You know how some people are always looking a ‘sign’.
Well, this is the sign that I see every time I leave my studio.
I took this photo from the middle of the street, just outside of our parking lot.

I dig that it’s there, because it serves as a kick in the butt – slash – daily reminder of where I am so I better not be slacking.

It’s a humbling feeling to move from one market where you’re established to another where you are the unknown.
But I also love the challenge…

- Make sure to watch in HD by selecting the quality at the bottom of the video -

I recently put together my first Director’s Reel to showcase my commercial – motion work in one visual piece. Check it out.

I wanted to share some new tear sheets from the October issue of Golf Magazine.
The first two images are featured in their “No. 1 People Portfolio”.

Sugar Ray Leonard
This was my second shoot with him and as I’ve stated before, he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. This was also my first shoot at my new studio in LA.

Lindsey Vonn
This was a pretty cool shoot that included our props stylist making fake snow on set. Lindsey was totally down and was hitting the snow directly at me. Crazy thing is…the snow was actually cold when it hit me. I don’t get it. Very cool woman, I would definitely dig working with her again.

Robert A. Eckert, CEO of Mattel
This image was not part of the portfolio section but does appear in the same issue. In all honesty, this was a pretty straight forward shoot on our end. I don’t want to take any credit away from the cats over at Mattel for the digital post production work they did. We shot Robert in various ‘super hero’ inspired positions. We then shot the hat, glove and golf bag all separately and then handed the images off.
Robert was a nice guy and he totally got into character. I mean, come on man… hes’ the CEO of Mattel and he gets to be his own golfing superhero. If he wasn’t down with that then I don’t know what!

We apologize – we  just noticed that some of our posts below are missing their video content. For some reason we are having issues embedding videos from Vimeo right now.
Not fun.
Until we can figure out what is going on you can either visit our main site:
JeffNewton.com or Click through to our Vimeo Channel to view our video content. 

UPDATE
We are slowly re formatting the videos so you should already see some embedded back in the posts. Hopefully all will be back up by end of day tomorrow. I appreciate the patience. Thanks, Jeff.

I recently had the honor of being accepted into a Masters Portraits class to study under the photographers Norman Jean Roy and Christian Witkin  at the Santa Fe Workshops.
- If you are not familiar with their work please click through their names -

In the hope of completely immersing myself in the experience, I decided to stay on campus instead of booking myself at an off site hotel. I also limited my time online and banned myself from distracting daily routines like Facebook & Twitter. I pretty much shut myself off from the outside world, with the exception of speaking to my wife, agent and studio manager.

One of the added benefits of attending this workshop was being surrounded by 24 other photographers from all different countries, backgrounds and photographic styles. Yet all shared a common desire to learn from these master photographers…well, most of us, but that’s another story.

I can clearly state that I was humbled to spend an entire week studying under both Norman and Christian. Both are masters at what they do and for them to give their time as they did was a blessing. Coming into this I had a great amount of respect for both of them and this only strengthened that. They were open to our questions and gave very honest answers. That’s all we can ask of each other.

One part of the workshop that I really dug was the daily critiques from the assignments we were given. Far too often, as photographers, we live within our own head. Rarely do we have our images directly challenged by our peers. To hear how others feel about your work – be it good or bad – is a powerful thing. For through this process you either defend your decision of creating a particular image or accept their critique and hopefully then, see why it didn’t work and push yourself further. I dig being challenged like that….it forces you to better yourself.

I’m not sure what else to say other than I am happy to have been accepted in the Santa Fe Workshops. It was a week where I was very focused on a singular goal of learning from two Masters in a field I have dedicated my life to for the past 15 years. That in itself made it worth every moment.

I recently had the privilege of being accepted to the NYC Fotoworks Portfolio Review. This is great opportunity to meet with the art directors, art buyers and agencies that I hope to work with one day. It also allowed me to meet some of the people I have previously worked with yet never met face to face.

By the end of the week I had completed 18 separate meetings. Twelve of those at the portfolio review with six additional throughout the week that either my agent or I set up independently.

Looking back I feel good about how the meetings went. Even the ones that didn’t go over as well as I had hoped since it allowed for a critique from someone who has never seen my work. This in itself is a rather valuable element to the growth of an artist.

I do have to say that my favorite of them all was the one where the art buyer sat down with me and the first thing she said was, “Why am I meeting with you again…I normally don’t meet with photographers any more…Who’s your agent”. Gotta love that.

Normally while traveling for work my wife can’t come with me since she’s either in grad school or it’s not in the budget/timeline. But this time around she was able to and let’s just say she was the one that got the full ‘vacation experience’ out of this trip. While I was out running around NY taking taxi’s and subways to make my meetings  she was shopping and visiting all the amazing galleries that NY has to offer. No fair…next time I want to see the galleries.

