Dean Zulich photos and more

Best of TwentyEleven

2012-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Another good one behind, here is a look back to some of my favorite images from the past year:

How did I get here?

2011-11-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

First off, I would like to let everyone know that I post a lot more frequently to my Facebook Fan Page so please join if you haven't already; I find it more user friendly and easier to handle with increased exposure. I will keep this blog going nonetheless, mostly for workshop and event announcements and notes such as this one.

I have been asked many times how did I get to this stage of my career in fairly short period of time, how did I start, and what advice I have to up and coming photographers?

I think it all starts with a really strong and unique portfolio. I remember I decided not to even have a website until very close to my graduation from the Art Institute, as I was always very critical of my work, thinking that it can get better. Transferring that attitude to my professional career has helped tremendously, I have noticed that clients appreciate that very much. There is a not a lot of room for error in this competitive field, and it is the key to be very honest to yourself about your work and never defend it if it's shitty, and you should know when it is; if you don't - you are in a wrong business. I always spend time after shoots to think about what I could have done better, and what went wrong, and how to address it in the future. By thinking of what is right, I will not improve nor evolve, and I take that approach when i critique other's work.

I recently had a conversation with an awesome photography teacher and a photographer that led me to a invaluable revelation, hearing myself say that I am not always 'on'.

No one is, so be in peace that you will have days that you do not produce your best work; but do your absolute best - every time. Another teacher once mentioned an excellent way to differ an amateur from the pro: the amateur will take a great shot and win a grand prize one time; professional will take a really good shot - every time.

As for getting work, here is the thing, I never (luckily for me) had to cold call, or send portfolio or anything, work always found me somehow, and I am super grateful for that, as I know it is not common. Only the last two years though I am doing well, it was a struggle up until then. I think it is combination of many things that makes for the successful career - and as I mentioned , it all starts with a very strong and unique book (website) while working on your technical skills, such as cameras, lenses and lighting knowledge.

You can either work on the aforementioned by enrolling to photo school, which worked VERY well for me (Thank you Art Institute Seattle! - and this is not a sales pitch). Other way is to assist, and learn on your own. I did assist while in school too, and was very helpful and beneficial to see how real commercial set operate.

So, once you have a product to pitch and stand behind, a huge next step is getting work. and not any kind of work, but the one you desire. For me the TV show Vh1 The Shot that I was on back in 2007 certainly helped, but was not crucial, as there was no immediate material benefit to it. Where the show came huge was that it gave me necessary confidence to pretty much take on a project of any size or production. Coming out of school , I honestly had no idea where my lighting skills were, and being able to shoot for a month on the highest level of the game, and pretty much come through every time, was truly a priceless experience - that is when I realized I belong. Clients feed off your energy, and the fact that you come through for them rain or shine, is something that gets you hired again and again.

I have to say I wasn't getting slammed with work immediately after the show, but I also didn't sit on my ass and cried about it - I went out and took more pictures. I put projects together; I partnered with local designers, models and other talent and produced work, such as the shot below that got me cover of this April's Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

I also responded to invitations of some of the fans of Vh1 The Shot, and started teaching workshops; which I enjoy to date, after having taught ten internationally.

Getting work is one part of the equation; the client relationships and it's importance come next. I have yet to lose a client, by delivering quality product in and out and being VERY flexible and available. If you have a family that you care about and want to spend time with, this probably will be a difficult as a profession, as on the highest level of the game, it requires travel. A lot of it, so it is your call who will take a back seat, because if you turn the gig down, someone else will jump on it, and good luck getting a call from that client again. I pretty much drop everything I do when I get a good call, and I will be doing that for a while, as it is my choice of a lifestyle. That said, there is definitely some work locally, such as studio gigs that do not require leaving town, but they are as sought after if not more, so that is something to think about.

Be grateful. Be generous. Let clients know you appreciate the fact they chose you over many others. Be in touch, check in once in awhile, but don't suffocate them with BS and spam, just let them know you are there; if you shot something cool, share it, but within reasonable limit.

It is also important being involved in the industry,networking with designers, stylists, hairstylists, make up artists, etc; remember, all those people are part of your work, it is a collaborative effort, and stronger your team is, your work will stand out more. Again, take care of your team; you might be the team leader, but the outcome is weak as it's weakest link.

I think social networking is huge; I got some major clients through Facebook. although , as you can see, I don't blog often, I try to keep my FB fan page as fresh as possible, and keep people interested. Over posting crap will get you deleted from the news-feeds, so I think quality over quantity is way to go.

Making it in Europe seems a bit more difficult in already over saturated field and smaller market; but I just might be wrong, as I am not the one to talk about it , I never really tried there...I saw a friend in Italy this year that had hard time getting work there, yet I do have friends and colleagues that are successful in Europe, such as Matjaz Tancic and Ciril Jazbec in Slovenia, Tomislav Moze in Croatia, and I will try to have them answer some questions for me and you and hopefully post it here soon, or perhaps have them comment here.

Anyhow, my example is not necessary a blue print of how to make it, as many things came into play but I hope you find something helpful in this post, and do not hesitate to comment and let me know if I can answer any questions.

And last but not least, If you are in Seattle, come by this weekend' s Kenmore Camera Digital Expo at the Lynwood Convention center, I will be doing some lighting demos both Saturday and Sunday, do not hesitate to drop by and say hi.

Two Day Seattle Workshop 8/13 & 8/14 2011.

2011-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to announce my 10th workshop, that will take place in my home base of Seattle, Washington, August 13th and 14th. The two day event is sponsored by Glazers Camera, Canon USA, Bron Imaging Group and Imagenomic. The workshop is primarily targeted at photography students, amateurs, advanced amateurs, and up and coming professionals. Here is the schedule:

The Day One will include a location fashion shoot with professional models, a renowned fashion designer, and a hair and make up artist. Wide range of professional Canon cameras and lenses will be available for the participants, as well as world's leading lighting equipment provided by BronColor. We will be shooting a fashion campaign in close collaboration with a designer on set. I am very pleased to welcome a guest photographer from Croatia, Tomislav Moze. He will be on hand both days, and will demonstrate lighting on the go with Canon Speedlites, one of his favorite techniques. Tomislav's list of clients includes T-Mobile, Cosmopolitan, RedBull, Klik and Story Magazines etc.
The first day will conclude with the 5 Minute Challenge where 3 best photographers will take home valuable prizes provided by our sponsors. In case of severe weather, shoot will take place in the studio.

The Day Two will be a classroom day and will include guest speakers, demo on tethered shooting, post production tips as well as critique of the first day of shooting.
The first guest speaker is photographer Michael Clinard, who recently made a switch from assistant to a full time shooter. Michael will share his success story as well as expertise and undeniable sense of humor and will open for Q&A session after his presentation. His client list includes Mitsubishi Electronics, Seattle Met Magazine, University of Washington and others.
The second guest will be Mr. Barry Scharf, MFA, an award winning Photoshop expert who teaches classes at the Art Institute of Seattle. Barry will touch up on HDR, selection technique and will open up for Q & A session as well.
Next up will be tethered shooting demonstration including using iPad's Capture Pilot ap to view images remotely while shooting. Photographer Tomislav Moze will also demonstrate his beauty retouching technique, followed by my demonstration of Imagenomic's plug ins such as Noiseware, Portraiture and Real Grain. The day will conclude with critique by the judging panel, with best photographers taking prizes provided by our sponsors. Lunch and beverages will be provided for both days. In addition to Tomislav and myself, crew of several experienced assistants will be available throughout the event.
We will meet at Glazers Camera Rental Department Classroom both days at 9AM.

Participation is limited to 12 photographers, and cost is $575.00. Early bird discount is offered for registration by July 10th, and the price is $495.00.

For questions about the workshop please email

info @deanzulich.com

Full Circle

2011-04-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

The last month or so was all about coming full circle, and it was truly a humbling experience.

In mid March I ended up visiting beautiful Hawaiian Islands - Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island - with couple of cool photo projects taking place there.

The first location was Waikoloa, Big Island and included recording artist RJ Kaneao, who is in the final stage of releasing his new album. We had a blast both during the shoot and afterwards relaxing at RJs home studio, listening to this talented musician. Special thanks to Tyson and the rest of the Big Island crew; it is my favorite Hawaiian island, and I am beyond lucky to have many friends hailing from there.

The next stop was island of Oahu, where we were able to pull of 2 separate projects with 2 designers; the first one taking place on the North Shore, courtesy of Enrique Diez and the Hawaii Polo Club.

Fashion by Dara Young, model Mimi Angelic, assistant Nikki Marchand, hair/MUA Nia Johansen, production and styling Cyrina by Hadad-Ralya. These prints will be available excessively at JONDO in a near future.

The second part of the Oahu project was a fashion shoot at Lanikai with model Stoja Urban, and designer Malia Stizar. Production including hair and make up by Cyrina Hadad-Ralya and Sara Anslow assisted.

We completed the shoot with a swim set-up at Lanikai, which reminded me of the final episode of reality show Vh1 The Shot which aired few years back, and was an important part of my career development. The fun part is that I am leaving for Los Angeles this Wednesday where I will be shooting a campaign for a client on a sailboat - very similar scenario to the assignment from the first episode of the aforementioned show...a strange coincidence, but it feels great to be able to come full circle, and I can not express how grateful I am to be able to do what I love.

In Hawaii I used Canon 5D Mark II , variety of Canon lenses and Elinchrom Ranger Quadra one head kit with Varistar umbrella.

Speaking of coming full circle, upon my return to Seattle, I was invited by one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Barry Scharf to speak to his class at the Art Institute Seattle, where I am honored to be a Hall Of Fame Alumni.

That was another humbling experience - seeing my HOF Profile image framed (image below) in the South Campus building, near the Photography Department.

I had an absolute blast speaking to completely packed classroom; I believe all the Photography faculty available stopped by, and students from few different classes had some great questions for me, truly an honor.

After Los Angeles, I am off to Europe where I will be teaching workshops in Portugal and Slovenia in May, please email info@deanzulich.com for more info on those events.

I am also very much looking forward to visiting Elinchrom Headquarters in Geneve, as well as friends in Switzerland, Italy and Croatia.

And last but not least, it seems that there is a strong interests for another Seattle Workshop, so I am looking to put together a 2 day event upon my return in June, so stay tuned here as well as my Facebook Fan Page, that I update more frequently, and as always, do not hesitate to drop me a note.

Portugal Workshop & Digital Photo Pro cover

2011-03-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to announce my first Portugal Photography Workshop, taking place May 7th 2011.

This workshop is brought to you by OnOne Software, Datacolor Spyder, Photoburst and Dean Zulich Photography, and it will focus on lighting on location and fashion photography.
Shooting part will take place on location in Lisbon, Portugal. The critique part will follow and will also cover the basics of color management, as well as post production. Workshop will also include the 5 Minute Challenge, with the top 3 photographers taking valuable prizes provided by our sponsors. Professional models, styling, hair stylist and make up artist as well as food and beverages will be provided for the day. Participation is limited to ten photographers. To reserve your spot and for more information please email info@deanzulich.com.

