Crack kills @ 60 feet up

Black Diamond, Inc. (maker of super cool skiing, climbing and adventure gear) is featuring this photograph as a full page in their upcoming spring catalog as well as on their website. This climbing shot of Ryan Grover attempting belly full of bad berries, rated a 5.13c in the Indian Creek Valley of Southern Utah was sooo intense to be a part of. The crux of this climb requires the climber to go inverted and jam feet/ankles and fists into the crack to continue the toward the top. In this shot Ryan is literally upside down hanging by his hand and foot. I will happily observe, encourage and continue shooting!


My perspective here:


photo credit: Kara Bankhead

Merry Christmas to me (bit early) -- NEW 21 megapixel : Canon 5D Mark II

After all the buzz and hype I’m thoroughly impressed with this camera. I pre-ordered this baby almost four months ago from two vendors (Adorama & Calumut) and finally received my Adorama order this week. I must admit it is absolutely awesome to be able to fire off frames at nearly 22 megapixels a piece (fantastic for the advertising and commercial photo shoots as well as the landscape stuff). Then a simple flip of the switch to live view mode and you're recording full blown HD video. There's all kinds of cool videos already being produced with this thing including some high end advertising campaigns.


Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.


Ford Transit TV Commercial with 5D mark 2 from Bunseng Chuor on Vimeo.

I’ll have some still frames as well as video for you to check out shortly, but the possiblities are really exciting and I can glimpse a little motion directing in my future.

So what is the future of photography (still or video?)

With cameras that now shoot both High Res still images as well as full HD video, the face of photography is changing and will continue to do so at an ever increasing rate. The new RED camera’s 100FPS and 25mp sensor means that one could direct a film clip and pull all the advertising and campaign images straight from the reel (http://www.red.com/epic_scarlet/).

Trail running - Advertising shoot

I met some of the good folks with Johnson Outdoors company (maker of outdoor gear for camping, diving, fishing and paddling) at a recent Outdoor Retailers Show. They are interested in stepping up their advertising photography with a few of their new product lines, Tech4O, which includes the TrailLeader Altimeter watch - here. Part 1 of the shoot involved acquiring a male model and a location that would give us a natural back-drop for running, while combing a few of the elements of the Fall season (leaves still on the ground in Salt Lake City, Utah in December is a nice thing) I know several excellent triathletes and was fortunate enough to call one who is also a good friend for the shoot. A few shots below:

Pop quiz: Commercial Photo Shoot

Client YZY approaches you for some ideas on photographing their rustic furniture line in a completely unusual way.

You….

A) Hire a few local celebrities to showcase the furniture Vana White style
B) Shoot casually in studio and post-process in a “completely unusual way”
C) Go on-location and place their several thousand dollar arm chairs hanging upside down in a tree and then again under a deserted freeway over-pass (in the snow)
D) Drop the furniture from a moving vehicle (or low-flying plane) and double your image use through sales to both the client and local highway safety group

I do love to fly airplanes (have a private license in my wallet in fact) and am pretty certain I could get some great images from a shoot with moving vehicles and furniture, but (C) is the correct answer on this particular photo shoot. Check out www.kevinwinzeler.com for more images:

What kind of Camera do you recommend for a friend of a friend of a friend...

Lately, I’ve had a lot of questions from people that have a friend or relative interested in photography. “So, my friends uncle is really into photography, what kind of camera or class would you recommend”. Or “How did you become a commercial photographer”. I love talking about anything I’m passionate about and always try to take time to explain some of the things I’ve learned along the way as well as provide a few quick recommendations for how I got started. This post will serve as a little black book of websites that I’ve collected over the years to get anyone interested in photography off to a great start


Forums I read and post to:

www.fredmiranda.com --- Post your work for critique here
www.photo.net --- same thing
www.luminouslandscape.com
www.strobist.com --- awesome lighting forum

Free Photoshop Tutorials:

http://www.msjphotography.com/
http://www.photoshopusertv.com/ (just found this, but kinda commercially)

email me! [info@kevinwinzeler.com] I have roughly 50+ photoshop tutorials I’ve downloaded over the years that I’m happy to burn to disc for anyone interested. Some really great content.

Pricing commercial, stock and advertising photography:

These are a couple of guys that have their price lists posted for the world to see.

http://www.johnharrington.com/dc-photographer-pricing/pr-event-photography.shtml
http://www.sethresnick.com/price/price.html

Website & hosting:

www.flickr.com (free place to post your work and join groups for critique)
www.smugmug.com (get your own website here)
www.godaddy.com (cheap and reliable hosting)

Close the door Son.

game on!

Real Salt Lake actually did really well this past year and I was able to get in on some of the photography action in the brand new Rio Tinto stadium during their last playoff game. Lot’s of commercial and editorial photographers in attendance grabbing a piece of the action as well.

Halloween: Park City Style

Halloween along Park City’s main street may become a tradition for the Winzeler fam. A one-stop shop for some of the craziest costumes combo's you'll see (semi-documented below) as well as plenty of candy for the munchkins.

Find both pregnant women (hint: look for the pumpkin) and chubaca!

and last, but not least, my little munchkins (peapod, and football player w/monkey side-kick football player)

Autumn. Wow.

The past week or two has been a much needed break from the commercial routine of emails, location scouting, art direction, and deadlines! Instead, i've been spending time in the magnificently beautiful and peaceful outdoors. One of these days I should actually leave the camera behind and really take a break, but the Fall season is not the time for that. Yes, as I'm sure you're well aware, the change of seasons is in full swing, the colors are gorgeous and it's the time of year I always hope will last much longer than it does. The Wasatch mountains stand as a back-drop to some of the most beautiful landscape photography anywhere. Before the Autumn rests for a season, you should definitely take a day off and enjoy!

