Winston Zhou Photography (2024)

26/11/2024

study on

blinked and suddenly realized that we're almost through November. it's around this time when i really like to get into the wibbly wobblies of how i want to approach my personal annual photo review. there are no real rules, and no real requirements beyond the photos being captured in this current year (be it, literally, or emotionally). (emotionally, meaning that a set of photos taken on january 2rd before it's sunk in that we're in the next year might get included in the previous years review. time isn't real)
on one hand, it always becomes such a large undertaking because of these additional expectations i set for myself to up the ante every year and i hate how it feels like a manufactured production as opposed to an organic reflection. on the other hand, it does give me an excuse to try something new and feel like im putting out something polished. there's value in both, but ultimately i'm constantly pushing myself to stop cutting off a project before it even starts out of fear for not being able to execute it perfectly etc etc. and balancing that with the desire to take my time and release something i can be really proud of. yknow?

in the first few years it was just a photo dump of the best photos from the year. since then it's turned into a photo essay with accompanying commentary of sorts which is fine and good too. last year i tried to do a two part series where i did separate posts for personal vs professional work. i'm not sure exactly what the missing jenny say choir is, but it feels like there's surely something more I can do with the format. but i'm just not sure on what direction to go in right now. thoughts? comments? concerns? complaints? interest in doing your own review? beer recommendations? invitations to holiday parties? holler at me.

also i'm gonna restart my mailing list! it won't be a weekly newsletter, most likely monthly at best. send me a carrier pigeon if you want me to give it a little kiss and if you want in on the action.

shot on:
processed:
1 light setup: the sun
photo by:

21/11/2024

happy happy pub day with !!!

something something......don't talk to papa until he's had his happy time juice. the juice in question: a wonderful beer cocktail at . Thanks for the assignment, !

shot on:
A7iii, 24-70 f/2.8 GM v1
2 light setup:
food styling:
photo by:

31/10/2024

happy halloween this year my costume is "food poisoning victim" LMFAO i woke up at like 5am to the feeling of my stomach churning with the force of an Amish mom making butter for dinner Tonight. but we're still alive, so there's that.

Some new work I got to create with that was featured on / .

Exploring our beloved chili crisp on opposing scales with simple still life studies. i wanted something simple, but quirky to show off the custom design work by .
and on a smaller scale, the ingredient that brings all chili crisps together: the oil. what kind of oil is being used? how much oil is there compared to the solid crunchies?

also a bonus sparkles frame because i am a stage 4 terminal sparkle fan

in more EXCITING news: a few weeks ago I celebrated my birthday and while I forwent the route of a party with friends, the gift i recieved was arguably better than any party that could've been thrown. the original plan was to get some pho and go to a thrift store, find a tacky shirt, and call it a day. INSTEAD, i ended up going home with a frickin 10 CUP ZOJIRUSHI FUZZY LOGIC RICE COOKER. that girl is like $300 and i bought it for $10!!!!!! alexa play Bad Bitch Academy by Paris Hilton.
ya girl loves a deal, and this was a STEAL of a lifetime!!!! haven't had the chance to make any rice cooker meals in it yet but like if anyone has any recommendations i am multiple ear holes open for them.

shot on: sonyalpha
processed: /
2 light setup:
photo by:
design by:

23/10/2024

My good friends at recently took 2nd place as 's "Best Independent Coffee Shop" in the entire US of A! The whole country! That's so incredible ! I'm not sure how many coffee shops there are in the country but there are at least 3, for sure. My first time here was just a short 2 years ago on a crazy first date, and quickly became an absolute cornerstone of my schedule in the logistical, digestive, AND emotional sense.
Like i don't know about y'all but I've never seen another shop with a giant taxidermied Moose named Bruce who I would certainly love to take out on a date if he's ever available on a Thursday night and would be interested in going to get Chinese takeout and squat on a curb in the parking lot as we eat our walnut shrimp, fried eggplant, crab rangoon, spicy green beans, and one pork egg roll as we watch local pigeons strut down the street like they're walking in the Iris Van Herpen SS24 show. i've just never seen that anywhere else. idk about you tho. anyways my favorite order is the iced matcha latte with whatever kind of milk the staff feels good about, and a scone.

anyways I shot these images for them a while back. aren't they cute? go getcha some coffee and show some love. go birds or whatever

shot on: sonyalpha A7iii
processed: and
photo by:

15/10/2024

this was a wonderful afternoon with a wonderful friend. spent like 2 hours gabbing, taking some photos, and gushing over flowers but somehow i remember nothing we spoke about (but also everything, in my internal delusion). perfect day; no notes. more flower photos to come.

in frame:
shot on A7iii
processed: and

long caption yapping for Mx. Algo --
i literally kid you not when i say that i sat in front of my computer for a solid 15 minutes trying to figure out a caption for this post before deleting everything i had written and just resigning myself to writing a complain caption LOL. writing captions was never something that was super difficult for me -- it's literally just a space to blab about things that should otherwise go onto a personal blog. but there's so much stuff that's happened since the last post and this one......it'd be easier to just ease myself back into posting rather than beat myself up about never mustering up the gumption to post some jpgs online. stressing? over social media? preposterous.

