Congratulations to Jena Barch!
Jena is the winner of the drawing for a $250 Apple Gift Card we held at the MIMA
Summit. She is a marketing specialist at Braun Intertec in Bloomington.
When we just called to tell her, she responded “And it’s my Birthday today!”
Thank you to all who stopped at our G1 booth at the Summit
on Wednesday and participated in the drawing.
A bustling business and steady bookings have led Gamut One Studios to hire Business Development specialist, Jill Oldenburg.
Jill has been meeting, greeting, emailing and calling on new and former Gamut One Studios’ clients all over the metro for a few months now, while G1’s owners/photographers keep focus on their daily shoots.
No stranger to the photography industry, Jill spent over eight years in Los Angeles as a fashion publicist working with over-photographed celebrities and stylish retail products. After the fun and sun had gone to her head long enough, Jill headed back to Minneapolis to raise a family in practical Midwest fashion. After relocating, Jill launched a marketing and communications consultancy to serve the Minneapolis market, which brought her to Gamut One Studios.
When Jill’s not carting around Gamut One Studios’ portfolios or sharing the studio’s latest images with Creatives, she can be found getting active outside, toasting with friends, and getting ‘punked’ by her two mischievous young sons.
Haven’t heard from Jill yet? She’d love to me meet you – please email her: jill@gamut1studios.com, and say hello!
Put yourself in Bill’s shoes. Recently he set out to photograph the atmosphere of Nickelodeon Universe, a world-class amusement park. The best way to comprehend the challenge Bill faced is to visit the park at Mall of America. As proven in Nickelodeon’s 2012 marketing campaign, “We Want Your Scream,” the place is an overwhelming, kid’s nirvana. Bill’s recent assignment was to capture it all.
As you may know, the campaign went on to become an award-winning success. Just how did Gamut One contribute to this brand-building blockbuster? Well, Bill’s photography figures prominently in the campaign. Here’s how he operates…
First of all, Bill plans everything possible. Clients often ask: What contributes to a successful photographic shoot? The answer: Technical execution is critical, but the key to great photography and successful integration with the overall marketing campaign comes down to planning.
At Mall of America there were time constraints due to scheduling. Additionally, Mall of America’s enormous skylights change the lighting minute-by-minute. Navigating the model group through the rides required upfront planning and careful on-site management. Timing was a constant consideration. Allowing a motion sick kid to take one more “drop” on the Rock Bottom Drop (it’s exactly what it sounds like!) wouldn’t get Bill the shot he needed. Because the opportunity to capture genuine emotion is fleeting, successful shots don’t just happen, they are planned.
Understanding the key client objective is critical. During pre-shoot discussions with the client about the goals for “We Want Your Scream,” the mandate became pretty clear: capture the scream. To do so, Bill pushed the limit. Since he was dealing with high speeds and excitement, he had to board the rides. Riding backwards on a roller coaster eight times to get the perfect shot? Been there. Done that.
When Bill walked through the amusement park for a pre-shoot visit he was immediately struck by the magnitude of technical aspects the job would face. Each ride presented different obstacles and opportunities due to the layout and pure emotions of the ride models. Through utilization of stop action photography techniques, Bill was able to freeze flowing hair and capture peak emotions. Tactics such as slow shutter speed and effective panning illustrated the speed and raw power of the ride experience.
When Bill starts having fun it’s contagious. By participating with the group he gained insight into their experience and captured the unique essence of each ride. At Gamut One, having fun is more than a method of meeting client goals, it’s a competitive advantage.
And that’s the story of how Bill took more speed than a photographer can handle (to this day he can’t look at the Splat – O – Sphere, without getting “that sinking feeling”). To keep up with our adventures in photography subscribe to our RSS feed.
Gamut One Studios had a brush with fame last Friday when photographers Jeff Schmieg and Dewey Koshenina had the unique opportunity to photograph President Barack Obama. President Obama spent the mid-day touring and speaking at Honeywell while our swift and skillful photographers captured it all on camera.
The President has an extremely tight schedule, so when you are photographing him, you’ve got to be quick and on your game. Gamut One Studios, a contracted Honeywell vendor, was brought in to photograph the President’s visit and provided Honeywell with over 400 press ready images within hours of the event. Images were uploaded to a private web gallery where the Honeywell staff could quickly access and distribute images as needed for public relations, documentation and promotion.
Seeing how the whole White House machine operates behind the scenes was very interesting. It was a complex process but most notably, a very well oiled machine that is highly choreographed for maximum efficiency and security.
As you can probably imagine, the day was full of protocol, politics and stoic secret service agents. That doesn’t phase Jeff, our ‘nerves of steel’ photographer who has smoothly photographed tactical response teams while expert marksmen pointed automatic weapons at him. Provided with White House Press Pool credentials, Jeff followed the President as he toured parts of the manufacturing floor and met Honeywell employees. Jeff was then allowed inside the rope-line to photograph the president up close during the speech.
Rubbing Elbows with the Associated Press and White House Staff photographers who cover the president every day brought new insight into the workings of this political operation. Dewey photographed the event from the main press stage for another view point of the action.
Capturing the spark and excitement that people had when meeting President Obama made our job even better. The kids (and many adults) in attendance were beyond excited… beaming with perma-grins as they showed off their autographs and photos while they soaked in the whole experience.
We got some cool press pool badges that make great souvenirs from the event. I think Jeff and Dewey will wear them all week…you just never know when you may want to impress someone!
