I have been visiting Poland on a regular basis since June 1999.  Each visit provides me with unique and ever-changing photographic opportunities.  No other place in the world has inspired me as much as Poland.  At the time of this post, the majority of images are from my most recent trip in December 2011-January 2012. However, I will be adding hundreds of photos from all my visits since 1999 so please keep checking back.  Hopefully Poland will inspire you as much as it has inspired me.  You can also see updates of all my photo sets if you “Like”  my Facebook Page.  Enjoy!

CLICK HERE: Poland Photo Set

CLICK HERE: Bill Winters Cinematographer Facebook Page

I am in the process of making a new photo set from my Trip to Thailand back in 2007/2008.  I have already uploaded a bunch of images and will continue to upload 1 or 2 shots every day over the next couple of weeks so keep checking back.  You can also see updates if you “Like”  my Facebook Page.  Ejoy!

CLICK HERE: Thailand Photo Set

CLICK HERE: Bill Winters Cinematographer Facebook Page

Here is a collection of photos from my trip to Monhegan Island back in 2009.  Monhegan is a really magical place.  It is 1.5 miles long by 0.75 miles wide and is located 12 miles off the coast of Maine.  As of the 2000 census it had a population of 75.  It order to get there you have to take a small mail boat for about 45 minutes to an hour.  There are no cars allowed on the island and there is a very limited supply of electricity.  There are 17 miles of hiking trails, a few small shops, cafes, and art studios.  That’s my kind of place.  You go there to relax, walk through nature, create art, and unwind. My buddy Frank Cantor turned me onto it.  Frank went there for his honeymoon and has been going back ever since.

All of these photos were taken within 6 hours of our arrival.  As soon as we got off the boat we were greeted by a small white and beige cat who was hanging out on the dock.  We saw people relaxing outside their homes and artists painting the beautiful landscape.  We checked into the inn, grabbed a bottle of wine and sat on the porch as the sun was setting.  I shot all the sunset shots with a glass of wine in my left hand and my camera in my right hand.  That’s my favorite way to shoot It was amazing to sit back, relax, and do nothing except watch the sky turn all sorts of amazing colors and snap a few photos.  It was one of my most memorable vacations and I am looking forward to going back soon.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

I actually posted this photo set a while ago, but never put it in this blog.  Oh well, here are photos from my trip to Lagos, Nigeria in August 2011.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Check out a new music video I shot for the band InAshton.  It is a no budget video shot with a Canon 5D Mark ii DSLR camera.  It is a good example of what can be accomplished in one shoot day with a lot of hard work and a few favors thrown in.  Kudos to director and old time college buddy Mike Fiore for pulling together a great team and seeing the project through the extensive post-production process.  Most people say you “can’t” color grade 5D footage and it is “impossible” to do vfx work on a 5D.  Negative words like “can’t” and “impossible” are not part of my vocabulary except when used as motivation to complete a very diffcult task.  Mission accomplished.  Congratulations to Mike, In Ashton, and the rest of the crew.

Music video for “It’s OK…It’s OK” by In Ashton on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG8c35UWS4U

Music video for “It’s OK…It’s OK” by In Ashton on BaebleMusic.com

http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicvideo/InAshton/Its-OK…-Its-OK.html

Over the past year and a half I have had the pleasure of being re-united with director Byron Hurt to shoot his second feature film “Soul Food Junkies” which explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food, a quintessential American cuisine.  As usual, it was an amazing and eye-opening experience for me.  Byron is one of the most intelligent people I have worked with in my career and every shoot with him challenges my thought process. Byron’s first film, “Beyond Beats and Rhymes” premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and explored the role of masculinity in hip-hop music and culture.  You can learn more about Byron at www.bhurt.com.

This teaser came out 5 months ago, but I just saw it for the first time today, so it is new to me!  Check out the teaser (click on 720p, or 1080p) and “like” The Soul Food Junkies Page on Facebook!

Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrJwsyH8z2o

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SoulFoodJunkies

Winters Photograph in the 2012 IMBA Calendar

I am totally pumped to have my photo in the October slot of the 2012 IMBA calendar.  It is an honor to have my work up there with mountain bike photography legends Sterling Lorence, Scott Markewitz, and John Gibson.  Every month I eagerly flip through the pages of various mountain bike magazines and surf numerous mountain bike web sites studying and getting inspiration from these photographers.  Normally the photographs are of a famous professional rider in an exotic location.  It can take days or weeks to get one shot considering the time it takes to travel to the location, figure out the best angle, wait for the perfect light, and execute the move perfectly.

