Clinton Smith has been involved in the full-time pursuit of excellence in fine art photography since 1971. He studied gallery and management and photography at El Camino College.

In 1975, Clinton moved to the Monterey Peninsula to work for the California State Park Service at Point Lobos. It was there that he first began to photograph the landscape. While there, he worked as an assistant to Wynn Bullock and Morley Baer, and met and was befriended by Ansel Adams. Ansel admired and encouraged Clinton's early color work.

Clinton resides in Mendocino and personally makes all of his cibachrome prints by hand and supervises the production of pigment transfer prints at facilities located in Sacramento, California.