First off I want to thank everyone that made it out to the Photo Trekking book release party. We had close to 400 people come through that evening, and I’m honored that that everyone came. We put together a little 2 minute video to recap the night and show everyone else that didn’t come, what they missed.

If you’re interested in the book, and didn’t get a chance to purchase one after we sold them out at the party, you can get more info on the book and links to purchase them here: http://www.phototrekkingthebook.com

You might have saw the photobooth to the side, and we managed to drop about 350 images from that for you all, and a few poloroids. Check them out here: http://bit.ly/FB_PT_PhotoBooth

We were also lucky to have Antwan from ithinkyourswell.com, nyc’s hip event photographer. You can check out his photos here:
http://bit.ly/ithinkyoureswell_nickonken_phototrekking

The video was produced by http://www.reckoningstudios.com/

Download the special On The Road mix tape collaboration with DJ Cosmo Baker: http://bit.ly/OnTheRoad_tapepost

Special thanks to all who contributed:
Space provided by Calumet Photo
The party was produced by Kat at http://www.iwantafternoontea.com/
Art curated by Heart Art
Space design by Christopher Confero
Special DJ’s Cosmo Baker and Johnsville
Charity collaboration with Pencils of Promise
Drink Sponsors:
Beer Lao
Bear Flag
Prometheus Springs
Chairman’s Rum
Food by Asia Dog
Photography by I Think You’re Swell

Thanks to all who entered the Photo Trekking contest. I sent the images in no order to the judges without them knowing the numbers of votes, and out of coincidence or maybe it’s just fate, the winners ended up being in the exact order of number of votes.

The winner is… Alejo Henao.

Alejo wins a trip to New York City for the Photo Trekking book release party, a night stay at the Ace Hotel, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking!

The runners up will also receive a prize. Congratulations to you all for making to the finals.
2nd Place: Nick Keating will receive a 1 hour phone consult and portfolio review with me, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking.
3rd Prize: Stephanie Mcbride, a signed copy of Photo Trekking
4th & 5th Prizes: Annie Fredrigo & Kathyrn Page A signed copy of Photo Trekking

If you didn’t see their photos, click to the previous post here to view them.

Thank you all who participated!

After a month long contest, we had some great entries. Here are the top 5 finalists selected by number of votes. Each contestant was responsible for promoting their entry and securing their votes. The five finalists are now being judged by a team of a few key people. Chris Duggan, a Creative Director at DDB who has art directed a couple campaigns I’ve shot, Jennifer, on of my reps from Greenhouse, Tim Willis my producer, and myself. The images will be judged based off of moment, composition, and overall feeling.

Here are the finalists by number of votes:

Columbia, by Alejo Henao with 475 votes.

Objects in Mirror, by Nick Keating with 427 votes.

Venice Beach, by Stephanie Mcbride with 385 votes.

Redwoods, by Annie Fredrigo with 194 votes.

Journey, by Kathryn Page with 187 votes.

As a reminder, the prizes are as follows.

1st prize: A trip NYC from anywhere in the continental US, and a one night stay at the ACE Hotel in NYC the night of the party, access to the VIP hour of the Photo Trekking release party, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking.

2nd prize: A one hour consult/portfolio review with me over the phone and a signed copy of the Photo Trekking.

3rd-5th prize: A signed copy of Phototrekking.

We’ll announce the winners tomorrow.

Don’t worry contest finalists/winners, your photos won’t be used for anything but the contest. For some reason people have been too protective thinking I’m going to sell the images or something of that nature. It’s purely a contest, and now you’re being featured on my blog.

This month I’m excited to announce the launch of my new educational travel photography book, Photo Trekking. It’s a collection of my travel photographs from around the world and the stories around them. It’s amazing how long it takes to publish a book. Here’s a little background on how the book came about.

Long story short. A couple years ago, I had some travel photo promo books I had done with Blurb. My photography consultant, Amanda Sosa Stone, had used them as examples in her seminars. Randomly enough she was at Photo Plus giving a seminar and an editor from what now is a small publisher called Random House saw the work in book form and got in touch with me about writing a book. Something I was very excited about, it still took us 6 months to write a pitch for it to even get sold in to get published. Come August of 2008, we received great news that the book was greenlit. From there, the March 2009 deadline to write the manuscript and curate the imagery was looming. Amongst the growing business of my commercial photography world, we managed to get everything turned in on time. It’s amazing that from that point of turning in the manuscript and content, it takes one year from that point till the book hits the stands. It has to go through manuscript edits, my approvals of edits, book design/layout, printing in asia, marketing and PR channels, and many other stages that I’m probably unaware of,  which brings us to where we’re at this month: The official release! (oh and forgot to mention the 5 years and 33 countries it took to shoot all the images in the book)

So THAT is why I’m proud and excited to announce the release and release party for Photo Trekking! I’m going to be throwing a release party here in New York City on March 19th. It’s an open invite, but you must RSVP to get in the door and you can do that here:

http://www.nickonken.com/phototrekkingparty/

Photo Trekking is a compilation of the work I’ve shot all around the world from my non-profit adventures, to my short stint of living in Paris. It’s mostly comprised of photos, but in addition to that, I’ve written stories around the images and have a few chapters with my shooting methods and lots of tips.

To see more on the book and/or pre-order it check out the book page: http://www.phototrekkingthebook.com

Lighting Essentials has written a nice little review of the book here.

This morning I've embarked on a journey to a far away land (from New York) to a little country we know as Laos, where I'll be joining my friend Adam Braun, the director of an organization called Pencils of Promise. An organization that I truly believe is a great non-profit model that builds sustainable schools for kids in small villages. So many organizations have unsustainable models that in the end create a mindset of dependency (an in-depth conversation to have) which  is even more harmful to a social ecosystem. This minute and a half video has a quick fun overview of how the organization works and it's mission.

http://www.pencilsofpromise.org

I'm a believer in giving back as much as possible especially to be blessed with a career/dream job as I have. It's a goal of mine to be able to collaborate and do at least one non-profit job per year. What goes around comes around. I would encourage you to give back using the talent's and skills you have, whatever that may be.

My homie Jeremy Cowart has a great project on 12.12.09 called the Help Portrait. By now you may have already heard of it. A great way to get involved in something bigger than ourselves and give back. http://www.help-portrait.com/

Stay tuned for some blog updates and images from Laos