Our second annual Super Bowl Party on Feb. 5th, 2012 was a “Giant” success. We wanted to recap it here in case you missed our Facebook album post just a few days after the party.
The Giants defeated the Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI, which gave the Giants their fourth Super Bowl title. The game was action packed and even BIGGER than life as shown on our 35-foot cove wall.
Over 215 guests enjoyed our large selection of tailgating fare including nachos, brats, hot dogs, and of course our selection of almost 10 chili varieties. The Gamut One Chili Cook Off is a highly anticipated savory event where our guests taste, enjoy, taste some more and then vote on their favorite chili selections.
The chili varieties were outstanding this year, but only one could be crowned as winner. The 2012 Golden Chili Pepper Award goes to Dewey Koshenina for his Spicy Chicken & Mushroom White Chili.
When asked about what made his winning chili so special, Dewey proudly responded that his recipe is not for the lighthearted. “Chili should make your tongue scream for your Mommy,” Dewey said with a grin.
Dewey beat out 8 other entries, including the 2011 winning recipe by Bill Bartlett.
As always, the Gamut One party is family friendly. With face painting, basketball, and of
course the bouncy obstacle course, all the kids had a blast!
Thank you to all who supported Beyond the Yellow Ribbon with your silent auction bids for the VIP Lounge as well as purchasing raffle tickets. Your support has made a difference with this great organization and the lives of our troops.
This is always a big hit for our party. The expressions and posing creativity of the kids is always a blast! If you would like an electronic copy of a Photo Booth image, just email us at the studio. See a sample of some of our favorites here.
Many entered, but only 1 could win the G1 Studios 2012 Pick ‘Em Challenge contest. Congratulations to Roger Kadrlik who picked the Patriots to win the AFC Championship and the NY Giants to win the NFC Championship.
Roger won a movie family pack of tickets and a concessions gift card. When told about his winning prize, Roger said, ” We haven’t been to the movies in a long time. Maybe we’ll even take the grand kids.”
We are now just 2 weeks away from the big game which is a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. In that 2008 battle, the Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14, giving the Patriots their only loss of that season. The Patriots will be seeking vengeance. Can they pull it off?
Come to Gamut One Studios for the party starting at 3 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 5th. We have invited clients, friends and family. If you have not replied yet, be sure to check your email as we just sent out a reminder RSVP. Your RSVP today will help us plan with food and beverage numbers.
Make your 2 team picks as a comment to post on our blog
for a chance to win your choice of:
AN NFL JERSEY (you pick the team)
OR
A FAMILY AMC MOVIE FUN PACK including:
4 tickets and concessions gift card
Deadline for entries is 3 p.m. Saturday, January 14th
Don’t miss our annual Gamut One Studios Superbowl Party!
Clients, friends, and family “tailgate” in our studio, watch the game on our 35′ cove wall, and kids jump & play around in our interactive fun zone equipped with an inflatable obstacle course. Want to bring along a few guests? You are welcome. Please see the invitation with more details andRSVP HERE.
If you haven’t yet… “Like” us!
You may also pick your teams by leaving your
comments on our Facebook Page.
Each year Gamut One Studios chooses a charity to support financially and also to feature
on our Holiday card that we send out to our list of over 500 clients.
Last year we supported the Union Gospel Mission drawing attention and financial support to this non-profit that helps thousands of homeless living in the Twin Cities.
And now for 2011, we supported another non-profit that we found near and dear to our hearts—Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. It was Dewey’s turn to create the card this year and as a 20-year veteran of the Army Reserves, choosing Beyond the Yellow Ribbon was an easy choice for him.
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon works to honor, serve and support our military service members and their families, from all branches of service whether they are currently deployed, at home or retired.
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon also looks for ways to assist families of deployed service members, takes care of veterans once they return home, and raises awareness of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and other issues that our veterans often try to cope with alone.
Learn more and show your support at: BeyondtheYellowRibbon.org
It’s easy to stay passionate about a job when you work in vastly different environments each day.
Often, we’re in the studio lighting and shooting products, many times we’re on location in offices, factories and at events. And, sometimes we have tactical response teams pointing loaded weapons at us.
That was Jeff’s shoot out in Alameda County, California for Recon Robotics. He has been photographing their products in studio and location for the past five years. Jeff’s extensive knowledge of the product and close working relationship with Recon has now provided more unique location photography opportunities.
A recent assignment took Jeff to Urban Shield, a SWAT and Tactical Response Team training and evaluation event with teams from California, Israel and Jordan competing.
The event ran for 48 straight hours with 27 different scenarios. Recon Robotics sponsored one scenario in which the teams could utilize the Scout XT Robot to be more effective. Recon wanted photos of the teams using their robot in training situations and to build their corporate image library.
Jeff liked the fast-action shoot and seeing the teams from Israel and Jordan. He says, “Having expert marksmen pointing loaded automatic weapons at you will always make you think twice, even if it’s just paint.”
And, sometimes the perks are nice too. Jeff got to ride in this $170K Tactical Response Vehicle, aptly called the BAT.
In the last few weeks, he’s traveled in and out of state to photograph several different uses of Recon’s products. He worked with the Minneapolis Bomb Squad photographing the robots being used to help identify and scout police scenarios with possible explosives.
The latest shoot took Jeff to Fort Ripley near Brainerd, Minn. with a National Guard Squad. The military uses the Scout XT to help units with reconnaissance missions where they can remotely deploy the robot into buildings, around barriers and in the identification of suspected improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The project was very successful. We look forward to providing Recon Robotics with more great images while they build awareness of their great products.