Late last year I worked with The Lavidge Company on an advertising campaign for a new client, United Rentals. Upon seeing the comps that the creative team had put together I was pretty excited. It’s not everyday that a client green lights a project to be shot in black and white.

I approach all of my shoots with a good amount of planning to ensure that I am thoroughly prepared for the entire length of the production. But I think it’s fair to say that I took the planning phase for this shoot to a whole new level. Why? Well, this was the first time that I would be working with background plates that were shot by someone else. Would I have preferred to have photographed every element represented in this campaign: Of course. But I accepted the challenge and moved forward. For neither time, permits or budget would have allowed us to travel to all of the locations represented in the comps. So it made sense for the agency to purchase stock images of active construction sites.

 Here’s a gallery of the final images as they appear in the beautifully designed booklet that the team at Lavidge put together.

And here are the comps that were provided by the agency during the pre production phase

These are the standard production books that I create for all of our commercial shoots

The first part of the production saw us spending three days in studio. One day for pre light and two days to shoot the talent. We photographed each subject in a hero position as well as a secondary pose to fill out the backgrounds with multiple workers and/or United Rentals sales reps.

By the time we arrived at the studio I had already compiled numerous notes in an Evernote document on which focal length and time of day the background plates might have been photographed. I would then try and match those settings – on set –  through both my lighting choice and lens selection. It was nice to have a day to test it all out with my assistants.

Here’s a few of our notes – lighting diagrams from that day:

I dug the challenge of molding the light around the subject to match the mood of the background plates. 

I purchased a few large bags of dirt for the subjects to stand on so we could see how their shadows fell. That would give us a better understanding if we needed to recreate them in post.

Janet – my old studio manager – was the digital tech for both the studio and location shoots. She was able to create on set composites for the client to see.

The second half of the production saw us on location shooting multiple scenarios of client/customer interaction. As well as shooting clean plates of all types of construction gear that would be added to the images. I’m not gonna lie…it was a bit strange to photograph a tractor but once we placed it in the composite it looked great.

Here’s a sample of some of the isolated elements that were used in the final product. Talent shot in studio and equipment captured on location

Photo assistants Caleb, Jason and Chris rocking the crazy bright vests that we all had to wear while on location. Do be jealous…you know you want one.

Even Janet had to rock the vest under the production tent

The last set up required a large, overhead image of the equipment yard. We started out in a lift that went up about 30 feet but it wasn’t quite high enough. As you can see in the second shot, we’re 80 feet up in the air. It was freakin’ cool up there and I didn’t want to come down. Not a bad way to wrap the shoot.

The post United Rentals Advertising Campaign appeared first on Jeff Newton Photography.

I am honored to have an image featured in ”The Big Book of Hacks“. A new book published by Popular Science. 

The image was originally published in the May 2012 issue of Popular Science magazine.

The book is essentially a DIY guide for how to make the coolest stuff you’ve ever seen. And there are some crazy inventions in this book.

NOTE Make sure to click HERE to visit see the original article as well as a video of this crazy – tilting – light flashing – ping pong table.

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Tony Hawk, April 2007

I posted a ‘Throwback Thursday” image of Amare Stoudemire on my social media sites last week. It seemed to be received well, so I thought I would do it again. As I was deciding on who to showcase this week I came across my images of Tony Hawk and thought he would be cool to feature. But as I was deciding on which image to post, I realized I had never had a chance to show any of the 6×7 or 4×5 film scans I had shot of him. I had only ever shown one diptych taken digitally. So here’s a quick little gallery of some of the images I shot – both film and digital.

I hate to admit this, but I rarely if ever bring a film camera on set these days. Back then I was still making my transition to digital so for this assignment I shot with the following:  Canon digital – Mamiya RZ Pro II – Type 55 and Fuji chrome 4×5 large format film. I miss those days…

Tony was a cool guy to shoot and I have to admit I was a little ‘star struck’ when I shook his hand. Which is crazy since I never feel that way around celebrities/athletes as I’m shooting them. As a child, I was into skating and freestyle bike riding so that must have somehow stuck with me…who knows.

I’ll never forget this part… Before I could be approved for the assignment, his publicist needed to see some of my work. Thankfully, I had just photographed a few other celebrities and athletes so I was approved but I’ll never forget my first call with her. She said that her favorite images of him were the ones that Annie Leibovitz took for his ‘Got Milk‘ campaign. So, you know…no pressure. Oh man…I was stressed after that call. But I’m happy to say that she dug the images once she saw them.

