Clay Willis Photography

Dr. Edwin Riley

Clay Willis — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:14:01 +0000

Every time I look at this shoot I instantly think of the immortal Thunder God, protector of the Earthrealm, destroyer of the Elder God Shinnok: that’s right, Raiden. Dr. Edwin Riley is of course not the earliest protector of the Earthrealm, but he is the latest protector, fighting free radicals with super secret, antioxidant packed, Mexican miracle foods. In case you were wondering, he’s demonstrating Tai-Chi, not summoning Onaga the Dragon King. You can read all about Edwin here. He may not be from Mortal Combat, but he is a pretty fascinating guy with a vendetta against cheese. Seriously, won’t touch the stuff. Says it’s evil.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha

Clay Willis — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:04:33 +0000

I haven’t been to a ballet in ages; frankly Black Swan really turned me off the whole genre for a bit. Not to mention, I was recently clued into some of ballet’s impolite past. But that’s neither here nor there. The matter at hand is that I got to hang around with some supremely talented youngsters who are preparing to reprise Marius Petipa and Ludwig Minkus’ old standby Ballet Don Quixote for the Florida Classical Ballet Theatre. Honest talent puts me in the best mood. All those devoted kids flying through the air, jetéing themselves into exhaustion, it’s just so heartening. I love that some people care infinitely about something. It completely distracts from the fact that nearly a fifth of juveniles are obese, immobilized by WoW and Madden. For an hour though, kids were awesome again.

Ranger Bergeron

Clay Willis — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:22:51 +0000

We have an ongoing profile series of those locals who best shape the community. Most recently we featured MacArthur Beach State Park Manager Don Bergeron who has the coolest job in the world. First of all, he’s a park ranger. Awesome. Second, MacArthur Park is amazing. He gets to live in the park. He can literally walk out the door in the morning, wade into the mangrove, catch fish and then straight up feed it to his insanely lucky children. In an incessant expanse of strip malls, golf clubs, retirement communities and thrift shops, Don gets to reign over an oasis of wide beaches, sea inlets, tropical forests and blubberous manatees. Oh yeah, the park is so titled for the previous owners, names I’m sure you hear ad nauseum but rarely think about: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur.

Sabrina Adopted

Clay Willis — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:33:50 +0000

I love covering stories like this. On national adoption day I headed over to the West Palm court-house to shoot the festivities and what not. They had clowns and magic and Chick-fil-A. Clowns are terrifying but Chick-fil-A is delicious. Mostly It was what you’d expect. Lost and huddled children, parents uncertain what they felt, overzealous coordinators and volunteers, all except one girl. Sabrina seemed completely unimpressed with the design and formality of the day. She basically just did whatever seemed best and her buoyancy lifted everyone around her into the same sprightly humor. She had Judge Karen Martin busting out laughing during the proceedings. The only thing more impressive than Sabrina was Sabrina’s new mother, Renee Brown. It’s transporting to stand so close to utter emotion, such unrestrained elation. Most news defeats you just a little bit more, but sometimes it doesn’t, it repairs.

B G I K

Clay Willis — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:56:59 +0000

This is a series of portraits I did recently when I had access to an amazing 74″ Octabox. Thanks to all the girls who endured lengthy shoots and re-shoots in good humor and without yelling at me- well at least not too much… Bevin. I’m convinced that modeling is a hated activity to all but most models and a vainglorious few. I certainly hate doing it more than most things.