Gold Images Photo

Welcome to Gold Images Inc., a Photography, Brand Management and Corporate Identity Services Company

About Us

Allen Utzig founded Gold Images, Inc. after a long career in the insurance industry. He retired as the Senior Vice President in charge of workers’ compensation assigned risk plans at Berkley Risk Administrators Co.

While Al is well known for his expertise in workers‘ compensation, he is less well known for another set of skills. He is an accomplished writer, having published articles in national magazines and trade journals. To complement his writing, Al took up photography and to hone those skills, he studied and participated in photographic workshops conducted by the likes of John Shaw, America’s foremost landscape phothographer and author, Tim Cooper and Doug Johnson from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, master nature photographers Charles Glatzer and Robert Glenn Ketchum.

He founded Gold Images Photography to help others learn nature and landscape photography and to help them publish their photos and articles. He has led photo workshops to Minnesota’s beautiful North Shore.

In an effort to make his own photography stand out from the crowd, Al used his photographic images to create slideshows and videos. He won first place in the first contest he entered; a national competition sponsored by Photodex Corporation.

In his role at Berkley, he often met with customers and prospective customers. Wanting a way to leave a lasting impression, he created shows that left the customer with a mental image of the company that the customer was not likely to forget. Gone were PowerPoint presentations. They were replaced with three minute slide shows that communicated to the customer, using original photographs, text and music to deliver the message. The customer or prospective customer learned who the company was, what services it provided, reasons to select the company and evidence of exceptional performance...Done. Meeting over.

With the advent of digital photography, it became much easier, faster and less costly to develop photographic presentations. No longer were darkrooms and expensive audio studios needed to effectively communicate messages using visual and audio media. As others saw his shows and their ability to communicate simple, yet powerful messages to the customer for a reasonable investment, business owners engaged him to create shows for them. Now, developing corporate and brand identity shows has become a staple of Gold Images, Inc.

In addtion to producing logos and brand identities, Al leads photographic workshops and works as a freelance writer. While he doesn‘t actively market his photographs, he does sell any photo on the website for a flat $75 plus the cost of shipping.

Al earned his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He also studied at the Carlson School of Management MBA program at the University of Minnesota.

He founded Northwest Business Systems, a computer software company in Portland, Oregon in 1983 and after the company was acquired by Peregrin Financial Technologies he started another company. National Medical Review Services, Inc., provided workers’ compensation medical bill review services, peer-to-peer chiropractic reviews and chiropractic independent medical examinations.

Married for over 40 years, Al has two children and six grandchildren.

Allen Utzig

There are a lot of great photographers in the world but most never get recognized for their work. Here are a few websites that will impress. I met Andy Richards on the Scenes of Vermont website where he is the moderator of the photography forum, and an outstanding photographer.

Mahesh Thapa and I bumped into each other when we both stopped to shoot a curve in the road at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont during the foliage season. His website is as creative as his photography.

David Barthel and John Caughlan were shooting the centennial celebration at Split Rock Lighthouse along Minnesota’s North Shore as I was. I thought their photography was exceptional.

Some photographers are well recognized and for good reason. Fred Miranda has an extraordinary site that includes forums, equipment reviews and articles about all kinds of photography subjects. Other great photo sites include The Luminous Landscape and NatureScapes.net.