Jeff Newcum Photography - Boston and Metrowest Wedding Photographer » Photographer Stuff

Hurricane or not, I’m shooting this Engagement Session – Nashoba Winery – Bolton, MA

Jeff Newcum — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:37:04 +0000

It was blasted all over the news. A hurricane called Irene was bearing down on the east coast. One of the biggest storms to hit the east coast in history. Wow! Batten down the hatches and hunker down for this? Nah, I had an engagement session scheduled and if my clients, Diana and Bryan, were up for it so was I. We met at Nashoba Winery in Bolton, Massachusetts at about 1pm. By that time the bands of rain were on a 30-40 minute cycle. As I was driving the rain started, I arrived and the rain stopped. We quickly moved through the vineyard and shot some fun images. No sooner was I hitting my rhythm shooting the rain started again. We quickly moved to a dry location, waited a little bit, and headed out in a light drizzle. Yes, I do shoot in the rain. This is why I use professional weather sealed gear.

We came upon a set of apple trees and I had this idea to capture them underneath it. Though, I had to light them to get the clouds to show up in the image. I ran back to my little Smart car, picked a sunflower that was nearby, and grabbed my Cheetah stand with a 580ex fired by the Flex 5. I choose not to use ETTL and went with a manual setting. I find it’s easier after learning DOFE. I setup the flash, fired off a few test shots, and nailed it after 2 shots. Yup, I was pleased with the results and had to chimp a little to show the results. We shot some more but, for me this image was THE image that portrayed their love to me.

Shooting an engagement session is a chance for the clients to get to know their photographer. It’s also a time for the photographer to create unique images and tickle the creative soul. What I learned from the shoot is to never give up come rain or hurricane. Clear the tablet, get to know your clients, and make an effort to create images that represent their love.

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Inspire Boston 2010 | New England Wedding and Portrait Photographers Conference – Concord, MA

Jeff Newcum — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:10:02 +0000

INSPIRE Boston 2010 is halfway done and it’s been a great success from all accounts. This is the first ever INSPIRE Boston mini-conference for professional photographers! This retreat-format conference is hosted by the Boston Photographers Guild and Lens Pro to Go. Here’s some of the after hours fun and excitement that is brought out when the sun goes down. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and the wrap up party will prove to be an amazing event. I can’t wait!!!

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Just signed up for Mystic 5 – Jan 3-5, 2010 – Mystic, Connecticut **Very limited availability, Sign up NOW!** I just signed up...

Just signed up for Mystic 5 – Jan 3-5, 2010 – Mystic, Connecticut

Jeff Newcum — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:19:48 +0000

**Very limited availability, Sign up NOW!**

I just signed up for 3 days of fun at Mystic 5 (a smaller convention in the northeast for portrait and wedding photographers) in Jan 2010! I can’t wait to see Jerry Ghionis, Joe McNally, David Williams, John Michael Cooper (Alt F), David and Quin Cheung, Tricoast, Andy Marcus, Greg Gibson, Michelle Turner, George Weir, Jason Groupp, Storey Wilkins, Andrew Funderburg, Jerome Braga, and the one, the only, the supah suacey Stacey Doyle!!!! Take a look at the schedule, it’s amazing!

I attended Mystic 4 earlier this year and I have to say that I was very impressed with the setup. I had heard about Mystic 4 from the local photographers and they raved about it. I guess I was a bit renascent from attending the bigger conventions but, honestly.. I was blown away. The venue was sweet, the layout of the seminar room was astounding, the speakers were way cool, and offered a plethora of information.

Additionally, the hotel staff were way cool. No bs for shooting indoors, serving myriads of drinks to the wee hours, and tolerating our late night social scene with much patience.

I’d highly recommend Mystic as a regular gathering for those local and from far away. Great job Walter! You really impressed me!

Here’s a taste of the Mytic 4 experience:

Walter van Dusen Mystic 4 extra footage from Vladimir Chaloupka on Vimeo.