21/08/2024

something something something dont talk to me in the morning until i've had my cup of room temp water, pepto bismol, ibuprofen, lexapro, chobani greek yogurt, soy milk with just a little honey, soft boiled egg, 1 shortbread cookie, hairline reconstruction surgery, 25 minute nap, morning bathroom deposit, daily fiber supplements, blueberry scone, 1/8th glass of leftover beer from last night, a quick cry, another cookie, slice of cake, and cup of hojicha.

shot on griii
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01/08/2024

okay i totally meant to post this like a week ago but i accidentally agreed to more than one social activity/week and was contractually forced to take a leave of absence (in the form of lying supine on my couch trying to remind myself what the hell has happened on The Boys in preparation for this newest season).

thank you 10Q thank you to everyone who came to hang out at the first WKND BLEND popup!!!!! such a good good time hanging with .donuts and :>

i do have a few prints that are still available for porchase, so i'll be posting those in batches. this first round will be 11x14s.

in frame: .donuts
shot on ricoh griii
processed: and

18/07/2024

hi hi hej hello

this saturday 07.20.24 i will be at along with .donuts and slingin goodies from 8:30-11:30am!

i no longer sell prints through my online shop but there will be a limited edition run of some of my favorite photos available for yoinking! the earliest birds will get a fun little worm from me for free.99 too 🙂

in unrelated news, i started watching a kdrama again after 10+ years and the way that it has me HOOKED? if you watched Marry My Husband and loved/hated it, i would love to gab about it with you!
(in hindsight, it's not really something i'd rewatch BUT the experience of watching a drama while sipping on some free airplane wine and eating a chunky cookie is unmatched)

30/05/2024

this is very very not too smart of me but recently I did figure out that if I wanted a vietnamese iced coffee in the morning, i didn't have to pour the mix into a cup of hot water from the office keurig and then freeze the cup....i could just pour in a few oz of hot water so that it properly dissolved and then just fill the cup with ice? ???? like OBVIOUSLY?
clearly I am not the brightest fork in the shed. nor am I a real coffee drinker. this has dramatically changed my office life for the better, and simultaneously made my skin much worse because of the insane injection of sugar and caffeine. you win some, you lose some.

Anyways these are some frames from a test shoot with last year. As seen on my 2023 Year-end Review. The Zelda to see the blog post is in my chemistry.

Setup:
Photo by
Shot on A7III, Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Processed in:
Backdrop: Primary Red
2 light setup:
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22/05/2024

a few weeks ago a buncha friends and i made a pilgrimage to LA to celebrate a friends graduation! in the time leading up to the trip, there wasn't a week where i wasn't blowing up the groupchat at some odd hour of the night wondering what kind of camera(s) i should bring on the trip.

like yeah there's something to be said about turning your brain fully off a la jellied toast fall on the floor jelly side down. but also there's part of me that always feels like i should be taking every opportunity i have to make photos, yknow?

in the end i decided to bring my ricoh and my DS and to put 0 effort into taking photos outside of random group selfies. the photos are absolute dog but i don't regret a thing. it was good to have some time off.

instagram auntie algo seems to like when i run my mouth in the caption. here are some frames from some work i did with featuring the wonderful .shop

Setup:
Photo by
Shot on A7III, Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Processed in:
Backdrop: Bone
Props:
2 light setup:
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14/05/2024

two frames from a recent session with .handmade . possibly still available for sale at and if you're a lucky dog.

Setup:
Photo and styling by
Shot on A7III, Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Processed in:
Props sourced from
2 light setup:

30/04/2024

many many things happening all of the time! i'm just trying to get a little caught up on sharing work. at some point the full series will be posted on the blogarama but for now, a couple of my favorite frames from the 2023 review will do.

something i've been trying to grow in the past few months/year is figuring out how to best arrange and show my photos. there's an aspect to art direction that plays a large role in the success of an image, but the presentation of it plays an equally important role. you can only grill a cheese so many ways when posting on instagram, but head on over to the actual blog post to see them in their full context :)

unrelated to anything, but my favorite breakfast the past few weeks has been a cuppa soy milk (not the pre-sweetened kind....it's good but it's way too much sugar), and greek yogurt with apple butter and peanut butter. i get into these greek yogurt phases where i just wanna eat it with everything? roasted veg? herby yogurt dip. granola? plain yogurt with a lil honey. federal taxes? yogurt with a side of 4 beers.

test shoot centered around ramen.
1-3. JIN Ramen
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5. JIN - Shot on RICOH

Setup:
Photo by
Shot on A7III, Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Processed in:
2 light setup:

17/04/2024

we got that new new on the blogalogoaloga! this time we've got dear dear friend and the wonderful contestants from our favorite Baltimore holiday: BLOOM BATTLE !

last night for dinner i had something that i'm quite confident should have sent my spirit to the shadow realm but as we all know: youth is wasted on the young. so here i am. it was air fried potatoes, mozzy, hummus, kimchi, sour cream+chili sauce, a few wood ear mushrooms, and some korean dried squid. my fridge was extremely empty. it was fine. i just need a damn salad.

also if you havent signed up for Ellen's email list yet, get ON it!! i havent read anything on a weekly basis with as much fervor since I was in college and ingesting 98 pages of the assigned reading for a test happening in 45 seconds. a good student, i was not. a fan of the wonderful flower information she drops in every installation, i am.

