Revealed! Behind the scenes of post-production.

It's sometimes a mystery what happens between the time of shooting images for a photo-composite and the final product that is created. See a little bit here of what happens between the time after I make a set of images for a project and deliver a final image...

Here's the final image as it was delivered.

Boomer Magazine's 2011 Summer Guide

June / July Cover for Boomer Magazine by yours truly with styling by Heidi W-S. With the help of a great team of creative Guerrilla Warriors we made this an outstanding cover despite an evening of gusting winds, an immanent storm, and mobs curious, chatty, ice cream hungry locals.

New Spring Promotional Campaign

This spring we're launching a new Promotional Campaign that is exhibiting some of the latest style of work we've been creating. It started going out today! The new "Smoke & Mirrors" series is concepted and designed by the Derek Machado at Five19 Creative in Richmond, Virginia and new photography has been designed for the campaign by us. Very exciting.

Check out more of our work at www.winton-stahle.com

Winner of an AIGA GRADE 6 Award

April 2011 has become the month of winning awards!!! We just found out that we've won an AIGA GRADE 6 Award with Morgan Porter Design for a branding campaign we worked on for a Charles City County Library Campaign which involved booklets, brochures and website. Check out the winning website by clicking here . Very Exciting!

Special Thanks To :

Creative Director / Designer - Morgan Porter Design

Copywriter - Terri Jones / Word Play

Winner of a Gold Remi Award @ WorldFest Houston Film Festival

I was notified this past Monday that I'll be sharing a 2011 Gold Remi Award in the 44th Annual WorldFest - Houston International Film/Video Festival (http://www.worldfest.org) with my friend & colleague, producer/director, Bruce Berryhill. This award is being received for our new self-promotional video we collaboratively produced last year and released this January. Also involved in helping to make this video possible are producer Jordan Rodericks, Cinematographer Alexander Germanotta, Heidi Winton-Stahle and the our fabulous team that have all helped us along the way. Thank you all!

You may view this video on the homepage of my website HERE .

It's also available on YouTube HERE .

Special Thanks To !

Executive Producer - Heidi Winton-Stahle

Co-Designer / Editor - Bruce Berryhill

Producer - Jordan Rodericks

Video Provided by - Alex Germanotta

Hair / Make Up - Phillip Krane Bernier

Talent Provided by - Liquid Talent Group

Clothing Designed by - Lili Forrest

Locations - Karen Molzhon

1st Assistant - Jenny McQueen

2nd Assistant - Hassan Pitts

Talent - Katrina Laluna

Talent - Ami Burke

Talent - Josephe Mann

Talent - Dane Jordan

"If You Build It, Will They Come?"

I recently had the opportunity to shoot the photography for a feature article that appears in the April issue of The Boomer Magazine. The article is all about the new, highly anticipated, $100 million dollar SportsQuest facility that is being built in Chesterfield, Virginia near our state's capital.

[Dr. Stephen Burton, SportsQuest Chairman and company CEO is overcoming many obstacles and fulfilling his dreams by building this new state-of-the-art facility. After 30 years, he has returned to his original career plan, though along the way it has become much bigger than likely even he could have dreamed, let alone everyone else. “When I started college at William & Mary, I wanted to be an urban planner,” he said. “Didn’t happen right away, so with SportsQuest I have come full circle. I’m an urban planner.”]

Read the rest of this article at www.theboomermagazine.com

The Importance of Staying Creative.

Someone asked me recently whether or not I still do a lot of personal work to stay creative and just have fun with photography and art. My answer was, “Well of course, with a great big "YES" and an enthusiastic smile! I love visual art! Whether it’s painting, sculpture, performance art, film or photography, I am greatly inspired by it all. I am so very fortunate to be doing something that I love to do! Whether it's shooting simple products on a white background for a catalog or making images of political figures for a magazine, I'm living my dream of being a professional artist!

Being an artist means that you are constantly exercising your mind, evolving your style, and exploring new techniques and ideas. This is just part of the job! However, one of the biggest hurdles I’ve experienced as a commercial artist, “I think” is that I have been known to be "too creative” at times. I've learned over time how important understanding the difference between a "fine art" image and a beautifully executed image that effectively "sells a product" is in my world of business. I am also learning how to effectively balance these two worlds and make them work well for me.