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Canon Professional Network – EOS 5D Mark II Masterclass

Jeff Newcum — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:13:37 +0000

I saw this overview of the 5d Mark II on Canon’s Professional Network site today. It’s a great resource to understand the major improvements in the Canon 5 line.

My personal view is that the camera simply rocks!

Canon Professional Network – EOS 5D Mark II Masterclass:

EOS 5D Mark II Masterclass 15:38 David Newton examines the key features of this groundbreaking camera that shoots stills and full HD video.

EOS 5D Mark II – David Newton, CPN’s Technical Editor, explains the major features and technologies in this 21.1 megapixel full frame SLR.

Here’s the link to the page: EOS 5D Mark II Masterclass

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Shootstyle shoot at The Renaissance Hotel – Providence, Rhode Island

Jeff Newcum — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:04:46 +0000

Last weekend a local group of wedding and portrait photographers known as Shootstyle had a shoot at the Renaissance Hotel in Providence, RI. The Renaissance Hotel used to be the Masonic Temple sorta. It was never officially finished and workers for the Masons walked off the job in 1928. The story is here. Inside was pretty sweet and since I’m a long time Rhode Islandah and former Providence resident, I was very intrigued to see it was finally open for business.

You might be wondering about Shootstyle? We’re a group of photographers that share the same deep passion for photography that strive to create imagery that’s highly exceptional, visual stimulating, and most importantly memorable. This shoot consisted of Jamie Wexler, Earl Christie, Michelle Turner, Alicia Williams , Stacey Doyle and myself. I drove down in the morning with a major storm baring down on us. Threatening 9-15 inches of snow or so. Yeah.. Nice! I crossed my fingers, packed the Smart car and headed down to Providence. We photographed some beautiful creations from dress designer Julia Anne Ebel, of Celtic Dragon Dress Designs. Many thanks to makeup artist extraordinaire, Jenny DiMucci, who made our models look sweet!

And a most gracious thanks to our two very patient and beautiful models, Brittany and Kate. They put up with our many locations and shooting environments to allow us to shoot for most of the day. Thank you very, very much!

First off is Brittany

I’ll give ya 10 bucks if you find the blue wall at the Renaissance Hotel

Here’s Stacey and Alicia shooting away.

and here’s Kate

BTW this room we shot Kate in is so amazingly cool. I would completely love to hang there and enjoy some friends, food and drinks.
It was real posh with swanky mood lighting. I think it was called the Temple room and it’s a restaurant at the Renaissance Hotel.

The next set of images are categorized as boudoir. I haven’t provided this type of coverage for my clients….yet. I’d like to put together some boudoir photography packages this year to start offering them in 2010. These type of shots most interest me in the mystery of the subject to a certain degree. I know it may be hard to believe but, I find more interest in images if I’m left questioning or just taking time to follow the lines in an image. Some images are about lighting, some are about textures, and others are about curves. Blah.. blahh.. blahh… okay here’s the images.

Be very careful from here down if your at work.. NSFW!

The next set of images are sort of a tribute to the Travel Shovel Project. It was started by Joel and Rita Wiebner in PA. They bought a shovel off of John Michael Cooper at a DWF Convention shoot for like 5 bucks. They then sent it around the world to photographers that would shoot it in their own style. The shovel made it to Boston and we had some serious fun. The article was picked up by a trade magazine, Rangefinder, and was published last year with some of my images. Pretty Sweet! Seriously.. Woot Woot! Anyways, last year JMC and Dalisa came out to the studio to host their Very Alt F tour. It was awesome.. wicked pissah awesome.

At the close of his seminar.. about 5 minutes before John and Dalisa were going to leave under very cloudy and immanent down pour conditions I asked for a picture. I wanted to shoot John and Dalisa with a distant cousin to the shovel. John and Dalisa obliged. I whipped off about 20 quick frames, asked them to sign it, and led them to the highway. Since then I’ve had the shovel in the studio and decided to bring it to the shoot for fun. I mean, I know a shovel isn’t to fun or interesting but, hey theres some history here. I might as well pay some tribute to the crazy fun people who put some thought into makin some very creative images.