29/02/2024

something i really put a lot more effort into for this second year-in-review was the color stories between images, and how images fit into a larger gallery as opposed to being a collection of individual pieces.

this was a set of images shot on the ricoh griii. swipe to the end to see how they play together in the actual post. zelda in chemistry (link in bio) to see the full set of my favorite images from 2023.

unrelated to any of that, but i was buying some crafty for a production the other day and was thinking "it's 5 people.....we'll have water but do we need 1 or 2 cases of seltzer?" the correct answer on a physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual level was 2 cases. especially since I touched my water bottle a grand total of one (1) time, and had 7 cans of that delicious sparkling grapefruit/lime essence.

23/02/2024

this past year or so has been a huge period of change in my life. i started eating naan and hummus for dinner a lot more, got a buncha new plants to take care of in lieu of having human children, and started to really dive into food and still life photography having finally gotten access to studio space!

as i mentioned in my year-end review: this year you get not one, not three, but TWO(!) annual reviews! the last one was funky personal work for gregorian new years. this one i'm sharing now for lunar new year is what i'm aiming for in a more professional capacity!
i'm so so so so so grateful to have been able to work with so many incredible, fantastic, juicy, delicious people this past year. let's keep it going for 2024! please check it out on the blogorama!

winstonzhou[dot]com/blog

ever since I took my last self portrait in like....2020 I'd been MEANING to get something updated but somehow things just never quite connected. Until NOW! last weekend and i got together to gab and swap headshots for each other! so so so happy with how it turned out. it was high time for me to get an updated photo -- especially since i've lost 20 inches of hair between 2020 and now.

as seen in this post:
1. egg head photographer available for hire
3. .handmade knives shot at Prop Up Shop
4. 농심 (Nongshim)
5. Object History
6. Ekiben
7. Jinji Chocolate
8. Local Color Flowers

tl;dr -- your local kiwi head shaped photographer has a new post on the blog with his favorite images from 2023. he also has a sultry new headshot. check out the lunar review on the blog.

thanks for a delicious 2023. happy lunar new year.

05/01/2024

hej hi hello! a few years ago i bought this locking cabinet when i was moving to this weird apartment. the landlord was weirdly using our den/guest bedroom as his office and bringing his friends over to party during peak covid times? anyways i didn't trust him at all but also realized that the cabinet was too big to assemble in our space so it literally sat unassembled for 7 months, and even after i moved to a new apartment it remained that way for another year LMAO. anyways a few months ago i finally mustered up the gusto to assemble it!!! woohoo! if i fits, i sits.

but for something that i didn't have to try very hard to muster up the energy for is my annual year-in-review post! every single year I try to do something newfor the post to keep things fresh, and this year is no different. the twist this time around is that im doing it in TWO parts. The first part is up on the blog now! It contains the best of the photos that were shot for personal purposes, or otherwise might not fit into my food/still-life portfolio.

also, as a fun little game for ya: these photos were shot on six (6!!!!!!) different cameras included in this collection. can you tell which ones are which?

the cameras I used:
- Nikon Coolpix S230
- Sony A7iii
- Ricoh GRIII
- Nintendo 3DS
- Fujifilm X-M1
- Fujifilm Quicksnap Flash 400

compared to last year, things were a bit of a whirlwind this time around. and I'm just that much more thankful for every single person who's worked with me, commented on my intelligible posts, given me feedback, shared a meal with me, adjusted my bidet water pressure with me, or supported me in any way. if you'd like to make something awesome together in 2024, please send me a message. my 2024 year in review (part one) is on the blog via my linktree.

i'm gooped, gagged, and grateful.
truly, thank you.

- winston

20/12/2023

hej hi hello no time to write a whole post like normal but look at this BEAUTIFUL cake by !!!!! i was fortunate enough to pick up a slice when she did a pop-up at a few weeks ago! I grabbed the cake, ran home and took like 2 photos before HORFING it down with my dinner. fantastic.

side news: I'm taking my print shop down at the end of the year to shift to a more limited release format. I don't have the capacity to be updating it as much as I'd like, and it's started to feel like more of a hassle than a boon. but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased anything! I literally keep screenshots of you posting them in a folder for when im sad so like y'all are the reason I haven't parkoured off the planet yet 🥺 but i'll be bringing them back at some point :) don't you worry.

alright be safe, drink some water. peace out.

Setup:
Photo by
Shot on A7III, Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Processed in:
1 Light setup from

Winston Zhou Photography