In other news, I am very much honored to have my image on the cover of April Issue of the Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

Many Thanks to model Cayte Bosler, hairstylist Jesse Skittrall, make-up artist Calvy Tran and SPA Studio. The Digital Photo Pro is also now available as Digital version thru Zinio. As much as I travel, this was a no brainer subscription for me, at only $15 a year, very informative and easily my favorite photo mag for a few years now.

Right after I heard the good news about the cover , DZP and the crew flew out to Las Vegas for quick two projects involving SanMar's NIKE Golf and Urban Threads lines.

My man Yun Choi absolutely rocked the first set up for NIKE Golf at the Royal Links Golf Club Las Vegas.

The shoot for Urban Threads at the Las Vegas Art District featured talent from Los Angeles division of Wilhelmina models - Mariah, Jenna and Carter.

Same awesome crew was there for both of the projects produced by DZP:

Nancy Hauer - creative director, Deborah Tudor - styling, Hair/MUA - Lynn Vacek,

Shawn Kinney - Digital Tech/Assistant and Jonathan Wee - assistant.

I am off to Hawaii for a week or so, where I hope to produce a creative project if time permits; and I will follow up with more details on upcoming Advanced Slovenia Workshop, with possibility of additional locations to be announced.

In the meantime, I was able to get out to one of my favorite locations in Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest - area near town of Index. I have shot there many times, especially the Index-Galena road washout, that has been over taken by mother nature for a few years now. Not much has changed there, here is what the washout looks like these days...

Slovenia and Portugal workshops etc.

2011-02-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

I would like to announce my first Advanced Photography Workshop that will take place in or around Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 14th 2011. Inspired by a fabulous turnout and 2 sold-out workshops last September, Photoart.si Multimedia Production and Dean Zulich Photography have joined forces with some very talented Slovenian fashion designers for this event.

The concept will be quite different from previous workshops - each of the 3 designers will be assigned group of 3 photographers and they will be working as a team to produce campaigns, which will be used by the designers, and will be featured on several blogs/websites. I will be available to all the photographers for advice/input as well as any lighting or equipment suggestions. Basic knowledge of lighting on location will be required for participation. As always, location, lighting, models, hairstylist and make up artists, as well as food & beverages will be provided.

This time around we will also have a special guest demonstrating his favorite lighting techniques, renowned Croatian photographer, and a great friend of mine - Tomislav Moze.

His client list Includes T-Mobile, KLIK, Story magazine etc. We will conclude the workshop with my favorite 5 Minute Challenge, with prizes for the best photographers, awarded by the judging panel.

More details on this event to follow, so please stay tuned to my Facebook Fan Page , or email photoart@photoart.si to pre-reserve one of only 9 spots for this event, with Dean Zulich Workshop in title.

Also in works is the Portugal Photography Workshop brought to you by Photoburst and DZP. More details on this event will be available very soon, as the pre-production has just started. The workshop will take place May 7th in Lisbon, and will feature some stunning locations and models.

As for recent visuals, here are couple of snaps from the shoot with talented up and coming hairstylist - Chyna Riedel, daughter of my late teacher, and mentor Mike Riedel. She also did the make up and styling for this project, and will be entering some of the images into upcoming hairstylist student contests.

The shoot took place on Bainbridge Island's Fort Ward, Linda Kim and Michael Tomlinson were helping on this one. Canon 5D Mark II & 2 Elinchrom Quadra kits.

Another recent fun project featured talented Los Angeles based actress Linn Bjornland.

I used Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF F1.2 85mm II L lens, and 2 Westcott Spiderlites.

Stace Quach did fabulous job with make up and hair. Interesting thing is that those images below are out of camera JPGs, doesn't happen very often that photo needs no post production at all, so props to both Stace and Linn for bringing their A game.

Paul Vu was an assistant, and Doug Betzold helped with production.

I posted some of the selection from the fashion shoot in Kenya with Magik Grace Jewelry at this gallery on my FB fan page. This image was one of my personal favorites, and as I mentioned in one of my previous blogs - there is a story behind it.

I left behind one of my Pocket Wizards behind in the US, but against all odds , I was able to find a replacement from Uganda based fellow photographer Andrew Ringen. Unfortunately, I dropped the damn thing in the river before I even took one single shot, so I had to improvise for the first part of the day, while the PW dried out. It didn't help that I stepped into ants nest too right away, which made for some memorable awkward moves on my part. Luckily, there was no behind the scenes footage being filmed on this one;) Anyhow, this is where my favorite portable lighting kit Elinchrom Quadra's versatility came into play. Unable to fire the strobe, I used an LED modeling light for this particular image, as well as few others and folks at Elinchrom liked it so much, that they have featured this set, along with fashion shoot from Ghana on their website. Can't say enough how useful this kit is for shooting in remote locations.

I was also able to take some time off in January and visit an award winning getaway spot - Rolling Huts in beautiful Methow Valley here in Washington.

Here is a snap of the valley with 5D Mark II and a 17mm TS Canon lens.

As for the upcoming schedule, I am off to Chicago next week for a few days, then will be back for super fun commercial shoot here in Seattle, and couple of creative ones. Mid March I will be heading to Big Island, Hawaii for both personal and commercial projects, and end of April I will start a 40 day European tour, starting in Switzerland, then continuing through Italy and Portugal to Croatia and Slovenia, which still leaves an option of additional workshops in the area, so stay tuned and do not hesitate to drop me a note and possibly meet if I am in your area.

Top Ten of Twenty Ten

2010-12-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

Here is a look back to my personal ten favorite images of 2010.

It was not an easy selection as it has been truly a great year all around.

Images below come from Kenya, Lake Chelan, Seattle, Yosemite, Austin, Downtown LA and NW outdoors. I know it will not be an easy task to beat those in 2011, but will give it a Shot;)

Happy New Year!

December in words and images

2010-12-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

The month of December kicked off with the first solo exhibit of Dean Zulich Photography in collaboration with Your Photos On Canvas. The show opening at Boom was a lot of fun, and I am very grateful to everyone that showed and participated. Here are couple of snaps of a great product YPOC offers, as well as some phone snaps of the crowd etc:

Photos above by Matthew Larson

I have to say I did not quite know what to expect from this particular kind of photo finishing, as I haven't seen any of my photographs on canvas before, but I have to give a huge props to YPOC who made my 24x36" images look absolutely flawless; I fully endorse and recommend this product. It is cost efficient, yet done with huge attention to detail and works especially well with vivid colors I like to use in my photography, so thank you again YPOC!

The show opening actually took place in the middle of a week-long commercial shoot for SanMar's Sport Tek collection. I lost the count of how many set-ups we did, but the project was an absolute blast, as we shot actual athletes/fitness models and we had a ton of fun. Here are just couple of snaps of active models Alaina and Bezelle;

I can not wait to see the final product, models really brought their A game to the set.
As always, same fun crew was on set: Nancy, Deb, Lindsey, Lilly, Mike and KVD.

less than 12 hours after the shoot wrap, I was already on the flight en route to Nairobi, Kenya.
I visited a long time friend of mine and also had a shoot with Adele Dejak and Magik Grace jewelry collection.The shoot took place at gorgeous Paradise Lost location in Kiambu, Kenya and here is a behind the scenes snap, as the post work is still being done on final selections from this memorable project.

One of many stories from this trip involves a really cool Uganda based Norwegian photographer Andre Ringen. Andre is a living proof that if you really want it hard, you can make it anywhere as a photographer. About 10 years ago, he left Norway for Africa, in his truck that he converted into a mobile dark room/living space. Here he is, ten years later shooting all over Africa, and having a blast. I met him during a 3 day shoot for the African Woman Magazine, which he is an exclusive photographer for.

The fun part of the story is that I left one of my pocket wizards behind in the chaos of packing with time running out; and the Skyport trigger I ordered was not delivered in time, so I found myself in Kenya with pretty much useless Elincrom Quadra lighting kit - if it wasn't for African Woman Magazine fashion editor, Olive Gachara. She was truly awesome, and connected me to Andre - who was just about to arrive in Nairobi, 3 days before my shoot. Needless to say - he did have an extra PW, likely the only one in the country and wider - and he left it with me for the shoot, what a cool guy! What happened day of the shoot, is completely different story, which I will continue in following days, once images are ready for viewing. Andre actually has shot pretty much the most of every issue of the African Woman Magazine; both Kenyan and Ugandan editions, for the past 5 years, which makes about 60 covers, here is the one that I liked in particular:

In the mean time, here are couple of moments I captured along the way while in Kenya; I have posted some of those on my FB fan page, so in case you missed it.

I hope to put up the selections from the Magik Grace shoot very soon in a separate post, I think there is a great story there and I will reveal very much improvisational lighting approach I was forced to take under adverse conditions , so stay tuned, and happy holidays!

Solo Showing with YPOC

2010-11-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

I am very grateful to Your Photos On Canvas and Synergy communications for sponsoring my first solo exhibit at Boom noodle on Capitol Hill. The opening is this coming Thursday, December 2nd 6-9PM, so feel free to come by.

The day before, on Wednesday December 1st, my friends in Ljubljana, Photoart.si are having an exhibit featuring some of the best works by talented photographers from the recent Slovenia Workshop. Here are couple of my snaps from a memorable 2 day event:

Last week also featured couple of photos of the day at my favorite Travel Photo Contest site - Photoburst. The first one was one of the moments from Osu, Ghana,

while the second was captured here in the Pacific Northwest.

Next up is a week long commercial campaign here in Seattle, and shortly thereafter, on Saturday December the 4th, I am heading out to Nairobi, Kenya, where I hope to reunite with extremely talented designer Beatrice Arthur of B'ExotiQ fashion. I know it will be hard to to beat what we did in Ghana last year, but we'll give it a try. Here is a look back at lovely Felivian wearing B'ExotiQ.

Happy Holidays everyone, and do nor hesitate to drop me a note.

Behind the Shot

2010-11-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am back from New York and the Photo Plus Expo, which was an absolute blast including lot of exciting new opportunities on the table, I will talk about those in future updates.

I am very happy to announce that the photography TV Pilot I co-produced in May in Austin, TX is available for viewing. Do feel free to leave feedback, as we will be looking to produce the entire season of drama free, educational program of this type.
Please view The Show here at full screen as it was shot in HD, on several Canon 5D Mark II as well as Canon 1D Mark IV cameras.

Director Marko Slavnic, who's short film Chicken and Penguin recently won the Nikon's Film Festival First Prize showed why he has a huge career ahead of him, I was blown away by his professionalism and talent.

We are very grateful to the entire cast and crew that made this happen, starting with Francisco Hernandez and the Seattle based clothing line Built For Man

Our host Maria Carmel and her stylist/mua Julie Fragale Muray came from LA and did a terrific job.

