Please Nominate Me for Best of 225

By Kenneth | Published: February 11, 2010

225 Magazine is now accepting nominations for their annual Best of 225. Please take the survey and nominate me for best visual artist (I think it is on the bottom of page 3). Please note: once you click done you can’t go back and edit your entries. This is just the initial nomination process. It will then be narrowed down to the top 5 in each category and then a second round of voting will take place. So please help me make the list.

Enter Kenneth Wilks as best Visual Artist
Submit your nominations for this years Best of 225

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Nikon Annouces 2 New Wide Angle Lenses

By Kenneth | Published: February 10, 2010

Yesterday Nikon announced the introduction of two new wide angle lenses.
nikon 16-35
This is the new AF-S 16-35 f4G VR. It features a constant f4 through out the zoom range, integrated silent wave auto focus, vibration reduction, and Nikon’s renowned Nano coated ED optics. This lens seems to perfectly positioned to help fill a gap in Nikon’s advanced amateur / pro-summer lineup.

nikon 24 f1.4
This is a lens I’m really excited about. It’s Nikon’s AF-S 24mm f1.4G. Yes that’s right Nikon has finally heard the cry of professional Nikon shooters and started to reinvest in prime lenses. This is an ultra-fast wide-angle prime with integrated silent wave auto focus. I’m really looking forward to getting to try this lens. I only hope its has a longer production life than Nikon’s previous attempt at an ultra-fast wide-angle their venerable 28mm f1.4

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Photography Quote – Gregory Crewdson

By Kenneth | Published: February 9, 2010

crewdson photo
“Every artist has a story to tell and the impossible task as an artist is to express that story visually.”
- Gregory Crewdson

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I’m a serious slacker – sort of

By Kenneth | Published: February 9, 2010

I haven’t posted in the past week, but in my defense life has been crazy. Wednesday and Thursday most of my time was spent preparing for a website update that should happen next week sometime. Friday I spent half of the day at the DMV getting a new license. Finally!!! The second half of Friday I was helping my little sister move into her new apartment in New Orleans. Saturday was a mix of shooting, and staking out my property lines in preparation for construction. Sunday was some bridal consultations, helping a friend cut down some trees and mark out his land, and then the Super Bowl. I have to be honest trying to write everyday has become more difficult than I first imagined. I am finding I’m too busy living my life to actually write about it.

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14-24mm Oh how I want Thee.

By Kenneth | Published: February 2, 2010

nikon 14-24mm
This is the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8G I had the opportunity to borrow one from a fellow photographer last friday, and I am now in love. This lens is AMAZING. It is an ultra-wide zoom that has a crazy 114 degree angle of view. I had to be extremely careful when I was using it to not get my own feet or knees in a shot. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to put this beast through its full paces as we were confined to indoors because of the weather. I’m going to see if I can convince her to lend it to me again on a nice bright sunny day so I can play with it outside.

After having used this thing I am convinced that it has to get moved higher up on my toys I want list.

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Just got WP for my Blackberry

By Kenneth | Published: February 2, 2010

I just got the new Wordpress client for my blackberry and I have to try it out. Hopefully now I can post a bit more often.

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Trash the Dress: Emily Mabile – New Orleans, LA part.1

By Kenneth | Published: February 1, 2010

Saturday was great. I shot an awesome bridal portrait and trash the dress session in New Orleans. This was an all day event between packing, travel, preparation, walking the streets of New Orleans to get to the various locations, and the necessary breaks in shooting for poor Emily to warm up. This girl was a serious trooper. It never got above 50F, the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 mph and she never once complained about being cold despite the fact she was in a halter dress.

I also have to give thanks to my three assistants: Mike Liuzza – a great friend who also happens to be an amazing vocalist and musician from New Orleans; Jarod Normad – a fellow photographer who is doing some pretty cool experimental art photography; and JP Schilling – Mike’s sound man and travel support. With out these guys the shoot would not have gone as smoothly as it did.

And finally I want to give a big thank you to Rick, a street painter in Jackson Square, who painted my human canvas.
new orleans photograher, trash the dress

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Weekend Update

By Kenneth | Published: February 1, 2010

This weekend was a non-stop blur. Friday I had a bridal shoot with Daryl, and I had to edit the and prep the hundreds of pictures from my four corporate jobs earlier in the week. Saturday I woke up early did a little more editing then prepared for my day trip to New Orleans for Emily Mabile’s trash the dress session. Saturday evening was more editing. Sunday guess what – more editing. While I do love the editing process I am starting to understand why other shooters are willing to let an assistant handle this part of their work flow.

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Photography Quote – Joel Peter Witkin

By Kenneth | Published: January 28, 2010

witkin photograph
“Artists are the people among us who realize creation didn’t stop on the sixth day.”
- Joel Peter Witkin

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Weekend Update

By Kenneth | Published: January 25, 2010

I spent the majority of my weekend doing some maintenance on my parents house. It started with a simple enough request. My mom wanted me to hang a door for her. That simple little task turned into a full weekend of fix-its. Including re-tiling a bathroom, and fixing a kitchen sink. It seems I’m just as handy with a wrench or hammer as I am with a camera.

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