The truth that I've found is that most art buyers love to see beautifully executed "art" images with GREAT concepts but the question always arises, "How can I sell what this person is doing?". An artist's creative mind is the unique trait that sets them apart from everyone else in the business. As an artist, I have an overwhelming need to "create" but not always to "sell". It's been tricky to figure this out. But overall, I think I've learned to just focus on making great imagery in my personal time, continue to grow as an artist, and to keep in mind the importance of creating thought evoking imagery that challenges the mind and keeps the viewer thinking. A very wise person once told me to, “Shoot what you love and then focus on finding the market for it!”. I’m sticking with that approached! Of course it never hurts to keep it simple, clean and design friendly so that other creative minds working in print publications might find themselves saying, "hey, I can see myself running copy around that!"

Featured above is one such image that is derived from a personal body of work I’ve been playing around with on coastal landscapes. Of course my personal landscapes are often influenced by my twisted imagination. Hope you enjoy!

NEW! Winton-Stahle Promotional Reel

Finally done with the NEW promotional video for Winton-Stahle Photography and I'm officially putting this project to rest! Many hours of work and the assistance of some great talent has been devoted to helping make this video possible. This new promotional reel has been officially added to the homepage of my website. It will also be included as part of our new promotional materials and trade shows.

A very special "THANK YOU" to the following people for helping to pull this all together.

Executive Producer - Heidi Winton-Stahle

Co-Designer / Editor - Bruce Berryhill

Producer - Jordan Rodericks

Video Provided by - Alex Germanotta

Hair / Make Up - Phillip Krane Bernier

Talent Provided by - Liquid Talent Group

Clothing Designed by - Lili Forrest

1st Assistant - Jenny McQueen

2nd Assistant - Hassan Pitts

Happy New Year!

It’s a new year! There's no better time than the present to create new possibilities for our future and we here at Winton-Stahle Photography feel that there's a lot to be excited about in the upcoming year! We are gearing up for the debut of a brand new portfolio, a new series of promotional mailers, and a new promotional video. We're looking forward to a great year in 2011! So stay tuned!

We are very thankful for all of our loyal clients for their continued support and look forward to building strong relationships in the future. Happy New Year to all of our friends and colleagues! May 2011 be blessed with peace, happiness and prosperity...

November 2010 : While spending some time near Abingdon, Virginia this Thanksgiving holiday, I came across this little church. Yes, that a very big, and quite bold, crucifix shaped sign over the front door that is made completely of neon tube lights. It was quite impressive and somewhat intimidating. In a sleepy little area adorned by rolling hills, sweet little red barns, and local farmer's markets, it was a bit out of place to find such a decorative feature. A little taste of Vegas in this little mountain town, perhaps... I just had to stop for a moment, gawk at it and take a picture...

iPhone Art.

Oct 16, 2010 : Today we're in Virginia Beach and at the beginning of a new commercial project. Didn't actually shoot today but we arrived at our location here, checked into our hotel, scouted and prepared for a long week of 10 hour shoots tomorrow through Friday. Lots-O-Workin... We took a little time to stop and enjoy the beauty of the beach while we're here since it's right in our back yard. One of the many perks of the job. Figured that, in the interest of maintaining a bit of artistic sanity this week, I'd start a little "Iphone Art" project. This is iPhone pic #1. Enjoy.

"Cougar and the Cubs"

“Cougar & the Cubs - Sometimes the predators become the prey…” One of several new self-promotional images we did this summer as part of an effort to pull together amazing talent and simply create “For the Sake of Creation”, to build new work, exchange new ideas and knowledge, gain experience, and have a fantastic day of just creating fun art / photography / illustration / whatever.... This is one of my favorites so far! Special thanks to Liquid Talent Group, Lili Forrest, Phillip Krane Bernier, and our wonderful crew and the great talent we worked with. You guys all ROCK!

Picture of the Month. (August 2010)

This photograph of Randy Blythe, lead vocalist for “Lamb of God” is one of three commissioned images that has been included in Shutterbug Magazine’s September 2010 Issue. The article in which it's featured includes interviews with myself, Greg Watermann, David Alan Kogut, Bettie Grace Miner & Paul Natkin and is all about photographing musicians. The magazine hits bookstores today, August 10, 2010, so check it out if you get a chance!

Coming Soon! Feature in Shutterbug Magazine

Christopher Winton-Stahle will be one of several featured photographers in an article for the September issue of Shutterbug Magazine, due to be released August 10th. The article is all about photographing musicians and will feature images we've done for various magazines & record labels of GWAR, Chad Hugo of the Neptunes & Randy Blythe of Lamb of God. Check it out if you get a chance! We're being told it's going to be a great article! Will be posting more when it's available.

For the Sake of Creativity...

What happens when you take a 10 million dollar mansion, some well-planned concepts, a phenomenal clothing designer, stylist, production team, great talent, an award-winning photographer, and throw them all together simply for the sake of being creative, “giving back” and spreading a little bit of good will? Stay tuned to find out…