Models Niko Micin, Molly Randall and Roy Lewis of the Seattle Seahawks were fabulous as well.

BTW, Roy is on the Pro Bowl Ballot this season, so please vote for him under NFC, Special Teams, Special Teamers section, he's having a great year for the Hawks.

The Austin crew absolutely rocked it - Hairstylist Sara Cisneros, Stylist Brandy Joy Smith and MUA Maris Malone Calderon as well as designer Zimka Lebedova.

Assistant Keith Hente flew in from St Louis, while Keith VanDyke joined me from Seattle.

Additional thanks to the Canon USA , Precision Camera and Video, Jackson Ruiz Salon, Sarah Elizabeth, John Haffner and the Austin based crew.

In other news . one of the images from the recent Adicora Swimwear shoot ended up in Cosas Magazine from Chile, that's a first:) Here is a tear sheet with lovely Rose Renee wearing Adicora.

Also, The Digital Photo Pro Magazine Q&A is available online as well, including the gallery of my work, I am very thankful for the feature in my favorite photo mag!

Don't forget to stop by the Kenmore Camera Digital Expo this weekend if you are in Seattle area, I will be doing two presentations a day - Lighting on the Go and Color Managed Workflow. You can find the schedule of classes at the Expo Home. I will be available one on one between my classes, you can find me at the Manfrotto distribution booth.

I leave you with one of my personal favorite images from recent Nike Golf shoot, that will not have a commercial use, I just kinda liked it:) Thank you for following and do not hesitate to drop me a line, I am looking forward to do an image breakdown in one of my next updates, as there are couple of cool shoots coming up.

Digital Photo Pro feature, Slovenia Workshop review, PPE & Kenmore Camera Digital Expo

2010-10-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to be featured in the November issue of my favorite Digital Photo Pro Magazine, in the Pros of the Future Section.

Shot of model Michelle Green accompanied the feature.

Fashion/styling by Logan Neitzel

Make up by Calvy Tran

Hair by Jessee Skitrall

Extra: Jason Childress

My Bio image by Rok Kovacic

I encourage you to participate in the 4th annual Emerging Pro Contest. The winner takes cool $10K in addition to some awesome gear.

Here is a quick look back to the last couple of months and a preview of events to come.

First off, the Slovenia Workshop was an absolute blast - a sold out 2 day event was my best workshop so far, and I can not be grateful enough to all the talent, participants and especially Nenad Cakic of the Photoart.si for making this happen. I will be back in that beautiful country for certain, likely as soon as May 2011, as I will be back in Europe. I am hoping to conduct several workshop in the area next summer - Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Zagreb and Turkey are on my list of options so far, so stay tuned.

I have already featured some of the workshop standouts on my Facebook fan page, but here are few more keepers by talented Slovenian photographers :

Interesting fact about the above shot is that Anton Vincec brought his Sony DSLR to the workshop, and the hot shoe would not take the transceiver we used , so I let him use my back up Canon 5D camera.

Well, not only Anton never shot in Manual mode, but he also never used external lighting before. The above is photograph from the challenge, where everybody used Elinchrom Quadra lighting kit. Nenad Cakic was very helpful and spent extra time with anton, which obviously showed. If he submitted this one, it would have been one of the winners for sure - not sure if this is statement about Canon, or Elinchrom Quadra or Nenad and I or it's just a coincidence ;) Anyhow, Anton, I owe you one, you should have won something for sure.

Marko Repse showed up with his Mamiya medium format camera and a Leaf back, and although I questioned his decision to use it outdoors in time limited situation -- he proved me wrong.

Not only he won the 5 minute challenge, but his film overall was perhaps the most complete, in regards to both technical and story telling aspect, way to go Marko!

Here is another favorite, this time by photographer Darko Pavlovic, looking at his set of keepers, I have to commend him for a very strong performance as well! (which I don't think I did at the critique, so good job man!)

Young Marusa Pangersic came up with some nice ones as well

Igor Josipovic was not only a good photographer on a day one, but he volunteered to help on the second day, and I am very thankful to him! (btw, I wanna hear that recording of the critique man)

Young Lenart Kerbis was one of the challenge winners, the above is one of his best images:

Sabina Meke Zalar showed some nice lighting skills :

While Robert Kokol showed many interesting ideas and concepts, as well as perspectives, such as the one above.

As I said, this was possibly the best workshop so far, overall. Photographers were fun and pleasure to work with, locations were stunning and results were definitely noteworthy.

Once again, congratulations to our challenge winners from both days: Matjaz Andrejasic and

Marko Repse who took home the Spyder 3 Pro provided by our sponsors at Datacolor Spyder.

Spyder 3 Express went to Nejc Vesel and Lenart Kerbis, while the Spyder Cube went to Tom Cof and Robert Kokol.

The first day of the workshop that took place at the historic castle of Skofja Loka, featured special challenge, as I was in a need of bio shot for the the Digital Photo Pro article above. Rok Kovacic's capture selected by the DPP editors was the winner of the Spyder 3 Print SR,

My personal selection would be this image of yours truly, by photographer Hrvoje Busic.

He really stepped up and in my opinion was the most creative photographer of the entire workshop, as he took a lot of risks, such as attempting to pose me...

Huge thanks to The Manfrotto Distribution for providing door prizes for all the participants, a cool Kata backpack, as well as my friends at Datacolor Spyder for the great prizes for the best photographers.

Additional thanks to our fabulous models:

Katja Brvar, Tadeja Sraj, Pia-Sara Odlag, Petra Sorn and Teja Sedovsek.

Stylist/MUA Tanja Osolin was extremely efficient and we were on the same page from the get go, especially considering the fact that we picked outfits from Slovenian National TV wardrobe via Skype, as I was stuck in Zagreb, Croatia waiting for my delayed luggage to arrive. Way to go Tanja, you rock!

Hairstylist Blaz Locnikar also came through on a short notice, and it was a pleasure to heave him on board.

Special thanks to Niko, Svetozar and Milena, Igor, Mark in LA, Christoff, Sasa in Zg, Slovenian Consulate in Zg, KUD France Presern and the staff of Skofja Loka Castle.

Nenad Cakic was the one who started all this, and I am dead serious when I say that such a great event would not be remotely possible without his ongoing effort, so I am looking forward to collaborate with Nenad and the Photoart.si in the future.

The day after I returned to the US, on schedule was a studio shoot for the SanMar's Nike Golf Elite collection, and what a surprise to find out who was my model for the day: beautiful Melissa Haro from the first episode of Vh1 The Shot!

It was an absolute blast to work with Melissa, now that I actually (kinda) know what I am doing.

The first time we worked I remember being so nervous, as it was pretty much the first major shoot of my career that happened to be nationally televised. I often watch that episode if I wanna turn color of my face red quickly...

The shoot took place at the Pravda Studios in Seattle.

Creative Director: Nancy Hauer

Styling : Deb Tudor

Hair and Make up: Lindsey Watkins

Digital Tech: Michael Clinard

Assistant: Keith VanDyke

The second part of this project took us to beautiful Lake Chelan, and the Bear Mountain Golf Course .

Los Angeles based model Yun Choi was the most fun to work with. Being an avid golfer himself, Yun brought his A game to this perfectly located golf course, and here are few favorites:

Once again, the same great crew was on hand to make this happen:

Creative Director: Nancy Hauer

Styling : Deb Tudor

Hair and Make up: Lindsey Watkins

Styling assistant: Colette Jones

Production: Tim Hall

Digital Tech/assistant: Ben Vaccaro

Assistant: Keith VanDyke

RV: Mike Green

Huge thanks to Mary Pat and the golf course staff.

I am off to the Photo Plus Expo in NY next week, where I am planning to show the photography related TV Pilot I co-produced with ultra-talented director Marko Slavnic. The 6 minutes video turned out fantastic, I have yet to see better photography related docu-series/show (not because I am in it, trust me - it's because of Maria;), so I am really hoping we can get a green light to produce the entire season. If you see me in NY, do not hesitate to say hi, I will have the show on my Ipad, and we will upload it for online viewing soon after the PPE. I will post updates on my FB fan page once the show is up.

Right after NY, I am very much looking forward to another Kenmore Camera's Digital Expo, where I will be doing two presentations a day - Color Management with Datacolor Spyder and Lighting on the Go with the Manfrotto Distribution, featuring my favorite portable lighting kit, Elinchrom Ranger Quadra. I will be showing the aforementioned TV Pilot on all of those presentations, another reason to stop by:)

For the schedule of classes, please visit the Expo home, and register now as the space is limited.
Also in the works is the spring 2011 Bay Area Workshop, details to follow when available.

Congrats sis!

2010-09-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my sister Sandra and Petar!

Fabulous photography by my man Tomislav Moze,

Mljet, Croatia, 9/18/2010

Behind the photograph

2010-08-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

I thought that it might be interesting to break down the process of an image I have recently taken, and liked the outcome. If I see that there is an interest, I will certainly share tips and tricks I use in the future, so it will be important for you to let me know by either commenting on this particular post or on my Facebok Page , where this blog will automatically post

The image above is one of captures from a recent swimsuit shoot here in Seattle for awesome Adicora Swimwear brand. Reason I picked this particular photograph is that I used several techniques as well as pieces of equipment to deal with the challenges in front of me.

The location was fairly small swimming pool , and there were many limitations when it comes to perspective, choice of background, lighting etc. I have decided to shoot in the middle of the sunny day, in order to get the true feel of a resort and make images as authentic as possible by using the sun as a key light, supplemented by other sources. Even though sunlight can be quite harsh, especially in a middle of the day, I decided not to go with scrims for the aforementioned reasons as well.

As for an additional lighting, I used ProFoto Acute 2400 kit with 2 heads, one on each side of the pool, to add some accent light and define the shape of the model. You can probably tell that the sunlight is coming from the left hand side; I also had an assistant bouncing the light off of the Photoflex LiteDisc to fill the back side of the model. The rim light on the back side is result of strobe head (both heads were at full power, making them 1200W/s each) Here is what the set up looked like, you are not seeing one more ProFoto head to the left.

Anyhow, in order to minimize effect of the background and add more creative element to the photograph, I decided to use Canon 90 mm F2.8 TS lens , in addition to my standard set of lenses,
(16-35, 24-70 and 70-200, all F2.8 L) . The issue I have encountered here was inability to fully utilize, or maximize tilt and shift features as the amount of lens blur was not sufficient at F stops of 13 which was the metered exposure at 1/200 sec. I could not go any faster with the shutter speed, as my Canon 5D Mark II camera would not sync with strobe, so I used Tiffen 8 Stop Gradual Neutral Density Filter to drop down exposure to F4.
I managed to keep the nearly entire bathing suit in focus - but as you can see it falls off dramatically. This technique indeed is a double edge sword; especially since this lens has manual focus only, so there were only couple of images that carried enough of focus... advice (and note to self) would be to shoot at least twice as many images as usual if you are to try to use this lens commercially with wide apertures...I do think it was worth it, i like the cinematic feel to it yet model looks good, as well as the product.
The Camera info: 1/200 sec @ F4 and ISO 100.