Below is a rather limited gallery of random images from the trip. I decided to travel light so I didn’t bring any of my large DSLR’s. I ended up just bringing my GF1. This camera continuously amazes me with the quality of images I am able capture with it.
Thanks to everyone that met with me…if you ever read this…and I do have to say that it was also great to meet some other amazing photographers who are also doing their thing.

The entrance to the studio for todays shoot.

This is the tale of a photo shoot disaster that was thankfully adverted. It all begins…

A few weeks back my agent Steve Bishop was contacted by a Chicago based ad agency inquiring about commissioning me to shoot a one day – in studio campaign in LA. We went through the standard process of submitting an estimate…negotiating…conference calls and in the end we were awarded the job.
Very cool.

- Click through to continue reading about our crazy adventure -
Read more ›

It’s been a while since I’ve written a substantial post on this crazy blog of ours. As life happens certain things tend to get left behind. Unfortunately this blog has been neglected as of late. I’ll try and use this post as a way to get caught up on what we’ve been up to lately:

NEW CAMPAIGN FOR BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD
We just wrapped production on a new campaign for Blue Cross Blue Shield where I directed numerous :15 and :30 second broadcast commercials as well as shot a five image print campaign. The spots are just starting to run and hopefully we’ll have them on our site as soon as we have permission to release them. This project also represented the first time I had the chance to direct a Spanish language commercial. Half of the campaign was English and the other half Spanish. We had a translator on set but this was also a kick in the butt to really, truly learn Spanish. No excuses. It’s time. Especially since my wife is a Latina.

ANOTHER SHOOT WITH STEVE NASH
We had our fifth shoot with Steve Nash a few weeks back for Luyou, a Chinese clothing line that he is sponsored by. As he always does, he rocked it in front of the camera. Lighting for this shoot was a bit challenge since the sun chose not to play on our side that afternoon. By that I mean the call time was 12pm…outside…did I mention I went back to AZ for this shoot. Nothing a 12×12 silk and some powerful lights can’t overcome. Here’s a few behind the scenes images from the shoot.

FEATURED IN PDN MAGAZINE
This one is pretty cool so I apologize that this is coming late. We were recently included in the April issue of PDN. The article was titled, “How Creatives Hire Photographers for Video Assignments“. Melissa McFarlin the Senior Art Director at The Lavidge Company was interviewed on why she chose to work with us on the Fox Sports Network project where I directed numerous commercials and shot a six image print campaign.

As mentioned in an earlier post, “PDN feature article on Jeff” PDN had already featured a write up on us regarding this project on their website. This was a follow up on that story but this time they approached it from the clients perspective. Which was cool to read.

A lot has changed in the world of commercial photography over the past few years. More and more I am being commissioned to shoot the print campaign as well as direct the motion aspect for either web or broadcast. I dig the challenge of taking on these projects especially since they require so much more production and involve elements that at first felt foreign. I had pursued directing in the past but it had been a good 3-4 years since I had directed anything. Nothing on the level of what we’re doing now.

This past year has definitely been a huge adjustment in many ways. From moving to Los Angles yet  returning to Phoenix constantly for work. Being signed by an agent. Truly pursuing work as a director. All while fighting to remain creative in the process. That might sound strange but it’s true. The further you dive into the production end of work as well as running a business the harder it is to dedicate personal time for the art of this business.I need to continue to search for that balance and shoot more personal work that reminds me why I do this. And yet here I am, 33 years old and I still have no freakin’ idea what balance means. Crazy.

- Taken on my 32nd birthday. A rare on camera smile captured as my friend Anthony was pretending to be me behind the camera -

It’s my birthday this week. I turn 33 on February 4th and I am going to do something that I have never done here before:
I am asking YOU for a gift.

I am asking for your help in building a water well that will give clean drinking water to 250 people for 20 years. Our goal is to raise $5000 over the next 90 days. Yes, I know that’s a lot of money but I have to believe we can do this.

My wife and I have set up a campaign through the organization, Charity:Water where you can donate directly to our project:
Jeff and Leigh Anna’s First Well

Any amount will help us reach our goal…$5, $10, $20 or more. The great thing about this organization is that 100% of your donation goes to building the well.
…and if it makes you more comfortable you can give anonymously.

This is something I am truly asking you to consider. If you are reading this you have most likely never had to walk miles to find water for your family. But there are a billion people who live that life every single day. We can change that.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope that you will at least consider giving.

I am also asking anyone who can help to PLEASE re post this on their Facebook page, blog or website. It’s going take everyone’s help to reach this crazy goal.

If you’ve never heard of Charity:Water please watch the video below.

Click here to read the article

We are honored to featured on the cover of PDN Online in an article concerning the still to motion convergence. They specifically cover the new challenge for photographers moving into the role of director…collaborating in the image capturing process with a DP – director of photography.
I could elaborate more but it’s probably best to read the article. The writer, David Walker will most certainly do a better job in telling the story.

The image from the campaign that is featured in the article.