience of Weinberg-Clark for the better. After 30 years of being in business Dan and Mimi have built up Weinberg-Clark Photography to the prestigious level it is today. Originally started off to do work better than their previous job, to now working with tech and medical giants weekly. Over the course of achieving success they faced many challenges, learning from their mistakes, forming new connections, and growing using all the knowledge gained.
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Works Cited
Birrell, Ian. “3D-Printed Prosthetic Limbs: the next Revolution in Medicine.” The
Observer,
Guardian News and Media, 19 Feb. 2017,
www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/19/3d-printed-prosthetic-limbs-
revolution-in-medicine. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Morrow, William. “How 3D and Self-Design Will Change Technology.”
The Huffington Post,
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Feb. 2017,
www.huffingtonpost.com/william-morrow/how-3d-and-selfdesign-
wil_1_b_14634962.html. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Weinberg-Clark. “History:” Weinberg-Clark Photography : About, Weinberg-Clark.com,
www.weinberg-clark.com/about.html. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Winkler, Owen, and Mimi Weinberg. “Mimi Weinberg.” 25 Apr. 2017. Winkler, Owen, and Raul Mayoral. “Raul Mayoral.” 27 Apr. 2017. Winkler, Owen, et al. “Daniel Clark.” 23 Apr. 2017.
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About the Author Owen is a student at Los Altos High School and Freestyle Academy. He has grown up in the Bay Area and enjoys life along the Pacific coast. Owen took up photography in high school in order to capture the precious moments in life—encounters with nature, adventures with close friends, and the unexpected sights and scenes he might run into. Film and photography complement his love of the outdoors. Owen is a ‘frequent flyer’ to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Lake Tahoe, engaging in water and winter sports as well as urban exploration every chance he gets. He believes that the media are a powerful tool to share meaningful memories and to get to know others. As a result, he appreciates opportunities to get out with fellow creators and learn from their styles. Owen decided to feature Weinberg–Clark Photography in his latest documentary to showcase a creative process different from his own. Through this project, he hopes to promote a greater appreciation of artists behind the lens.
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