Blur on the image is out of camera; there were no additional enhancements. As far as the post production , I used NIK Sharpener Pro and NIK Cross Process filter that can be found in NIK Color Efex Pro collection, in addition to basic adjustments in Photoshop CS4.

Here are couple more favorites from this shoot:

Model: Rose Renee is wearing Adicora Swimwear
Styling by Niveen Heaton
Hair and Make up by Shyn of Freakishly Beautiful
Assistants: Deb & Rob Arora, Tara Sanborn and Brian Chambers

As for other recent projects, here are couple images of William Dilorio, a Bainbridge High standout and the Metro Player of the Year, en route to Washington State University basketball program, we wish him best of luck.

Both image I used Canon 5 D Mark II and 24-70 F2.8 L lens; the first one I lit with Elinchrom Quadra kit, one head with a beauty dish, and the second one I used ProFoto Acute with 3 heads.
Tara Sanborn assisted on this one.

Here is a cellphone snap of lighting set-up for the image above:

The next stop is Ljubljana, Slovenia where I will be teaching my very first Slovenia Workshop.

I am very grateful and excited that both days (September 10 and 11) are sold out; as the matter of fact, we are looking to add 3rd day, on September 25th, please email workshop@photoart.si for more info.

After the workshop, I will be celebrating my birthday on one of beautiful Croatian islands, and will spend another week or so in the area. Upon my return to the US at the end of the month I will be shooting couple campaigns to be announced, and will also head to Portland to do color management and lighting seminars for my friends at Spyder and Manfrotto Distribution. There is also possibility of 4 city tour in the Midwest in October, so stay tuned and don't forget that Photo Plus Expo is coming up in late October in NYC.

Announcing Slovenia Photography Workshop 2010

2010-07-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

Dean Zulich Photography, PhotoArt Si Multimedia Production, Datacolor Spyder and Manfrotto Distribution are bringing you limited participation DZP Slovenia Photography Workshop. The two one day events will take place at the PhotoArt.Si premises and on location in or around Ljubljana, September 10th and 11th. Workshops will be conducted in English and/or Serbo-Croatian languages, with Slovenian translator on site. It will include location fashion shoot and post production demo as well as introduction to color managed work flow. As always, we will have valuable prizes for the best photographers provided by our sponsors. For more information please visit PhotoArt website, email workshop@photoart.si or call + 386 31 416 799 9AM to 6PM CET.

As for the photography projects. here are few pages from the upcoming Sanmar catalogue featuring Ogio brand.

Models: Sarah McNeilly and Victor Ross

Creative Director: Nancy Hauer

Production: Greg Arnold

Styling : Deb Tudor

Styling assistant: Colette Jones

Hair and Make up: Lindsey Watkins

Photo assistants: Michael Clinard, Keith VanDyke and Niko Micin

Another recent project took place here in Seattle for my favorite local brand Built For Man by Francisco Hernandez. This is one of the captures featuring Built For Man models Andrew, Nathan and Cameron.

After Slovenia, I will be heading back to Croatia, likely doing a swimsuit editorial in Adriatic, more details to follow.

Atlanta Workshop Summary etc.

2010-06-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Once again we had an absolute blast in Atlanta for the Second Annual Workshop. Fellow photographers once again didn't disappoint and came up with some very strong images. This time around it was to close to call the 5 Minute Challenge winner so Jennifer McDonald and Bo Brown shared the spotlight, and the above were the winning images of our lovely models, Gin Cooley and Gida Hammami.

Many thanks to our sponsors at Datacolor for providing valuable prizes for our winners Bo and Jennifer.

We are also very grateful to NIK software for providing generous door prizes, and to David Smith Studios for coming thru on a short notice. David was a wonderful host and a great asset to our workshop with many years of shooting experience. Here is one of the images he captured, I really enjoyed seeing this one:

As far as the workshop participants, I thought that Bo knocked it out of the park, and his overall performance was the strongest, so here are couple more of his images:

Allison Gladis of the urban photographix contributed to the quality of the imagery with this lively capture of our model Gin Cooley.

And here are some of my personal captures of Gin, Gida and Mark:

And last but not least, huge thanks to our fabulous talent that made this happen:

Models: Gida Hammami of Element Models
   Mark Gelinas of Ford Models
   Gin Cooley of Whilemina-Dan Agency

Hair by Sammantha Gunn of the Atlanta Vanity Concepts

Make up by Jamie Kimbrough, Billy Rizzuto and Paula Molinari.
Styling by Simone Hopson.

Co-producer Jamie Kimbrough.

This is what it looked like at the end of the day, what a blast indeed!

I am in Croatia at the moment, once again with only blackberry camera available, which still didn't stop me from snapping a few quick ones...(I did bring a certain camera that was supposed to shoot under water, but more about that in the future, after I send out a few emails;)

anyhow, here is Blackberry Curve 9800 in the action, from what is certainly my favorite island of all times, Šipan, jewel of Adriatic.

As for the second half of the year, there are 2 workshops in plans, Portland,Oregon and Ljubljana, Slovenia, so stay tuned for more info on that as well as the progress of the recently produced TV Pilot.

May To Remember

2010-05-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

And indeed it was a memorable month! I will let the images tell the story...
It all started in Los Angeles shooting the talented recording artist Felice LaZae; here are couple of my favorite images:

I used Canon EOS 5D MarkII, Canon 16-35 and 70-200 lenses & Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit.

Shortly thereafter I managed to take a few snaps from the Cessna 182 Skylane, my first attempt at aerial photography. California sure looked beautiful from up above - we took off from Van Nuys Airport and landed in gorgeous San Luis Obispo for a Sunday brunch. Props to my man Mark Bender for taking all the right angles that allowed me to capture following images.

I used Canon 5D Mark II and 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens.

Next was the trip to Austin, Texas where I co-produced a photography related TV Pilot Project in collaboration with an award winning director Marko Slavnic. I think we have an excellent, educational and drama free product that I will need you to help me promote once it is up. Here is just a sneak peak to couple of images that were part of the project.

I used Canon EOS 5D MarkII, Canon 24-70, 85 F1.2 and 70-200 lenses ; Elinchrom Rangers and Elinchrom Ranger Quadra lighting kits.

Huge thanks to Marko & the crew, Sarah Elizabeth, Maria & Julie, Niko, Francisco and Built for Man, Roy, Molly, Maris, Brandy, Sara, Ruiz Jackson, Keith, KVD, Canon USA and Precision Camera.

Next stop was breathtaking Yosemite Valley where I was fortunate to participate Samy's Photo Safari, alongside some of the industry's best : Jennifer Wu (Canon Explorer of Light), Will Crockett, and Yosemite's own Dan Warsinger...what a blast! Here are a few visuals, many thanks to Samy's Camera, Canon USA, Datacolor and Manfrotto distribution for making this happen.

In Yosemite I used Canon EOS 5D MarkII, Canon 17 F4.0 TS L, 24 F3.5 TS L , 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 lenses

Capping off an action packed month was a campaign for one of my favorite clients, SanMar.
We photographed new apparel line for OGIO Brand; and the 3 day shoot was an absolute blast.
Here are a couple of my favorite visuals from that shoot:

Once again I used Canon 5D MarkII with mostly 70-200 and 24-70 lenses and Elinchrom and ProFoto lighting equipment.

Next up is Second Annual Atlanta workshop this coming weekend, and I will also do a presentation at the Showcase Photo Video, details coming up shortly.

Take Pictures

2010-04-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

This post I will dedicate to all the non-commercial stuff I shot within last couple of months.

I think it is very important to keep shooting - regardless if it's friend's kids or simply trying out new genres and testing out new equipment. The first two images show my friend Joe's son, little Jonah.

This below is one of Joe Shlichta's paintings he was commissioned to do, I think it's gorgeous, just like the rest of his work that can be viewed at his website.

I used 2 Westcott SpiderLites at 45 degrees from each side, and shot off of tripod.

Canon 5D Mark II, EF 24-70 F2.8 L @ 60 mm, ISO 400, F11 and 0.8 sec.

It was crucial to get the color accurate, and that is where always handy Spyder Cube came into play.

The shoot below was my first attempt at plus size modeling, and lovely Erin Tinsley of the Heffner Management did fabulous job.

Hair and Make Up by Lindsey Watkins

Styling by Kisten Reisenweber and Lindsey Watkins

Special thanks to KVD, Rob, Deb and Canon USA.

Canon 1D Mark IV, EF 85mm F1.2 L and Westcott SpiderLite 3 head kit.

I also managed to squeeze a hike or 2 into this crazy schedule, and was lucky to get some nice forest light on my way to pretty Heather Lake. One of the two images below were awarded Photo of the Day awards at the Earth Shots website. while one of my images from Ghana got POTD at the Photoburst - the travel photography contest.

And last but not least, I managed to pay a visit to a great friend of mine in San Francisco, Denis and welcome his adorable new daughter to this world. Meet Ema Marija Soldo:)

There are many exciting news and projects in the works, including my very first TV Pilot show production.

The project will feature some all-star talent including an award winning director, NFL star, multiple award winning artists with some special surprise appearances so stay tuned and please join my FB fan page if you haven't by now, as I will post updates there as well.

Atlanta Workshop etc.

2010-03-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to announce the Second Annual Atlanta Workshop, brought to you by NIK Software Inc., Datacolor color management solutions and Dean Zulich Photography.

The event will take place June 6th in Atlanta The participation is very much limited - it is going to be my smallest attendance workshop so far. All the workshop attendees will receive a door prize - one of the Nik Filters valued at $200. For more inormation, please email info@deanzulich.com

Here is the quick look back to some of the previous workshop challenge winners, as well as some of my personal favorite workshop images - I really get inspired by fellow photographers.

Images by Michelle Glass, Chan Williams, Brian Chambers and Kat Wilson

For more information on Atlanta workshop, please email info@deanzulich.com.

Even though this is the first official public announcement for the workshop, it is already half full, which I am very grateful for.

As for the visuals, here are couple of keepers from recent LA shoot with talented recording artist Meggie Palma.

The shoot was produced by Jon Divens , co- produced by Rojan Heartsong.
Make up by Julie Morgan , hair by Juan Juan Salon , styling by Curtis Threet.
Assistant: Christina Munoz.

Special thanks to my fav Deb, Echo, Geordy, Mr Champ, Carlos Rivera and Canon USA.

HD Video by my man August Bradley coming soon

I also photographed a friend and a very cool hip hop artist Mr. Champ (formerly known as E. Crimsin) of the Project Blowed in Los Angeles, here is one of my favorite shots.