Here’s a shovel shoot with a bit of zing…

I have a few more that I may add in time and some video from the shoot to. I have some wedding stuff to work on first though. Check back in a week or so.

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Canon’s 5D MK II – Pre-ordered at The Camera Company – Norwood, MA

Jeff Newcum — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:06:33 +0000

Today I took the plunge and pre-ordered the new Canon 5d MKII at the Camera Company in Norwood. I’ve actually purchased all but one of my DSLR camera’s from the Camera Company. First it was my 20D that was pre-ordered when I first started shooting weddings. Then I picked up the 5d as a pre-order. Both cameras have served my very well. The 20d was a good starter camera, the 5d was a great and needed step up and the new 5d MKII is expected to blow most of my expectations away.

From what I know the AF is still the same which isn’t on par with their higher end cameras but, I’ve found a technique that has worked for me reliably. Anyways, the increased resolution isn’t a big deal to me but, the sensor is a leap forward and should yield significantly better results. The weather sealing is a nice addition and the ISO is the biggest reason to move for me. Also, for anyone who shoots weddings and maybe more particularly on the east coast, we encounter dark churches and dark reception venues often. Places that are beautiful like Gibbett Hill are very dark inside. This sucks the life out of flashes and makes it a bit more challenging to focus and shoot scenes. The last time I shot Gibbet Hill I walked away with some great images but, I was on the edge of my comfort factor with my ISO range. The problem being is when you increase your ISO on digital camera then you must allow for more artifacting or noise in your images. This can be constrained in post production but, the moto is get it right in the camera the first time and the new 5d MK II has an ISO setting over 25000 vs. the current 3200 that the 5D is limited to. Fortunately the benefit of the new high ISO standard is a significant improvement in noise reduction. Thus, I can shoot at 3200 ISO at a reception with minimal noise in my images. That’s a really, really great thing.

So, now I’m in the waiting game to take delivery of the 5d MKII. Anticipation is very high… Nahh.. I’m out of mind with excitement!

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Featured on Wedding Photo USA – www.weddingphotousa.com When I first started shooting my first solo weddings in...

Featured on Wedding Photo USA – www.weddingphotousa.com

Jeff Newcum — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:55:05 +0000

When I first started shooting my first solo weddings in 2005 I meet DJ Ron Carpenito at a wedding I was shooting. DJ Ron is one of the few DJs that I’ve meet that is very talented, fun to work with, and knows how to work a crowd to keep your wedding party having fun all night long. Through conversation with Ron I found out that his wife owns and manages a wedding photo site, called www.weddingphotousa.com. It’s a resource for couples to find photographers across the country. I joined up and have really enjoyed the content of the site. It’s full of creative images and great information about wedding photographers. I particularly like the “Wedding Photo of the Week” section. It’s really exciting to see other photographers images and get some insight on how it was created.

This week one of my images was featured. Here’s the image and how I created it.

Photo Equipment:

Canon 5d F/8@125th ISO 100 Manual Program. Flash is off camera actuated by a Pocket Wizard. It’s set on Manual at 1/8th power.
The flash is off to my right at about 45 degrees on a 8ft. light stand.

Description:

The image was shot at the Higgins House at WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts. The couple has a friend of the family that drove them to the ceremony in his cherry 56 Ford Sunliner and wow! What a car. I intentionally shot the couple on a dark background and added the road background later. This is one of those times where I new from the start that this shot was going to be a sweet image with a little help from Photoshop. Also, for a situation like this I encourage photographers to walk around your subjects and capture alternate angles. I shot this image straight on, from the side of the car, in the mirror, and from within the vehicle. I took maybe 7 minutes in all to capture 10 different angles. Group pictures followed directly after. Which took 20 minutes. We then followed with 10 minutes of shooting the bride and groom. Think fast, work quickly, and work the location.

Techniques:

The background was layer masked in and I added a blur layer for the foreground.

Here’s the finished image. BTW I have a 16×24 canvas print hangin on my wall in my client meeting space and it looks GREAT! Canvas prints rock!

and what I started with.

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