Interbike, Las Vegas!

I'm fairly confident that at birth, instead of rolling down the hospital hallways in one of those scary plastic cribs, I was instead, quite happily cruising around on a bike. Basically, I've been pretty addicted to bikes since a young age; big bikes, little bikes, single speed bikes, multi speed bikes, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, road bikes, trials bikes, bikes with shocks and bikes without...you get the point. As long as it had two wheels (never really got into the unicycle thing), I was good to go. In fact, I raced a bit of downhill, cross-country and trials riding back in the day. The technical aspects of observed trials riding became the real passion and so of course I have to throw in a trials shot from a Lake Tahoe trip a few years back (Photo: Stephanie Winzeler):


(Photo story: I came up six inches short on the landing and shuttlecocked my way off both rocks and into a shallow pool of water (rider left)-- if you want the whole sequence, 6 shots total, drop me an email -- A broken left wrist brought a quick end to the trip)

So not only am I stoked to be headed down to the worlds largest bicycle trade show (Interbike in Vegas), but equally excited to meet several of the large companies and bring a little sizzle into their marketing and advertising line-up for next year. Stay tuned for a few on-location shoots with behind the scenes footage and in the meantime, get out and RIDE!

Water Ski and Light-ning

Plan A - head out to the local lake to shoot some water skiing (with photog in water).
Plan B - hope the lightning doesn't hit us!

Just a few hundred meters out of the bay and realized Plan B was much more likely to happen than plan A. However, despite ominous weather, we headed out through the white caps to an area that is usually quite calm even amidst surrounding storms. No luck at all and it was an easy decision for the group to head back to the dock and come back another day. Hold it right there! As the photographer, I'm always looking for a shot even when the plan seems to be a failure. We were stoked to get out and shoot some unique ski shots and I was determined to make that happen even if no one would be talked into jumping in. The background had drama written all over it and images kept popping off in my head. Brandon (skier and aspiring model) accommodated my request to make something out of nothing, so I through on a life jacket, my waterproof housing and before arriving back at the dock jumped in the water for some pre-ski type shots. Insert [minor photog stupidity] and [my brain works on really cool photos long before situational risk enters my thoughts]. The combination of lightning, water, and 13' light stands would seem like a pretty obvious recipe for disaster to most folks. Never pass up a cool shot! hmmm...what to do??

Shoot!




Test shot

Olympic photos

Athletes or Photographers...which do you see more of at the Olympic games?
I have to admit that as badly as I would love to be in Beijing with a camera, the appeal of standing amidst half the worlds photography population makes the desire fade pretty quickly. BUT, if you have an extra ticket to the land of China along with some credentials, give me a ring! I won't turn it down.

Check out the most amazing pics you'll see from a variety of photogs HERE

Get back on your Horse

Next time you visit your local rodeo, make sure you take the camera! So many possibilities for photo exploration it's insane. Simply strap on a tight pair of wranglers with a nice belt buckle and head on out to see what you can find.

For this weeks personal shoot, I headed out with one camera body and a couple of lenses (fyi - don't leave your long glass at home). I ended up shooting most of the action with a 70-200mm and 1.4 TC. which gave me a fair amount of flexibility from where we were sitting. The rodeo started rather late (8pm), so I had to plan for high ISO if I wanted to stop the action at all. At least that's how my thought pattern started out...but it's usually at this point that I have a small epiphany and think to myself, "I wonder how it really feels to be a cowboy...man vs. beast...jumping on a bull ready to buck you off with the risk of all 2,000 pounds of weight landing on you. Or how about roping a cattle or wrestling a running steer to the ground as you abandon a perfectly good horse at about 30 mph?" That's what happened as it does often when shooting and I decided to leave the ISO around 200 or so and work on creating movement and emotion in the shots through a series of panning techniques and low shutter speeds.

Slow shutter starts now...




I would usually trash this shot due to lots of out of focus areas, but I love the story it tells with the white sock.

Backyard Jam Session.

Bands do it all the time. You know, call up the buddies for a little jam session in the garage. So tonight after getting the little munchkin into bed, it was out to the backyard to catch the the fading sunset and spend a few minutes behind the camera with a tilt/shift. The jam session consists of looking for something you've never seen before in a location you know really well, the backyard in this case. If the photo mice are resting on the job as of late, this will get them back on track in a hurry...

...looking for lines and lots room for ad space :-)

Seriously, who needs an exotic trip to the Swiss Alps for new subject matter?? - (okay, just kidding, let's go!) - Well at least until gasoline drops back to the price of a King Size Snickers just step to the backyard and look around.

Projects. Projects. Projects

Always have a project in the works... (sounds simple, right?)

For me, personal projects are like the roots of a tree. Visit them often enough with a little water and they'll keep the rest of the tree alive and happy. Here is a sneak peek at what's in the personal pipeline...

• "Fire" - exploring the warm light (see pic below)
  
• "Vision of Earth" - New website and gallery launching soon!
  
• "In our backyard" - Exploration of local humanitarian efforts
  
• "Size me up" - Where will the little guy sit next?
  

Start your personal project today. C'mon, it will only take a minute! What would you work on right now if money, time and all other restraint were completely gone? (dream for a minute)

Make a list. Pick one. Set a date. Behold the birth of creativity.

blogging official

Blogging at 3:30 a.m. ::: not usually recommended
(However, the blog must officially launch by the 4th of July, so no time for sleep!)

After I recover, this will be an open forum for free thinking and artistic communication!

I expect some serious participation from ya'll including lot's of questions and discussion! I'll be posting some recent work here for your critique or simply to spark a conversation.

Hawaii by the numbers

• 2 islands
• 17 days
• 12,000 photographs (60 GB -- geek talk)
• 15 foot swell