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.