Hello Yama. Here is a little bit about me:

Hi, I’m Ken Heinbecker.

I grew up on both of Canada’s coasts, in the jungles of Borneo and the forests of the Yukon. Just a regular kid who liked camping, fishing and looking for sasquatch.

I came of age forest fire fighting out of Smithers BC. I drove 4x4s up overgrown mountain roads, melted the soles off my boots, fell many trees with my trusty chainsaw and begrudgingly operated the occasional winch.

I left the forest and after earning a business degree at UofC. I spent almost a decade rising to VP of Sales and Marketing at the custom art and architecture manufacturing company: Heavy. The Big Head at the Bow Building, the Big Blue Ring near the airport and the Columbia Icefield Skywalk are some of the cool projects I had a hand in. 

My career was going as well as a thirty year old could hope but I was suppressing a voice in the back of my head whispering for change.

One fairly typical day at an office in Mississauga everything changed. I was waiting for architectural drawings to appear from the printer and I was slightly dreading the stop and go taxi ride into the grind of downtown Toronto. Before me appeared a fellow about 40 years my senior. He had the same job. He didn’t have much hair or muscle. He was also waiting for architectural drawings from the printer before beginning the crawl into downtown. 40 years of printers, and rush hours, and fluorescent lights flashed before my eyes and I decided to make the switch.

Armed with a garage sale camera (featuring a few burnt out pixels and a cheap lens) I stepped out into the uncertain realm of creative freelance work.

It was 2017. My first gig was with a startup within ATB called Boostr. I was hired to make one, then five, then eventually 35 videos showcasing stories within Calgary’s entrepreneurship scene. I had almost zero experience with a camera or video at this time. The camera work needs work. The sound and the color were also sub-professional but I learned a lot really fast and the stories we told always seemed to work out great. Ultimately I am proud when I look back on it.

In the years since, I have shot headshots and portraits, fashion and events but the vast majority of my work has been product and lifestyle photography for e-commerce brands. For about the last 5 years I have been working almost exclusively with a group of European entrepreneurs who sell home decor and kid products in the US. I have helped grow their brands from 5 figures to almost $80 million US in revenue. I book locations, hire models, purchase and style props and produce a large volume of work. I have a fantastic relationship with my clients (they recently flew me to the mediterranean for food and fitness on the beach).

Over the last few months AI has gotten really, really good at doing commercial photography. A photoshoot that used to take a few days and few thousand dollars can now be completed with the click of a button and a few dollars in credits. Needless to say, its time for another pivot. I personally use Weavy to stay on top of the technology (a node based system that links most generative AI models together) and I am excited to see what the next generation of visual storytelling will look like.

Today I wake up excited to create; maybe a bit like Jiro and his obsession with Sushi. If this opportunity with Yama hadn’t come along I would be working towards wrapping my sales, marketing, photography and videography talents into a package to service local construction companies. I am not perfect but I am useful and exactly where I’m meant to be.