Thorsten Ott Photography targets the large and small business owner with effective visual solutions that sell clients products and services. By streamlining my gear and techniques, I can work more effectively and provide a better service. In addition to very high quality and creative images, I can now also provide short video clips for social media and show a products “features & benefits. The modern commercial photographer has to embrace both still and video capabilities.

In order to shoot for myself, Thorsten Ott Photography, I needed a long break from writing for the Zeroplusplus Photography Tutorials Blog. July of 2011, I decided that I wanted to focus more on editorial people and product photography while photographing on location. A typical article with lighting diagrams can take me anywhere from 4-6 hours to write, yes, I am a slowpoke. Constant urgent email interruptions certainly don’t help…before I know it, the day is almost over

Over the last 9 months my new shooting style dictated different lighting gear, techniques and methods, and camera gear. I always welcome change and the new opportunities in St. Louis have allowed me to photograph pretty much what I want. I still fly to Seattle every few months but most of my new work is in the Midwest.

I shoot more video, both in the form of cinegraphs and regular video. The cinegraph is an amazingly simple technique to add some life to a clients boring homepage or landing page. HD video on today’s DSLR’s is so simple to shoot and edit. The Sandy Bridge Intel processors make editing and rendering a snap, even on a laptop. Editing software on Mac and PC imports most HD video formats with ease.

Nikon D7000 w/ Letus Hawk VF and MB-D10 Battery Grip & Pocket Wizard Flex TT5/AC3 Wireless Remotes

My images now appear primarily on client websites rather than in print. Lets face it, the web is the most effective way to sell today. Shooting images for online catalogs allows the retailer to reach a much greater audience. The UPS driver delivers items to your business, why not give UPS a package to ship out?

Seattle shoots were primarily indoors or studio, St. Louis shoots are much more on location, both indoors and outdoors. My Seattle lighting gear was better suited for studio work, the St. Louis lighting gear is designed to travel well, is lightweight, and has full wireless remote capability directly from the camera. Furthermore, my new lighting setup has portable AC power that only weighs 5lbs per light, for all day shooting.

Thorsten Ott Photography has been busy and I will write a few new articles next week. I recently shot 2 large ad campaigns, one two weeks ago and one last month. I can only post images from the job two weeks ago.

Last months fashion shoe shoot article will have to wait until the client posts the Fall 2012 Campaign on their website, later this May. For a special treat, my good friend and videographer/editor, Dan Sterkin, shot a behind-the-scenes video of all the chaos on the 15-hour shoot.

And we also have a couple of headshot and portrait articles on the way. Again, simple lighting that you can do with just 1-2 speedlights or monoheads.

In with the new and out with the old!