We shot this at his offices somewhere outside of San Diego. During one of our set changes, he started staking on the ramp – in his full suit – and he was rockin’ it. I’m not going to lie, both my assistant and I paused for a moment to take it in.

The post From the archives – Tony Hawk 2007 appeared first on Jeff Newton Photography.

Self Portrait, December 2012

I’m excited to announce that I have signed up for the Agency Access Campaign Manager Pro program. It’s a 15 month long marking campaign that goes beyond the standard mailing lists and postcards to working with a team of consultants, designers and cold call experts. Its not cheap but I felt it was worth giving it a shot.

One of the first things they ask of you do is to compile as many images as possible for the consultant to get a feel for your body of work. I must say, the act of digging through your archives and revisiting past shoots is a rather surreal experience. On one hand, you see all that you’ve accomplished. Yet on the other, you immediately notice the work that’s missing. From the jobs you didn’t get, the shoots that didn’t go as planned to the ideas that stayed in the journal and were never acted upon.

A grid of some of the images that I delivered to the consultant. 

Another part of the process is to write an essay on where you see your career now as supposed to where you would like to be in the next two years. This one took some time. And also screwed with my head a bit….

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s important that we self analyze if we truly hope to better ourselves. And that’s where I’m at in my life. I desire to be the best at what I do and photography is the one thing I am certain I do well.

But being a ‘good’ photographer doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful career. There are so many additional elements beyond the image that are necessary to make that happen.

I’m excited to be starting this program at the beginning of a new year. It’s the perfect time to refocus my efforts at building a better presence in the LA market. I’m not going to lie…it’s freakin’ hard to stand out in a place as saturated as this one. But I know it’s possible and I’m a very driven individual.

So here I am: Declaring that 2013 is the year that I truly challenge myself in every way possible. From physical to mental to spiritual. And I will not allow this to be a ‘lost year’.

This will be the year that Los Angeles knows I’m here to stay. So here’s to rockin’ out some crazy cool images in 2013.

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Allow me to introduce you to Eddie – aka – Mr. Five Dollar Guy.

Eddie is a regular around the Silver Lake neighborhood and as you can see, is a rather dapper individual. I noticed him as I was leaving Intelligentsia Coffee after a a long journaling session so I approached him, introduced myself and asked if I could take his portrait.

Thankfully, he agreed. So I pulled my Fuji X Pro 1 out and took a few frames. I then spoke with him for a few moments after, when he told me the craziest of things…he’s homeless. That is correct. This man – who is dressed to the nines at all times – is homeless. By choice. He even directed me to watch a news piece that tells his story that explains his ‘Five Dollar Guy” name. He told me of how he lives a stress free life with no bills or worries in the world. I was blown away. I was always intrigued as to what his story was but I would have never guessed that. You can view it HERE.

And there lies the beauty of photography…The ability to meet a person with such a large personality that gives of their time, allows you to photograph them and in turn share that moment with everyone else. I dig that.

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I am proud to present a new body of self commissioned work photographed on November 3rd, 2012.

My reasoning behind this shoot:
As a photographer, I must consider that unless the end buyer is confident that I can shoot the particular style their client is looking for, they may be reluctant to hire me. It took me a while to understand that, but it’s the truth. So after looking through my current body of work, I realized that I needed to add more images that showcase my studio lighting capabilities.

And here’s the craziest part of it all…we shot this at my studio. It’s not like I needed to go and rent a studio for the day. I have one, directly in the heart of Hollywood. But as a freelance photographer, you shoot where you’re commissioned. And more often than not, that’s on location or out of state. And as you can see from my current portfolio, I love walking into an unknown location where you need to search to find the right shot. But I also love the challenge of shooting in studio. Simply because you are forced to create the atmosphere and build light out of nothing in a white cove. You don’t have the sun there to act as your lighting tech, adding reflections and shadows all around your location.

Now comes the hard truth: A shoot on this scale is not going to be a cheap. I had to consider the cost associated with this type of production. I would need to hire models, a stylist, hair/make up and assistants. Oh, and I’ll need to feed everyone. Then I had to ask myself: Do I drop a couple thousand dollars into new gear….or new work? Seeing that I’ve already purchased new gear…it’s was now time to put my money in front of the camera.