For some more visuals, here are couple of spreads from recently released SanMar's High Visibility Gear Catalogue. That campaign was an absolute blast, and I am very much looking forward to upcoming location shoot with this valued client of mine.

I will take this opportunity to feature really great stylist Deb Tudor , whose broad range of skills made this shoot an easy one, and I am looking forward to the upcoming campaign involving her diverse talent.

In other news, I am getting ready for the WPPI in Las Vegas this week, if you are in town, come by Datacolor's booth #1029 and say hi, I should be there if I am not gambling;)

As for the rest of the schedule, April 4th I will be doing another presentation on Color Management and Professional Photography at Keeble and Shuchat Photo in Palo Alto. In mid May I will be back in California for the Samy's Yosemite National Park Workshop with Datacolor Manfrotto Distribution and Canon USA. I believe there are still openings for this excellent opportunity for nature/landscape photo enthusiasts.

At this time, I am also in the pre-production for the TV-pilot that will make all the shows you have seen about photography look amateur, including The Shot;) I am collaborating with top of the line talent, including recent winner of Nikon's $100K Video contest, my fellow countryman, and an incredibly talented film-maker:Marko Slavnic ; so stay tuned, this should be a lot of fun.

And last but not least, I have been notified that there is an interest for the workshop in Slovenia, and I am strongly considering that opportunity for late summer, I will post an update as this develops. I would love to finally meet in person all my fellow photographers in Slovenia - Dragan, Denis, Peter, Ciril and the rest.

Haiti Relief Benefit Event & Magazine Feature

2010-01-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

Plase join us for the Haiti benefit relief event this Tuesday at the Boom Noodle on Capitol hill.
The three of my images above will be auctioned off, in addition to some great photos from Spike Mafford, Matthew Larson, and a painting by exceptionally talented Joe Shlichta.

The event will feature silent auction, and happy hour all night, with the 100% of the proceeds from the artwork, and 25% from the bar going directly to the Red Cross.
Many thanks to all of our generous sponsors, please visit the Facebook Event Page for more info on participants and sponsors, and come by to support this noble cause.
In other news, my recent fashion project from Ghana has been featured in the BHF Style, a Contemporary African Fashion Magazine.

Please check out the Ten Page Feature.

Many thanks to the fabulous designer Bee Arthur, of the B' ExotiQ Fashion, to very talented model Felivian, very helpful staff of the historic Elmina Castle , and to Geoffrey Olisa at BHF Magazine for the feature.

Last week one of my favorite daily contest sites, The Earth Shots , featured a photo I took in Busua Beach, in Ghana as the Photo of the Day.

And for the end of the update, I am off to LA at the end of the week for 2 consecutive shoots, that will include some top talent, and if everything works as planned, one of the projects will feature the very first collaboration between great August Bradley and I, so stay tuned.

Ghana Diaries - Part 2

2010-01-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the second part of the visuals from recent Ghana trip.

In other news, I have re-launched my WEBSITE , so please feel free to check it out. Many thanks to my man Trace Bundy for letting me use his music on my new site. I am looking forward to seeing Trace again at the Triple Door on the 27h of this month, where he will be joined by 13 year old Korean prodigy Sungha Jung.

Ceck them out playing Canon together:

Definitely come by if you are in Seattle, and shoot me a note - I will be there; otherwise check out his tour schedule for more dates of his West Coast Tour.

Feature in Rick Sammon's new book

2010-01-10T17:31:00.001-08:00

I am honored to be featured in the brand new book Studio and Location Lighting Secrets

The book is written by Canon's Explorer of Light Rick Sammon and multi talented Vered Koshlano

One of the review states: "Rick Sammon keeps writing books that make photography understandable instead of making them so technical that they are too hard to follow."

Here is the two page spread with some lighting tips and specifics about couple of my favorite shots.

It has been a great pleasure to meet Rick, as I am big fan of this Explorer of Light's work; this is one of his inspiring images.

Ghana Diaries - Part 1

2010-01-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

An amazing trip to Ghana, it is hard to put in words impressions of my first visit to this country, so I will let images speak instead. Captured in Accra, Osu, Kasoa, Assin Foso, Elmina, Cape Coast, Busua and Dixcove.

The fashion shoot with exceptionally talented Bee Arthur of the B' ExotiQ in historic Elmina Castle went incredibly well. Here is a behind the scenes shot of lovely Felivian and I battling winds on the Elmina Castle.

Unfortunately I can not show the final story yet, as it is being considered for publication by certain magazines. I am very grateful that my man Russell James is helping out push the story.

I am also in finishing stages of securing agency representation at this time, and I will announce the details accordingly.
My website is getting a little face lift too, so stay tuned for that announcement as well. There are are some new exciting clients I have been fortunate to work with recently, and I will dedicate a special update to couple of really cool shoots with Sanmar and The Central Protection

Ghana Diaries - Part 2 is next.

Featuring: Michael Riedel 1/17/1960 - 10/15/2009

2009-10-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

As I was leaving a grocery store today, an empty shopping cart rolled out of nowhere and was about to hit a parked car. I had barely enough time to jump and stop it, deserving some form of a smile from a nearby street violinist, soaked in a heavy October rain.

I smiled back while leaving the ten dollar bill in his violin case. I sure hope he picked it up before Seattle's downpour claimed another prize. Started the car, got back on the road, the bumper sticker in the car ahead of me read "KISS THE MUSICIAN'. I thought to myself,' I just did ' ...or better: We just did.

I'd lie if I said that I did not have my man Mike with me at all times since I got the news. Not that I didn't expect it, not that I didn't hope I would never get them. Just saying.

For all of you that don't know Mike, I will not go into accolades, praises and ( well deserved ) Photoshop Guru Awards, I will let following few photographs speak for themselves.

More inspiration on Mike's website

I remember sitting with Mike for the first time at the Art Institute Seattle in my second quarter or something, and I asked him how to do retouching on eyes to make them pop...we were in the Lab, and he said: this is what you do, and then this, and than lab channels, and then new adjustment layer, and that's where I was about to start crying... at that point I thought I was light years behind, and that I would never get there.

Thanks to this amazing individual, and certainly the rest of the wonderful teachers at the AIS, I am where I am right now - two and a half years after my graduation. I will never have enough gratitude to express to all of those folks, and unfortunately I don't really know if I ever told Mike in person how much he meant to me, my career and to who I am right now.

This image will stay with me forever.

Not because it won many awards and was published - but because I didn't really develop it. Mike did. And I watched. And absorbed. Heather Lake on a perfect day. But it didn't look like this - I swear, I was there, I took the damn photo - Mike made it look that way, and thereby opened my eyes. Ever since then, I look at how far I can take image before even capturing it. I owe you big time for this one Mike.

The following one I took underwater, and was 100% inspired by Mike's photo above; the last one of the five.
I don't think I nearly came through, but some other folks did...regardless, now you know where it came from.

And last, but not least, the first ever assisting gig I did was on a cold winter's day at Seattle's Pierre back in early 2005. Mike was cool enough to do a shoot with up and coming model Ashley. I was dumb enough to tell him where he should shoot, and what are the cool spots...I really want to slap myself right now, when I remember the way I pretty much embarrassed myself...but you know what? The beautiful part was that Mike never said a word, or complained...he was just fine with me being there, and being opinionated East European immigrant, with all kinds of ideas.

And that is why respect him even more; that is why it hurts even more to know that his mission went unfinished. I really wish I was one of those people that believes that yes, there is better place and all that stuff...but I have to say, I wish he finished his mission with us before heading out there.

This is the picture of him I took that day, against all odds I was able to find it (thanks HRPC)

I know I can not continue where he left off, for his mind was unique and brilliant beyond what I can comprehend.

What I know is that I can share his story, and hopefully inspire others to create and just enjoy the rest of the journey.

Wherever that might be.

Spyder Cube etc.

2009-09-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

I know it has been about two months since the last blog update; the good news is that I think I found the way to make this more of a regular occurrence, so stay tuned.

Just recently, I have had a chance to for the first time commercially use really cool and handy Spyder Cube by Datacolor

It truly is more than a grey card, not only it offers the custom White Balance, but also helps with control over the highlights and shadows, by offering both absolute black and white references. So if your shoot is under continuos lighting conditions, you drop the cube in one of your first images (like I did below) and then you can apply the achieved settings during RAW conversion to the rest of the shoot - a real timesaver.

Sample below is an image before and after usage of the Spyder Cube in RAW conversion:

Feel free to watch the Videos on using the Cube

The image above was part of the shoot for two clothing lines, Sucre Soir and the Cotton Caboodle children's line. I was very happy to work closely with very talented artist/designer Nadja Hadilmann of Gimbo Design .

The first time we collaborated was for the The Tangerine Collection - only this time we were both on the set - so I can't wait to see the final product - the upcoming Cotton Caboodle website.

Also on set was talented stylist Kamie Chang Kahlo of The Adelita Style , I really enjoyed checking out her blog and having her aboard.

As for last couple of months, here is a quick rundown - August kicked off with a creative project in the NYC that featured some great talent and a cool location in Soho; here are couple of keepers:

Many thanks to Datacolor, models Dylan Monroe and Jessica Malafouris, MUA Christine Cherbonnier, Hairstylist Miranda Epp, and Stylist Cameron Carpenter. Special thanks to Christoff, Drazen and the Q department, Shota, Carsten, Ben, Hector and Adorama.

Shortly thereafter followed another visit to beautiful Adriatic - and even though I decided not to bring the camera; I still couldn't resist to snap a few with my sister's point and shoot Canon. This one actually ended up being the The Photo Of The Day at one of my favorite Travel Photography Contests - Photoburst .

This is another classic Adriatic scene I came across on the mesmerizing island of Šipan, Croatia.

The September started with an inspiring visit to the Art Institute Las Vegas , where I was invited to speak to the photography students.

The lecture went well, really nice turnout - I was very grateful for the opportunity, and I enjoyed meeting everyone at the AILV; special thanks to Amy Lee and A-Train.

The next stop was San Francisco, to be more precise - Keeble and Shuchat Photography store in Palo Alto, where I did presentation on Color Management in Professional Photography for Datacolor The event was awesome - standing room only, and I got some really great questions - I have to say that I always learn when it comes to not only color management, but other technical aspects of the art of photography. Special thanks to James of K&S and Bob of Omega Satter of for making sure everything went as flawless as it did. It is always fun coming to this area and meeting fellow photographers.

The next was the visit to Atlanta - where I had an opportunity to meet folks from Kelby Training Live - really cool crew; I also got introduced to on One Software , and am looking forward to try out their filters soon.

As for the rest of the year, there are couple creative shoots in works, which I will post accordingly; we are in the pre-production stage for both, and it feels great to be able to create again without limits that commercial work often demands.

In regards to the traveling schedule; I will be in Las Vegas for the Photoshop World West - world's largest Photoshop convention this coming week, so if you are around stop by Datacolor booth and say hi.

