I had an excuse to get out to Rockport yesterday I had a wedding consult request for Vistaphotography for a June wedding on the headlands of the Rockport harbor and I decided to get up there

Vistaphotography at Rockport

veeery early and try to shoot the sunrise.  I got to bed at midnight and somehow got myself back up at 4:30ish to arrive at Rockport just after sunrise and as you can see here the sun had already cleared the horizon.  I was lucky because I was in a hurry so I didn’t put the filter adapter on the camera and I didn’t run with the ND grad filters to lesson the impact of shooting into the sun.

Even if I had the grad filters on the camera lens, they work best if the horizon is straight which is not the case with Motif #1 in the view. What saved me this morning was that there were just enough clouds to diffuse the rising sun which also led to the intense cloud colors.  You don’t have long to catch scenes like this and I was lucky this day. Normally you have to be in place and waiting for it with a plan of how you’re going to shoot it.

I knew from previous trips that I wanted to be somewhere at the end of the harbor but I had to make a decision and just go with it. I don’t think I made too bad of a choice but I bet I could do better.

Vistaphotography

This weekend has for almost 60 years been the home coming event for Rockport and in recent years they have tried to grow it into something very special. So the weekend prior to Memorial day weekend they have this two day party in the streets and they do the town up right.

I walked up Bear Skin Neck rd as the only traveler and I was suddenly pulled to the right by an heavenly smell of fresh brewed coffee and some sort of pastry. In front of me was Helmut’s Strudel and I was unhappy as it was not quite 6AM so I walked past to the neck and I set up for some shots of the harbor from the point.  If I had more room I would post the sun dog that appeared in the clouds but here is a link to my gallery. Later this morning while I walked around the town I   listened to some of the great musicians that had taken up positions in front of several stores in iconic Rockport’s art district.

This is a short clip of the live jazz band on the street they are called “Jazz in the Air” and they were very good.   Bob Sabourin of Jazz in the Air can be found at Jazz in the air.com or email him at jazzintheair@hotmail.com.

I also found a Irish singer with Celtic band back in front of Helmut’s Strudel They were as good as anything I’d ever heard on TV or in my travels overseas. If you would like to contact the Celtic singer his name is Michael O’Leary and can be reached at celtsinger@gmail.com.

This is it for now I hope you enjoy this quick trip around Rockport Ma during their Motif #1 days.
See more of my Art work at Vistaphotography Art work
And for Wedding or Event work visit me at Vistaphotography.com

Jeff Folger
Vistaphotography On Facebook
Yankee Magazine fall Blog
Yankee Magazine’s New England Photography

Wayland church in Mass

I’m Jeff Folger of Vistaphotography here in Salem MA.  As a Salem Photographer I was hired to moderate  a weekly fan page for Yankee’s New England Photography FB page which spot lights people’s views of New England.

My goal is to allow anyone to share their view of New England on the page and tell us what they think is really special to them about being in or visiting New England.

If you’d like to visit this page click ohere on Facebook.com/New England Photography.

Once here you can see what views make people think of New England. and maybe you’ll share your views too?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.. What do you like or dislike about New England???

Jeff Folger
Salem Photographer
Wedding photography
Artwork
Salem MA wedding photography

  Shooting weddings and tattoos at Danversport Yacht Club.

Sorry for the hiatus but wordpress has been acting up… I don’t know if it was the software or my server or gremlins.     Anyway  I had the pleasure of photographing a gorgeous bride and her beau at the Prestigious Danversport yacht Club in Danvers Ma. The bride, Erin hired Vistaphotography last year and I got with them back in late march/early April to meet at the venue when it was pretty cool so I never saw any of her tattoos.
I walked in to the prep room after her bridesmaids told me, she was properly attired and I saw the tattoo covering her upper chest.  As you can see from this angle it covers much of her and it’s not the only one in evidence.

She isn’t the first bride to display tattoos at a wedding but this amount were the most I’d seen at a wedding. It doesn’t really affect how I shoot so it doesn’t really matter and anything that makes a wedding stand out in my mind is a good thing. I think they didn’t really understand why I wanted them to do certain things such as this shot at the railing overlooking the harbor. I yelled at her to (I was down on the rocks trying not fall in) pretend that she was in the movie “Titanic” and on the bow of the ship.  When she understood what I wanted, she got into the spirit of the play acting and with Lisa shooting from behind them and me from my angle, I think you’ll agree that the shots came out very nice.    To me the biggest part of getting special pictures is getting the bride and groom to relax while you are snapping away.  The second they can forget that you are there, is the second you had better be ready to capture a magic moment.
They relaxed a few times this evening and according to them I faded into the background noise and they hardly noticed me the rest of the evening.  Lisa and I got the usual detail shots and cake and first dance and the results are good. But it’s those moments when I manage to get a couple to just be themselves and ignore me that I can capture the magic that is the basis for their coming together. I can capture their feeling for each other and preserve them forever..

Jeff

Last week I started a look at the renaissance wedding that I shot two weeks ago. Here is a link to the first part and you can catch up on the background.
I met the bride at the hotel and watched and waited for shots as she was helped by her hand maidens to get ready. I love fun themes to weddings and as her mother and father came in to check on her, (Father in a tartan kilt) Mom stepped in to help with the final preparations before heading down to the waiting chariot (235 horse powered limo).
As all weddings I’ve photographed this one was no different.. The bride was running 30 minutes late and as always, I told her “what are they going to do? Start with out you?… I know it doesn’t always help but you have to try.

As expected all went as planned and the ceremony was beautiful. The bride and groom and the man of steel as seen in this shot (You can hire him to greet guests at the Higgins) are standing with the MOH and BM.
This is a shot caught during the formals by my second shooter, Jurgen. I love to have a second set of eyes there and it allows me to focus on what’s at hand knowing I have someone looking for those “other” shots, like this one during the formals.
We didn’t have much time but I wanted to try and capture this shot of the receding archways and it came out good but if I hadn’t accidentally handed my flash cable to my assistant it would have been perfect. What I was going for was a little fill light on the couple (2 stops down) and the light in each alcove a different color. I ended up with the two flashes on pocket wizards down the hall (one with a red gel on? it and since I had given Lisa a handful of things (one of which was my [SinglePic not found] PW cable so I had no flash on my camera for fill. So I shot very slow on a tripod. I got a few nice shots out of it but I wonder how other photographers would have handled it?. Let me know what you think.
I hope I can do a wedding here again since I would like to try out my low light shooting some more. (with more time!!)
The evening went well and the first dance came out good with an off camera flash set at 1/4 power on the far side of the B&G held by my assistant who danced her way on the far side of the couple to keep the B&G between me and her.

Thoughts?