I partnered up with Georgie Perrins, a fashion stylist that I recently met through a mutual friend. Thankfully, we were both needing more commercial studio work in our portfolios. She recommended Veronica Sinclair who we then brought on for hair and make up.

I reached out to some modeling agencies and gave them my budget per model, knowing that I was looking to book three total. We ended up casting the women from FORD LA and the male from LA Models. They were all true pros and rocked it in front of the camera.

Lastly, I have to give a shot out to my friend and fellow photographer, Juan Luis Garcia for coming in and rocking out some amazing behind the scenes footage. I wasn’t able to fit everything in the edit but I do feel that he captured all of the hard work that everyone put into this shoot.

No matter how digital my world has become I still rely on a yellow notepad for my daily “to do lists” and lighting notes

Gear Used:
Camera: 2 – Canon 5D Mark III bodies
Lenses – 35mm – 50mm – 85mm primes
Capture: Lightroom 4
Lighting: Profoto
Diffusers: Elinchrom Octabank, Elinchrom Rotalux 39″, Profoto White Beauty Dish, 4×8 foam core
Cables: Tether Tools – the best tethering cables I’ve used.

The post New Self Commissioned Work appeared first on Jeff Newton Photography.

So technically, I didn’t win an award – but my images did. The photo editor of the Wall Street Journal emailed me a few weeks back (yes, I know I’m very late with this post…) to let me know that my images of “The Picasso of Pumpkin Carving”  won an “Excellence in Photography” award by the Society of News Design (SND).

I have to admit, when I first received the assignment to photograph a pumpkin carver in Arizona…I didn’t know what to expect. That is, until I saw the work of Ray Villafane. Do yourself a favor and check out his work. It’s simply amazing.

Check out the gallery below.

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October 14th, 2012 Update: In honor of Felix Baumgartner’s live attempt to make his historic jump I am re posting this. You can view his live attempt HERE.

Originally Published on April 4th, 2012.

In late January I was commissioned to do a photo shoot at the Redbull Startos lab for Popular Science. My assignment was to document the most advanced space suite ever built. Felix Baumgartner will be wearing this suit as he makes his historic free fall jump from 120,000 feet in the stratosphere sometime later this year.

It was an honor to meet the people that are working on this project. As well, it was truly amazing to see all the crazy stuff they had going on there. Take for example the…oh crap…I can’t say more. Both my assistant and I had to sign NDA’s (non disclosure agreements) on some of the additional stuff that was going on there. I wasn’t allowed to photograph anything beyond my assigned shoot. Which I respected.

One thing that I can talk about – but could not photograph – is the pod that Felix will be taken to the edge of the stratosphere in for this jump. You can see images of it on their website. They allowed me to sit inside of it and then walked me through the entire process, including what is going through his mind as he prepares to disconnect himself form the internal air supply, then step out on the ledge and jump in an attempt to become the first person to break the speed of sound with their body alone. I would be freaking out if I had to look straight down 120,000 feet back to earth. But that is why I am the photographer and he is the one doing the jump.

This was definitely one of those shoots where I felt blessed to have the job I do. To be able to go into a completely foreign environment and meet some amazingly talented people who are passionate about a project. I dig that drive that pushes you. Especially the kind that sends you to the stratosphere.

You can see the two page spread (above) in the May 2012 issue of Popular Science.

The post Re Post: New work for Popular Science appeared first on Jeff Newton Photography.

 My new Canon 5D Mark III

This serves as a follow up to an earlier post, The Hype of the ‘New Camera’.

I recently decided to sell my main camera body, the Canon 1Ds Mark III. A powerful camera that I owned since it’s release in November 2007. I was sad to let it go but felt it was time to move on to a newer system.

Here’s a brief list of why I decided to sell:
1. Lack of HD capabilities. Both the 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III shoot full 1080p HD.
2. Unimpressive low light capabilities. In the studio, at 160 ISO…the 1Ds was king. But when I needed anything beyond 640 ISO I would immediately grab my 5D Mark II. 
3. Older imaging technology. Period.
4. Lack of resale value: Due to this being an older generation, pro level camera that did not shoot HD, the sooner I sold it the better. And here’s the sad truth: I originally purchased this camera for $8000.00. When I sold it, all I could get was $2500.00. Crazy.

My old 1Ds Mark III

There are rumors that Canon will be announcing another Pro body camera like their new 1D X with a high megapixel count in the 30-40MP range. One can only hope….

Moving on.