The following weekend , I will do in-store demos and color management presentations again in The Keeble and Shuchat Photography store in Palo Alto; the date is October 10th, so please feel free to come by and say hi if you are in the area.

At the end of the October I will be back in NYC for the Photo Plus Expo - perhaps the biggest photo gathering in the country; I am very much looking forward to see al the cool folks in the industry...thank you for stopping by, and do not hesitate to drop me a note:)

Arkansas Workshop winners etc.

2009-07-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

With a little bit of delay, I am happy to announce the Fayetteville Workshop challenge winners.

The convincing first place went to Kat Wilson , the official photographer of the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith . She was awarded Imagenomic's Pro Plug In Suite for this very creative image she came up with under a lot of pressure, great job Kat!

Second place and Datacolor's Spyder went to Amber Lanning of Lanning Photo . This was my favorite capture by this talented fellow photographer

The third place winner, Kris Johnson of the Northwest Arkansas Community College was awarded $100 gift certificate for the Bedford Camera and Video. He used on camera blue filter, and a soft focus filter to come up with this creative capture, that is straight out of camera.

Many thanks to great people of Bedford Camera and Video that hosted the event, Miranda and the crew from the Pink Papaya for great job with hair and make-up; Mandy at Maca Clothe and Brooke at Ultra Studios for fabulous fashions.

Huge thanks to our wonderful models Lanie, Pocho, Mandy, Rita, John Michael and Wesley.

Special thanks to all the participating photographers, you all did exceptionally well, and I have seen some inspiring images and I did learn something from all of you. Jason and Teresa you guys rock, and one special thanks to Amy for stepping up last minute.

I was especially excited to have Bob Coleman on board, a long time pro and chief photographer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Northwest Edition. I was blown away by some of his photojournalistic imagery, and this one in particular caught my eye.

Please visit the rest of Bob's inspiring photo story about the final day of Johnnie Pecorella's Grim barber shop

I was able to take a couple of snaps during the workshop myself, and here are the two favorites:

As for the commercial work, this last week was all about recording artists. First of the two shoots was with very talented The Fall of Troy of The Equal Vision Records and it was an absolute blast.

The first image I used Westcott's Spiderlite kit for the first time, and was very pleased with it's performance, I find it very useful for indoor lighting, I definitely highly recommend it. Many thanks to the FOT, Equal Vision Records, Westcott Pro Photo and Video Lighting, the Summit Tavern and always helpful Rob and Deb.

Shortly after followed the shoot with very cool guys from the AnnaMercury, here are two of my favorites; first one with ProFoto Acute 2400 3 head kit, and the second one with the aforementioned Spiderlite by Westcott Many Thanks to Anna Mercury, Match 1 Entertainment, Westcott and Sasha May.

And for the end, here is the latest addition to my ongoing project "f a c e s" - I captured this image at Marginal Way Skatepark in between set-ups with the FOT shoot. Please visit their site to help support this unique place south of Downtown Seattle.

I am off to NJ/NY area for about a week, and quite likely to beautiful Croatian Coast thereafter, I will update my Facebook page accordingly, so get in touch.

Friends With Vision and monthly update

2009-07-05T15:04:00.001-07:00

I am happy to announce a feature in renowned European PROFIFOTO Magazine, as a part of Datacolor's Friend's With Vision campaign. It is an absolute honor to be featured right after one of my all time favorite photographers, August Bradley.

Datacolor's Spyder3Studio is an essential part of my workflow when it comes to color management.

In other news I was able to complete couple of really enjoyable shoots recently, first one being active shoot with Sara in West Seattle.

I used mostly Canon's EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens and Canon EOS 1d Mark III. Here are couple more of my favorites.

Many thanks to Rob, Deb and Canon USA

The next one was location fashion project in collaboration with very talented Kelly Flynn of K FLYNN Design. Fabulous work with Make Up and Hair by versatile and efficient Christina Schock of Schock Make Up Lovely Kirsten of Andersen Models International made it an easy one for me and the crew; huge thanks to Nick, Rob and Brian for great help.

For the first time I used the aforementioned 500 lens for a fashion shoot, and it was necessary to use cell phones to pose model, as I was about a block away. Here is the result, you be the judge if it was worth it:)

Canon 5D Mark II, F4 500mm IS lens, 1/200 sec @ F4 handheld, ISO 100, Alien Bee with beauty dish and diffusion.

Couple more favorites, with 5D Mark II and EF 70-200L lens. The first image we used about 5 alien bees to fight with the sun light from the side, while the second image is only one strobe with beauty dish and a diffuser.

As for July, I am taking of to Fayeteville, AR to teach a workshop next week; some really strong photographers signed up so I am very much looking forward to this one. Many thanks to Jason and Bedford Camera and Video for hosting the event.

Shortly after this trip, I will visit Los Angeles, 7/16-20, so drop me a note if you are in SoCal. I will wrap up the month with the trip to New Jersey and New York, where I will be producing a creative shoot 8/1; I have some great talent lined up so look out for the images.

And last but not least,The Art Institute of Las Vegas have asked me to do a presentation to their Photography and Fashion Programs. I was more then happy to accept this wonderful offer, the lecture will take place September the 2nd.

I just realized that I never featured on my blog the Hall of Fame Alumni Podcast conversations -Recorded in May 2008 at the Art Institute Seattle at my Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Here is the 30 minutes podcast hosted by Mark Livingston of the AIS. July 13 - August 14, 2009. on display will be 3 of my pieces at the Alumni Show at the Art Institute of Seattle, please feel free come by for the opening reception.

Fayetteville Workshop, Tangerine shoot and more

2009-06-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Bedford Camera and Video, Datacolor , Imagenomic and Dean Zulich Photography are bringing you a limited participation workshop July 11th 2009 in Fayetteville, AR. The event will feature location lighting teach, and a challenge with valuable prizes provided for the best. Please email info@deanzulich.com to receive the info package.

The month of May concluded with a fabulous shoot in Scottsdale, Arizona for the upcoming Tangerine Collection. The shoot was an absolute blast and here are some of my favorite images of lovely Lauren Alonzo of Ford models. Make up and hair by Rosaline Hampton. Many thanks to Christine, Deb, Kari, Toron and Canon USA

Next stop was Bay Area and one of my favorite cities, San Francisco. The juxtaposition of the luxurious stay in Arizona and a harsh reality of everyday life in the Mission area has struck me and inspired to capture few individuals that were kind enough to let me do so. This is my favorite capture, "Five Dollar Smile" - gentleman asked me what does he get for posing, and five dollar bill was all I had on me...it seemed just fine with him.

The lady carried an ancient sorrow in her eyes it seemed to me; and said that "they come all the time" - the people asking to take her picture. She didn't ask for anything. Now I wish I gave her something in exchange for this timeless capture.

Shortly after this trip followed a visit to New York City where I commenced my quest to secure an agency representation. Overall it was exceptionally successful visit and I look forward to return to NYC perhaps even before the Photo Plus Expo , where I will be representing Datacolor in October this year.
Unfortunately, only camera I had was on my Blackberry; this time around the time did not allow for any shooting, but many good things are in works and I am very excited about the future.

May in words and images

2009-05-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just like I predicted, updating this blog will certainly become more and more difficult, but I will do my best to do at least one comprehensive monthly update.

After fabulous two weeks in gorgeous island of Mljet, Croatia, it was time to get back and get on with busy schedule.
Here are couple of my personal favorites from the Croatia trip; to see more please see my Facebook albums

In other news - in addition to a recent short trip to St Louis,where I met some very cool people from Creve Coeur Camera, I went on to Mid America Photography Symposium in historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas. There I was fortunate to meet one of the Canon's Explorers of Light, legendary Rick Sammon. He featured an entertaining, educational and very refreshing lecture. I was truly honored when Rick asked me to be featured in his upcoming book on lighting, that will be available in in September this year.
For samples of Sammon's inspiring award winning work, please visit his website

I am also very happy to announce beginning of partnership with Westcott Lighting, I am eagerly anticipating the chance to use this renowned lighting equipment for the first time in the very near future.

This past Thursday I truly had a blast doing a lecture at the Lake Stevens High School ; they had watched Vh1's The Shot as the part of their photography class, and were very excited that I was located in the area. It was such a pleasure and inspiration to be able to respond to their invite and spend some time withe a large photography class and their kind teacher, Elizabeth Granillo.

As for my photography, we just had a cool shoot with very talented Personal Stylist Rosaline Hampton , who is entering renowned international contest, best of luck to her!

Here are couple of my favorite images:

Canon 5D Mark II, EF F2 200, 16-35 F2.8 lenses, few different lighting combinations, many thanks to Rob and Deb.

Shortly after that one, we shot lovely Denise in the very same studio location,

Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70 F2.8 and 200 F2 lenses, Studio lighting inside, Quantum Flash outside.

Many thanks to Canon USA for letting me test the new EF F2 200mm L lens, and to John for having us at his very cool studio in Pioneer Square for both of those shoots; message me for details about this cool and very affordable space.

As for the rest of the month, after the shoot I have in Arizona, 5/29, I will be heading down to Bay Area for a few days on business for the coolest color management company, Datacolor, so drop me a note if you are around.

updates etc.

2009-04-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize that with this schedule I will be lucky if I can update this blog more than once a month. Overall things are going great, many travels coming up, the first trip to Croatia coming op on the 23rd of this month. Right after my return in the beginning of May, I will be in St. Louis and then San Francisco. I will be in touch with Bay Area friends, hope to see you while I'm there.

As for some new photos, here they are:

I do teach individually at times, and Christine of Trimood Photography not only was great student, but she did both make-up and hair for this shoot with lovely Julia.
Many thanks to Davon, Sasha, Julia and Christine, for another one in the books.

Also if you missed it, I updated my portfolio with this image of Sammy and Sarah Yvonne

that completed the series of shoots I produced for various submissions, including Hasselblad Master contest, Imagenomic campaign and Crossraods Fashion contest that I won back in 2006 with this image of one of my favorite models Vanessa.

Imagenomic Campaign

2009-03-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick look at the new Imagenomic campaign that I was very happy to participate in; huge thanks to everyone participating.

Please visit the re-launched Imagenomic website that will soon feature many new techniques of using this very cool software.

In other news, please come by the The Fetherston Gallery to check out new works by a great friend of mine, and a fabulous artist Joe Shlichta.
This is one of his previous works:

The opening Artist reception is Friday March 27, 5-7PM, come by if you can.
Overall it has been insanely busy, and I have been working on a few up-coming projects.Also, for friends in Croatia, I will be there end of April and beginning of May, email me if you can make it to island Mljet.

The Fall of Troy and other stuff

2009-03-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since last update, but to say that I have been busy would be an understatement. After doing L.A., Vegas and NY in about two weeks time, I am finally back in the Northwest.