That is what makes this photo special for me.  My buddy Alessandro and I were just on a normal afternoon ride at Graham Hills, our local mountain bike park, in Pleasantville, NY.  Pleasantville is certainly not an exotic well-known mountain bike destination like the deserts of Utah or the mountains of Colorado, but it is our little hometown place that we love so much.  As we were finishing up our ride we rode over a small wooden bridge that takes you over a stream and couldn’t help but notice the beautiful blanket of leafs below us.  Immediately a high angle shot pooped into my head that looks down at a rider crossing the bridge over the blanket of beautiful red, orange, and yellow. Fortunately the bridge is near the parking lot so I decided to run to the car and get my camera before it got dark.  Alessandro rode over the bridge a couple of times and we nailed the shot.  Ideally I would have been even higher, but this was the maximum height I could get with the equipment I had.

If you love mountain biking, the outdoors, and photography order a copy of the 2012 IMBA calendar today!  The proceeded go to The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA).  The IMBA is a non-profit educational association whose mission is to create, enhance and preserve great trail experiences for mountain bikers worldwide.

Since 1988, IMBA has been bringing out the best in mountain biking by encouraging low-impact riding, volunteer trailwork participation, cooperation among different trail user groups, grassroots advocacy and innovative trail management solutions.  If you have mountain bike trails in your neighborhood chances are the IMBA is responsible for them in some way or another.

You can order the calendar here:

http://velogear.com/product/velopress-2012-imba-calendar-1868.htm

This is the link to the official IMBA web site:

http://www.imba.com/

RIDE ON!!!

Check out these new products that were designed by my buddy Brandon David of King Midas Films.  Brandon and I started making films together back in 1996 with an Arri-s, a Bogen tripod, Tri-X reversal film, and my ’92 Plymouth (RIP).

One day we were chatting about the whole DSLR craze and how much we hated the fact that a simple hand held rig cost a ton of cash and all the sliders are poop.  Brandon felt he could design something that was simpler, cheaper, and work just as well or even better than the stuff from Redrock Micro, Zacuto, etc…  The next thing I know a prototype showed up at my door and it was great!  I gave him some feedback and he incorporated all my suggestions as well as other professional DP’s suggestions into his design.

The stuff is awesome.  I have used it on several projects and love it.  The slider is smooth as butta’ and the hand held rig is simple and effective.  The stuff is all designed for DIY filmmakers so the price is right and they don’t require a lot of expensive support tools that are common on bigger sets but too much to carry for a one man band.  For example, you can support the slider’s tracks with 2 baby light stands and the shoulder mount rolls up like a burrito into a neat carrying satchel you can throw over you shoulder while you ride the subway.  All the parts are hand made in the USA (in his next door neighbor’s house) by Americans!

For more information check out www.MidasMount.com.  You can order the slider from EVS www.evsonline.com. The 3′ slider kit sells for $350 and the 6″ kit sells for $395. You can purchase the shoulder rig at the Midas Mount showroom, 4774 Imlay Ave., Culver City, 90230. Call Adonis Clarke for rental or sales info at 310-733-6496 M-F 10-6.

Bonus points for anyone who spots the ugly guy on the www.MidasMount.com site!

Last week I was on a shoot in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  It was a whirlwind tour covering 4 cities in 3 days.  As always my primary focus was on the motion picture camera, but I was able to snap a few stills between takes.  Most of these were taken from a moving vehicle because a moving target is more difficult to hit  Click on the link below to view the Flickr set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwinters/5684849485/in/set-72157626641644698/lightbox/

I am totally stoked.  My good friend and producer extraordinaire Bob Fisher of Celsius Films just gave me a Doiflex 16.  The Doiflex is a rare and interesting camera.  It was made in Japan and is almost an identical copy of the legendary Arri-S.  The Arri-S will forever have a place in my heart because it is the camera I learned to shoot on.  I’ll never forget the good ole’ days running around Greenwich Village with an Arri-S loaded with Tri-X black and white reversal film.  If only I knew back then how valuable that training would be.  In a world now dominated by high definition video and 14 stops of latitude, learning how to shoot with film with no room for error gave me an extremely solid foundation and an upper hand on people who have never exposed a frame of film in their life.

One major design flaw of the Doiflex 16 is the lack of a handgrip built into the camera body.  The Arri-S was so easy to hold – it felt great in your hand.  I wonder why they didn’t include this in the Doiflex?  The design is eerily similar to cutting edge cameras like the new Sony F3.  The handheld/Handy Cam design works so well for small cameras like the Arri-S, Doiflex, PD-150, and DVX-100.  However, it really doesn’t work for a PL mount camera like the F3.  If you are on a tripod, dolly, jib, etc… it is fine, but hand holding a camera with no shoulder mount and outfitted with a cine lens and accessories is an exercise in futility.  Whoever can put a Super 35 sensor in a shoulder mount camera the size and weight of a Panasonic HDX-900 will win.  Well… Arri has sort of done that with the AMAZING Alexa, but I am speaking about doing it in the market that the F3 is targeted for.  Camera technology is drastically changing every week, but perhaps we should look into the past in order to get it right in the future.  No need to re-invent the wheel – or camera designs that work!