I thought I would try something new for this here blog. But in no way is this meant to be a ‘camera review’. There are far too many cats that do that for living and I have no freakin’ desire to be one of them. If that’s what your looking for then you should probably visit dpreview.com

That said, here are some of my initial reactions to the 5D Mark III

- When I held the 5D Mark III in my hands, it finally felt like a ‘Pro’ body camera. Having owned both the 5D and the 5D Mark II, I have watched this series evolve. It might be due to the fact that my main camera system was the 1Ds or that I came from shooting with Hasselblads and Mamiya RZ’s but the Mark II always felt a bit ‘prosumer’. Thankfully, I didn’t get that feeling this time around. In fact, the more time I spend with this camera the less I miss my 1Ds….and that says a lot.

- The focusing system has been greatly improved. Coming from the days of large format film cameras, the concept of multiple focusing points were non existent. The new 61 point focusing system on this camera is simply amazing. Let’s just say it’s hard to go back and pick up my 5D Mark II - with it’s 9 point system – after looking through the screen of the Mark III.

- The 3.2 inch screen is stunning. Images truly pop off of it.

- The ability to have virtual grid marks in the viewfinder is a nice touch that reminds me of my large format cameras.

- Being able to compare 2 images side by side is a great feature that I can see myself using regularly. (see image below) I recently wrapped a three day ad campaign where this function was used numerous times over. The campaign called for both print and motion and at times we fed a live HD signal from my Zacuto EVF to a 32″ HD Monitor for the clients in video village. We were then able to show them subtle lighting adjustments side by side for approval. Thats pretty freakin’ cool.

- The ability to rate/star your images in camera and then have them sync with Lightroom is a great addition. Especially when shooting on location and/or when your not tethered to a computer. I cannot remember how many times I’ve said, “Remember image number….” Now that can all be done in camera. Very cool.

- The low light capabilities are freakin’ amazing. Period.

- The locking mode dial is a smart improvement. The lack of a lock on the 5D Mark II was, at times, frustrating. We eventually placed a small strip of red tape on the camera body and one on the mode dial so they would always line up. If they didn’t, that meant it had been bumped and that I wasn’t shooting in Manual anymore. Cut to today, and immediately after purchasing the 5D Mark III, I set it to Manual and will hopefully never have to touch that dial again.

- The ability to shoot in 60p – slow motion – in HD mode. A feature that was sadly missing in the 5D Mark II.

- A dedicated Start/Stop dial. Nice.

- As noted in the image at the bottom of this post: There have been huge improvements in feeding out the signal to external monitors. The differences are as follows:
Mark II: In preview mode you are seeing a full 1080p HD signal feeding out to your external monitors. As soon as you hit REC – the signal disappears for 4 seconds while it is being converted and downgraded from 1080p to 480p. (it is still recording in full HD, you are just viewing an SD reference)
Mark III: In preview mode you are seeing a full 1080p HD signal feeding out to your external monitors. As soon as you hit REC you are immediately recording  and ready to slate – with your signal still being fed to your monitors at 1080p.
NOTE: I never realized how long 4 seconds can feel until you’ve got 20+ people on set and your doing 50+ takes. Thank God I do not have to deal with that anymore…

I think I’ll end it there. I’m sure I overlooked some other cool new features…but like I said, this is not a review. These are just a few of the new options/upgrades that stood out to me – a working photographer  who will be implementing them on my sets.

There are, of course, other people who will find a plethora of flaws with this camera, but that’s not the point of this post. Is this the perfect camera? No feakin’ way. But that camera doesn’t exist. These are just tools that help us do our job.

That said, I dig my shiny new tool.

One of my favorite new features: The ability to compare two images at the same time.

A full 1080p HD signal being fed to a 32″ HD monitor…even after hitting REC.
(The 5D Mark II would downgrade the signal to 480p when you hit REC)

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I present our latest edition of Americano Mondays from Lola Coffee in downtown Phoenix. They are located in the historic Gold Spot building which also houses The Pita Jungle. (one of my favorite restaurants that also catered our wedding) Their building also happens to sit next to the lofts we used to live in, which was rather nice.

What began as a coffee cart in 1993 has grown into a beautifully designed coffee shop owned by Daniel Wayne.  He is well known for roasting organic, fair trade beans on site. And if you happen to visit during a roast the whole building (and surrounding area) smells amazing.
A cool, final note: In 2003 he won the Millrock Latte Art Competition in Las Vegas.
Here’s some imagery from an afternoon I recently spent there.

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