First off, yesterday we had a super fun shoot with VERY talented guys from The Fall of Troy of The Equal Vision Records .They are recording their up-coming album with help of legendary producer Terry Dave (Deftones, Pantera, Soundgarden), and what I heard in the studio was absolutely rockin', so check them out. Here is one of the favorite images:

Canon gear, Quantum Flash, assisting as always were Sasha and James.

In other news, Digital Photo Pro magazine has notified me that I was once again finalist in their Emerging Pro contest. This is the third consecutive time as finalist, my congratulations to the winners.

I have been also quite busy working with Datacolor , and I have to say I am extremely lucky to work with such a cool and creative bunch. Check out the websites of some of my colleagues and fellow photographers - Christoph Gamper, Oliver Mews and my very favorite Carsten Tschach. I can not say how thankful I am for this opportunity to represent Datacolor.

Also I have been working with Imagenomic on their latest advertising campaign, and here is an image where their plug-in Noiseware came in handy, as this was a low light situation that required high ISO setting. This was captured last fall in Croatia, after a fabulous meal that the host and his wife prepared for my sister and I.

And for the end, check out my friend and a fabulous guitar player, Amir Beso , I am just about to head to his peformance at a very cool Solo Bar, check him out and come by!

Happenings

2009-02-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a little while since I updated my blog, and there is more than one reason for it.

First and foremost, I partnered with my choice color management company Datacolor , and will be taking over the West Coast representation. A Swiss-held company provides affordable, easy-to-use digital color control products for creative experts, photographers, corporate customers and consumers everywhere. I am very grateful for this fabulous opportunity that will enable me to travel and network on the highest level, while leaving me enough time to shoot, and enhance quality of my personal projects. Actually, I am working on a shoot in New York/New Jersey area very soon, will post it when ready.

Speaking of personal projects, this past weekend I was able to pay a visit to one of the photographers I often mention and look up to , August Bradley . My East Coast counterpart for Datacolor, Josh Fischer took this picture of August and I in his Downtown Los Angeles studio, thanks for having us!
The rumour is that the recent Hasselblad Master is working on a new personal project...

Shortly before the Los Angeles visit, I spent a few days in Las Vegas, where I met some really cool people during this years WPPI Show. One of the photographers that stood out was Hector Martinez of Frozen Times Photography. This New York based photographer's travel and street photography really caught my eye, and here are couple of examples why:

As for my photography, I was able to squeeze in another beauty shoot featuring one of my favorite models Cayte.

Make up by Christine Cherbonnier . Hair by Sara Cook. Canon gear, SPA Studio lighting equipment,sofftware by Adobe and Portraiture by Imagenomic

My crew is better looking than yours

2009-02-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

And here is the proof :)

James and Sasha not only do great job, but they are really easy to look at, I am very grateful to have them aboard:) We just messed around after the gig the other day, and took this one in my garage with Quantum Flash, cool little toy.
Wardrobe provided by Moksha Clothing

Also, even though I am not a big fan of wedding photography, I couldn't help but feature a really really cool work by my man Dragan and the crew in Slovenia.

Their new website First Finger is an absolute must see, great job guys! I am pretty sure I will see you all this year.

Beauty

2009-02-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

Last time I shot beauty was during filming episode 5 of Vh1's The Shot, in August 2007.
Not specializing in this genre of photography, I have to say I had no idea this recent shoot would go so well that will actually make cover of my site; as well as my book. Jessee Skitral, a talented hairstylist that I have been collaborating with recently, produced a fantastic shoot last week; and Calvy Tran was our make-up artist. Beautiful Cayte was on hand, featured in all three of these images.

Sarah Yvonne participated as well,

just a few days after our project at the Marysville location.

Many thanks to Jessee, Calvy, Cayte, Sarah, Ivona for coming through on a short notice; Sasha, James, Greg and SPA Studio for another memorable one in the books:) Special thanks to August for guidance and inspiration.
Canon EOS system, SPA Studio's lighting equipment, Adobe and Imagenomic softtware.

Second Chapter

2009-01-29T09:38:00.001-08:00

DZP and the crew detested a very cold Sunday in effort to complete second in the series of three creative shoots. The campaign will be used for several purposes, that will be disclosed upon completion of the last shoot. On this particular image I used my personal record 9 lights, and had 5 assistants on hand. Many thanks to everyone participating. Once again Logan Neitzel created fabulous fashions, while our talented models Chelsea Koivu and little Finlay (thanks Matt & Janna!) did an outstanding job :) Also on hand were models Sarah Yvonne and Sammy, those images will be revealed in the final campaign.
Hair:Jessee Skitral
Make-up:Calvy Tran
Assistants: Sasha, James, Nick, Rob and Brian
Additional thanks to: Amber,Indy, Debbie, Jason, Ben, City of Marysville and Imagenomic
Image Info: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 70-200 F2.8 @190mm, 1/80 sec and F5, ISO 400. ProFoto and Alien Bees Lighting . Photo by Nick Heilweil.

In other news, I am very happy to announce beginning of my relationship with my choice camera brand Canon .

Also, please check out Nomad Two Worlds , a very cool collaborative installation project by legendary photographer, and Vh1 The Shot host Russell James, currently showing in Stephan Weiss Gallery in NYC.

Featuring: Erik Almas

2009-01-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

In preparation for the part two of my recent series of creative shoots; I read a great interview with Erik Almas , photographer I have been looking up to for a while.

My favorite Digital Photo Pro magazine just published this interview with Erik.

"There are so many great people out there who never get hired. Clients won’t find you by just your being good. You have to put yourself out there. You have to have great pictures, but you also have to package and brand yourself the right way."

Seattle Workshop Review

2009-01-18T20:20:00.000-08:00

What a great event this weekend in SPA studio in Mukilteo area! The sold-out workshop was a blast. We managed to do both indoor and outdoor teach, followed by my favorite 5-minute challenge. All the photographers did really well and it was hard for me to choose the challenge winner.

Very close decision went to Emma Smith of LiveLoveLaugh photo as she came up with this beautiful capture of our model James.

Right behind her were Rachel Blackman's image of Michelle,

Brian Chambers' portrait of model Eriq,

and Scot Ralston's photo of James, so this time around top 4 were awarded prizes.

Honorable mention goes to this graphic and captivating silhouette by Russell Hay of Zone Photography

All the 5 minute images are straight out of camera, and using one light only.

The day started with a foggy morning and Leah and Eriq posing by this sexy '69 Charger (thanks Nick!). This image rounds up Emma Smith's really strong overall performance:

Sun burned through the fog shortly after we started, which posed a challenge in regards to the lighting. It didn't affect Scott Ralston though, who came up with this very cinematic capture of our second set up that included a '66 mustang.
I was really pleased with Scott's photography throughout the day.

For the second part of the teach we moved inside of the SPA studio; and here are two favorites from the first indoor setup: Bret Doss captured Leah beautifully

while Russell Hay contributed to an already strong performance with this stylish photo:

Jeffrey Burgess took advantage of our second studio set-up, and this is the result of his collaboration with Michelle and James.

Photographer Greg Cunningham got the popular vote from the models. It seemed that they enjoyed working with him the best. I enjoyed meeting Greg myself. He has a really great personality and is a good photographer. Allison Gurevich flew in from Atlanta to be with us and I was impressed with her performance in her unfamiliar territory of studio lighting. I am sure I will see the three musketeers - Rob, Nick and Brian around. They sure came prepared with both gear and actually funny jokes and I really enjoyed having them aboard. Shay and Rachel made it very easy for me as well, and Greg Pascarelli's help and familiarity with SPA studio was priceless, to say the least.

Exceptionally talented Logan Neitzel manufactured some fine new fashions, while Jessee Skitrall yet once again came through with awesome hair-styling. Sheila Birashk exceeded all expectations with fabulous and very efficient make-up work. Our models Leah Ferrel, Michelle Green, James Flu III and Eriq Haritonov pulled off a really long day and were shot in 4 different set-ups, plus another for the challenge.

Many thanks

to When and Seattle Photo Associates studio for hosting and promoting the event and contributing studio time to our prize package; the studio is membership driven and very affordable yet facilitating - please contact when@seattlephoto.org for more info.

to ProLam for providing our First Prize, they do quality work, and I highly recommend their services - the prize image looked immaculate;

to Amber and Sasha for great help with the production.

I will put up a video from this event once it's finished. Next up is Arizona workshop, details to follow soon. One more thing, Rob, you better win that challenge, you know I don't do well in front of the lens;)!

The gang including Sheila, Jessee and Logan:))) Photo by Rob Arora

Evening of conversation and inspiration with DZ this Friday!

2009-01-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

There may have been some confusion about the lecture part of this weekend's workshop event - it is completely FREE regardless of the workshop attendance:

Evening of Conversation & Inspiration with Dean Zulich of Vh1's, The Shot
Friday, January 16, 2009 7pm-9pm
Free Admission / Limited seating

Location :
Seattle Photography Associates Studio
4403 Russell Rd #104, Mukilteo WA, 98275

Directions to the SPA Studio

The Seattle workshop takes place on Saturday 1/17 at the same studio - I am sure my fellow photographers will bring their A game, as we have truly tremendous talent and fabulous new designs lined up for the upcoming workshop.

Here are couple of images I haven't shared yet from previous workshop events in Atlanta and Knoxville, truly great time - many thanks to all the participants and organizers.

Match 1 Entertainment shoot

2009-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we were at the historic and beautiful Columbia City Theatre photographing Mr. Ervin Pulliam of the Match 1 Entertainment.
Many thanks to Chris Cottingham and the CCT crew, truly a great place to shoot.
Assistant James Flu III, Canon EOS System, ProFoto Lighting Equipment, Adobe and Imagenomic software.

There has to be a better way

2009-01-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

Today people of Seattle marched against Israeli attacks on Gaza strip.
Those are only couple of images from an emotional rally that took place downtown.

The protest also took place in New York, Milan, Paris, Athens, Berlin, Madrid, while in London Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger joined the rally. According to CNN over 460 people died in Gaza already, while the Israeli troops launched ground offensive. Speaking of CNN, they just broadcasted footage from crowded hospitals soaked in blood and running out of supplies. It brought back memories of my hometown on Sarajevo, where I managed to live through hell 1992-1995. I also couldn't help but think of recent Mumbai Bombing as well.

There has to be a better way to resolve this...I wish I knew what that was, I probably would have been a politician in that case, not a photographer. We can only hope that the new government will find a better way to approach this burning issue, as the previous one obviously failed. Along with images, I will share a website of a an outstanding documentary photographer that I was fortunate to meet,Colin Finlay . I wish one day I get to make a fraction of difference he has already made with his arresting and story telling images.

Pacific Queen

2008-12-30T21:49:00.000-08:00

What a way to welcome new 2009! This past Sunday persistent winter storm unexpectedly gave a way to a fabulous team of committed creative individuals. This shoot was the first part of series of shoots I have been working on in collaboration with very talented fashion designer Logan Neitzel. More about the series and the way it will be used upon it's completion, at the end of January. Couple more images from this shoot can be seen on my website , in Fashion gallery. Happy New Year!

