Close your hotel blinds when visiting Tokyo

I was reading a few photography blogs this morning and found this little clip:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2009/01/gigapixel-tokyo.html

Check it out for yourself; open the link to a 6.2 Gigapixel image here and zoom around all you want. So get this straight, that's the equivalent of 620 cameras taking a photo at the same time and stitching all those images together (i.e. Nikon d80 or Canon 40D). I'm pretty sure you could print that puppy up, wrap it half-way around the earth and still view it from the moon rather nicely. The moral of this post: close the blinds



I think I shall photograph something similar in Utah with one of our iconic landscapes or adventure settings. Any suggestions?

Trail Running Ad in Print // Advertising Photographer

Not much time to post, but here's the result of an advertising photo shoot a few months back that will be featured in the upcoming Backpacker magazine, gear guide. The publication should hit the stands in April sometime. I have to give one more shout to a cool company to work with, tech4o and the talent/triathlete, Eric Wynn! Check out the tech40 gear. Good stuff

Sean Connery with Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is one famous photographer. From her very regular celebrity shoots to her fascinating shoot of Queen Elizabeth II, she performs under pressure. I came across this little behind the scenes clip from her recent shoot with Sean Connery for Louis Vuitton on the Strobist site and thought I would pass along. The strobist article and commentary is quite informative if you're interested in discussing the ins and outs of on-location lighting. She strolls around with quite a large posse. Almost as large as the Kevin Winzeler advertising photography clan. Check it out.



The shot:

The Dream Speech

After heading up to the beautiul Rio Tinto soccer stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah to meet with the marketing folks of REAL Salt Lake (Major League Soccer), I got home and realized it was a holiday for most of the working class (Haven't taken too many off in the past year). So I checked a few blogs and news sites and came across this speech in the process. I must admit it was my first time through the whole speech and I highly recommend taking a few minutes to watch yourself on the eve of a momentous inauguration:

REBRAND: KEVIN WINZELER PHOTOGRAPHY

2009: it's time to rebrand

So back during the business school days I came across a neat little book titled, the 22 immutable laws of branding. Basically, a three hour read with nicely packaged tips for building a super star business!

If I recall correctly, the author said that any single brand would literally explode into a billion dollar business within 3 years of inception if it simply had a really cool name. Had to be really cool, and memorable and unique, oh and easy to spell. And now I pause and pay homage to parents and their parents and all the other Winzeler's down the line (like 6 in existence I think). Kevin Winzeler: cool, memorable, unique...not so easy to spell. I really like my name for the record.

Step two: turn that really cool name over to a designer and let 'em go crazy

Following design work courtesy of the super talented designer, Kevin Cantrell (you are going places with that first name btw).

FEEDBACK PLEASE! Click on the images below to enlarge.
Which brand do you like and why? (Letterhead, Business card and Envelope):


Brand 1:
Brand 2:

Brand 1 (variation A):

Brand 1 (variation B)

Brand 1 (Variation C)

45,000 + photos taken in Two Thousand and Eight

This past year has been amazing!

Thanks to all who have supported me in pursuit of the photography dream this past year. I am passionate about creating awesome photographs and your help and support has been much appreciated.

Before the jump to the images, here's a few "firsts" from this past year in both my personal and professional life...

First baby girl came to us (Abigail Winzeler and Christmas pic here: born May 12th)
First photography book published
First trip to big island of Hawaii (no lava flowing unfortunately)
First hunting trip (okay, just kidding, but photographed a bow hunting catalog for a super cool company: Hoyt)
First ski day with my little boy (age 2) in a blizzard. waving with dad here and mom here

Here's a look at a few images I liked from this past year of shooting... Do you have a favorite?

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!