Fashion by Logan Neitzel
Make-up: Calvy Tran
Hair: Jessee Skittrall
Models: Michelle Green and Cayte Bosler
Extras: Jason & Ben
Assistants: Cave, Sasha & James
Scouting: Dragan
Many thanks to Sonja, her family and the Pacific Queen.
Canon EOS system, ProFoto lighting , PS and Imagenomic software.

Featuring: Chris Buck Interview

2008-12-25T13:20:00.001-08:00

An excellent interview with an excellent photographer - Chris Buck

Chris has been a pro for 20 years now, and I found this interview very interesting and informative - encouraging indeed for an up and coming photographer such as myself. I hope you find it interesting too, give me your thoughts.
Here is Part One and here is Part Two of this comprehensive interview.
Many thanks to A Photo Editor and August for sharing.

Featuring: Portraiture 2 by Imagenomic

2008-12-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

I just tested out Imagenomic's new Portraiture 2 plug-in and I was quite pleased with the outcome.

In this image of Ricki Lake I shot earlier this year I also used Noiseware plug-in as it was a high ISO image. I highly recommend both of the plug-ins as well as their RealGrain plug-in

Canon 5D, EF 50 F1.4 lens, Broncolor lighting.

Produced by Jason Clevering of the Wonderful Group
Art Director Joe Loving
Hair by Bonnie Clevering
Make-up by Julie Clevering Morgan
Assistant Joshua Wood
Los Angeles, 2008

Trace Bundy Shoot

2008-12-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a blast shooting incredibly talented Trace Bundy, day after a truly great performance at the Triple Door .

Many thanks to Mother Nature, Trace & Becca, Raven, Cave, Mitch, James, Jason, Keith and the Marysville Police Department.

Here is what Trace and Becca had to say about this experience.

Seattle Workshop

2008-11-25T02:04:00.000-08:00

Dean Zulich Photography, Seattle Photo Associates and ProLam are
bringing you a limited participation lighting workshop featuring hands-on techniques & photography teach followed by a challenge with prizes for the best.
For more information please email when@seattlephoto.org
Testimonial from the recent Atlanta workshop by Jason Morrison of Dubtastic can be find on his blog

Magazine cover and a feature

2008-11-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to announce that Refoto Magazine December Issue cover story features Dean Zulich Photography. The magazine is available in selected European countries.

Fisherman's Blues - Part Two

2008-11-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

Pero has been fishing seas of Adriatic with great success for many years.
Couple of months ago I tagged along on a gorgeous late summer morning, and this was my catch of the day:)
This image has been selected as a Photo Of The Day & Photo Of The Week at Photoburst, Travel Photography Contest on December 4, 2008.

Red

2008-11-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just introduced me to the Red digital still and motion systems.
See for yourself, kinda scary...

Risk One Shoot

2008-11-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

This Sunday we were at a very hip Eastside hotspot Vertigo Lounge photographing a top shelf turntablist with residencies nationwide, DJ Risk One. Many thanx to both Risk One and the Vertigo, here are few of my favorites:

Featuring: Homecourt

2008-11-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

Exceptionally well done piece on Downtown LA, basketball, life and hope from ESPN's E:60. An absolute must see, from narrative to the music and visuals...

Featuring: The Fall

2008-11-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

People often ask me where do I find inspiration for both commercial as well as self assigned creative projects, and I usually mention motion pictures as an endless source of it.
The perfect example is Tarsem's 2006 masterpiece "The Fall" that I recently watched.
It is visually stunning, and quite entertaining feature - shot over the course of 4 years in 18 countries, check out the trailer
Here are couple more memorable visuals, really impressive work overall, hats off to Tarsem and the crew.

Remember Love

2008-10-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

...is the name for an upcoming album by a great piano player and a friend of mine Ben Fleck. Today we had a shoot for his album cover and here is my favorite image.

There were many great choices for the cover such as those two:

Many thanks to great talent, Sasha May and James Flu, who really made this an easy one.

And last but not least, don't forget to come by OKOK Gallery in Ballard this Saturday at 6PM for the Collective Vision - ArtWorks Benefit.
There will be many fabulous photographs including some of my best pieces on sale for truly great prices.Complimentary beverages and appetizers will be served, so I hope to see you there! More info at ArtWorks

YES WE CAN

2008-10-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

A look back to a memorable week in Los Angeles, highlighted by the "Yes We Can" event at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. Mr Jon Nash of Venice Ball was on hand with his crew (and a super cool tee) to film the event.

Also on hand was one and only Jamie Lee Curtis, seen here with fabulous client of mine Christine Sholz of sheer style

Legendary Mr. Fred Segal himself paid a visit with his lovely family:

None of this would have happened without Will.I.Am , seen here with his partners in crime apl.de.ap and Taboo of Black Eyed Peas. BTW, in the background is Obama, the guy you vote for...just in case;)

And last but not least, I have to thank my fellow photographer and a multi talented artist Amir Magal for being himself. I owe you one.

Fisherman's Blues - Part One

2008-10-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there were two brothers fishing the seas of Adriatic. They were known to be the richest and the best at their craft. No sea was too rough, no night too dark. As of this spring, only one of the brothers remains...the one in this image.

Covering "YES WE CAN" event in L.A 10/23

2008-10-16T16:51:00.001-07:00

I am very excited about the opportunity I was given to be an exclusive photographer for the night when fashion and melody will unite at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. Hosted and DJ set by WILL.I.AM , October 23 7-9.30PM.
All the proceeds will go to Black Eyed Peas Charity
Peapod Foundation

I will stay in Los Angeles until 10/28.

Jake Hatfield

2008-10-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

I met Jake Hatfield on the bus on my way from Georgia to Tennessee. That was my first time on legendary Greyhound, and it sure was a memorable one.

As for Jake, he was traveling back to Michigan from Florida. He had to do couple of months down in Florida for something he did in 1976 he said. That way Social Security checks would continue being issued to him. He was happy to be on the way back home...I hope by now that Jake is safe back in Michigan and receiving his Social Security checks:-)

Collective Vision - Artworks Benefit featuring DZP

2008-10-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Dean Zulich Photography and ArtWorks invites you to join us for our second annual "A Collective Vision" photography event, featuring the hand-selected work of 19 Seattle-area photographers available for one night only. All proceeds from photo sales will benefit ArtWorks, a nonprofit organization that empowers at risk and volunteer youth through the creation of public art.

WHERE
OKOK Gallery - 5107 Ballard Ave. NW - Seattle, WA 98107

WHEN
Saturday, November 1, 2008 6:00 PM
Please Join Us!
Complimentary appetizers will be served!

Our Featured Artists:
Jacob Eubank - Hank Kaplan - Matt Miller - Ethan Welty
Jesse Thomaselli - Kevin Fry - Angela Dawn
Sherry Loeser - Dean Zulich - Zachery Folk - Katie Love
A Special Collection of Images from Seattle P-I Photographers

Ten of my best 20x30" pieces will be available at truly great prices - hope to see you there!

Featuring: August Bradley

2008-10-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Every month I will try to feature a fellow photographer that I admire, and will start with a recent Hasselblad Master, August Bradley. View his inspiring portfolio at augustbradley.com

Workshop Weeekend in Knoxville

2008-10-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

After truly great workshop weekend in Atlanta area, and some awesome images produced, the standard was set really high for the Knoxville event. I must say that fellow photographers from Tennessee did not disappoint, and made me really proud.

It all kicked off with evening of conversation at Pellissippi State, and it was the my personal favorite lecture this far:

Many thanks to Pellissippi State Technical Community College for hosting the event:-)
pstcc.edu

Patrick Sullivan's in the Old City Knoxville hosted the first part of the workshop. The lighting equipment was provided by very cool fellow photographer from England, Dave Caroll, his work can be viewed at djcphoto.com

The workshop started very well, and here is my favorite image taken by talented Chan Dion of Chan Dion Photography

Rebecca ,of photography by rebecca leigh who played major role in bringing this workshop to Knoxville captured this very sensual image:

While Dave Moore of Dave
Moore Studios in addition to hosting the critique in his fabulous studio, also contributed to the overall quality of the imagery with this capture:

Dave was also gracious enough to contribute studio time to our package of prizes for the best.

Second part of the workshop that focused on outdoor lighting, produced some more beatiful photographs included this one by a student photographer Adelajda Zareba of University of Tennessee:

Our 4 Minute Challenge 1st prize winner was Michael Williams of Knoxville, and this is the image that he came up with under a lot of pressure:

And last but not least, I was fortunate to meet a renowned AP photographer Wade Payne of the Images by Design (www.thepurplelens.com) He helped with the workshop, and also contributed to the prize package as well.
Special thanks to our beautiful models Kori Sergant and Sean Cofelt, Beth Poore for great work with Make-up and Reed at Sanctuary Vintage.

More Atlanta Workshop images

2008-09-29T10:51:00.001-07:00

Jay of www.urbanphotographix.com took the second prize in the 4 Minute Challenge with thise image:

While Marilyn Nieves of Marilyn Nieves Photography (www.marilynnieves.com) showed great all around skills in both of the lighting teach challenges, couple of my favorites:

Atlanta Workshop Challenge Winner!

2008-09-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am happy and very proud to announce the Atlanta Workshop Challenge winner, Michelle Glass! She had 4 minutes to set up and capture this image, congrats!
More winners coming up shortly, thanks to all the participants some truly excellent work has been produced.

Off to Atlanta

2008-09-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

I am heading down to Atlanta and Knoxville for lectures/workshops that will take place following two weekends, email me if you are in the area and would like to meet:)
I will be back in Seattle 10/06,
d

m o n t e n e g r o

2008-09-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

Very pretty Boka Bay in Montenegro, captured from a really fast boat, thanks to my great friend Delta, check him out here:

http://www.delta-photos.com/

The Storyteller

2008-09-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

I met the Storyteller on the island somewhere in Mediterannean...the stories I will keep for myself but his picture I won't.

Seattle Seahawks & Pasado's Safe Haven Compassion Calendar available!

2008-09-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

This is the cover for the Seattle Seahawks & Pasado's Safe Haven Compassion Calendar I recently shot. Please visit Pasado's site and support their cause here:
http://www.pasadosafehaven.org/Seahawks_Calendar.htm
The full calendar will be available for viewing on my site soon,

and if you buy a copy I will sign it for you and mail it back free of charge :-)

All the proceeds benefit Pasado's noble mission.
Thank you for stopping by!
Dean

Welcome to my blog!

2008-09-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my blog! Here I will be posting updates and news about Dean Zulich Photography. I will also be posting images that are not on my site, photos from my travels, as well as behind the scenes stuff from commercial shoots, whenever possible. Feel free to drop me a note, and thank you for stopping by!