Jes Lee

Editing

This week I put together 51 frames. All of them need to be filled with artwork for my show at Bloomington. They are all stacked according to size, so I can start making the prints to go in them. 

I have printed proofs of all of the compilations I have made. There are 43 so far. I have been sorting, and editing, taking out and putting back in, loving and hating all of them.

I have been writing as well. Trying to create more texts to add to images, and loving and hating all of that in turn.

I am immensely grateful to be given the opportunity to create this project, for it to have an audience. It is amazing!

There are times though, when all of this feel so overwhelming, and the immensity of the amount of work that will be in this show seems so great that I feel like I will never finish it on time. 

One day at a time is the most I can do.

Thankfully with Easter this weekend, I will get at least an extra 1/2 day to work on this. I take every minute I am given.

Until next time,

~Peace~

I always have a camera…

I always have a camera with me. It takes just one image to make it worth while.

Fun nights with friends often lead to fun photos :)

This one was taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m using a polaroid back loaded up with Blue film. 

~Peace~

Catching up

Today I feel like I'm catching up! At least just a bit…

We put our condo on the market yesterday. It was a big relief to finally be done with all of the cleaning and organizing! Now, back to artwork this week.

Applications are due. Shows are coming up fast. An updated list of where you can find me this summer and fall will be posted very soon!

In the mean time, some work in progress that I some how managed to start despite the craziness.

No title yet. Compilation of 3 images. One black and white medium format photo taken using Ilford film and my Hasselblad 501c/m. One Polaroid using my Sx-70 camera and expired 600 Polaroid film. One color medium format photo taken using Fuji slide film and my Hasselblad 501c/m. All 3 images were taken in Hawai'i. 

Working title: Sunsets and Walks on the Beach. Compilation of 3 color medium format film images, all taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m in Hawai'i.

Working title: Mountains in the Background. This  compilation consists of two color medium format film images taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m and one Polaroid image taken with my Sx-70 using expired ATZ film. The line that splits the tree branches, making the top 1/2 lighter and the bottom 1/2 darker, is the skyline of the top of Diamond Head. 

I will be tweaking these a bit more, but they are mostly finished. 

I am realizing that it is time for me to stop with the 'creating new work' part of the process, and start with the 'finishing' part. That is always a scary transition to make. I have created a lot of new work, and it is easy to get into the rut of just creating, and starting, and not finishing. Now is the time for me to start actually creating prints, typesetting, and framing. 

You won't be seeing many new compilations on this blog for awhile, but I will keep posting other photographs I have taken, fun little bits, and maybe some pictures of the new prints!

Until next time,

~Peace~

Clearing

Sometimes the best way to clear your mind is to just go take pictures. 

On Monday I took a bit of time for myself and went down to the bridge over the train yard by my parent's house. I've photographed the trains there many times before, but never with a Polaroid camera. Thankfully, the film and my Sx-70 were cooperating with me that day.

Later on, as my sweetie and I were driving to meet some friends, the open sunroof and his hand caught my eye. 

It is times like those that have the ability to make me feel calm. To feel that in the face of all of the stress and deadlines that accompany what I choose to do, that I chose right. To remind me that I am right where I belong.

There are many many events and updates that I will be posting soon. 

Until then, go take pictures :)

~Peace~

The everyday

It has been awhile since I've posted. It isn't that I haven't been working! In fact I've been working quite hard getting photos finished and posted. 

You can now see all of the photos I took in Hawaii!! You can view them all on my Flickr site as well as see all of the analog photos on my site here.

I've been thinking a lot about Japan lately. It has been almost a year since our trip there. I have almost completed the task of getting all of the photos I took there finished and online. You can see those on my Flickr site too. I have through day 10 up there. The rest will be up soon.

Even though it has been a year, I still have such strong memories of being there. It was the longest trip I have been on. I vividly remember the food, the language, and the chimes played in the train stations when the train was approaching. I'm still hoping to go back there someday. 

In the mean time, I have had a wonderful time taking pictures of friends! I realize that I don't do that enough – take pictures of the everyday. It is something I do constantly when I am on vacation somewhere, photographing the everyday things that exist there. But it is something that I routinely neglect while I am home. I am vowing to change that.

  

There is a quote that is constantly circulating through the photography social networking places "The best camera is the one you have with you". I always have a camera with me. I try to choose well what camera I bring with me for the day (today I have two in my bag). I prefer working with film, for many reasons, (that don't need to be listed here) but there are many times that I get a photo I love with one of my digital cameras. It doesn't bother me. To me, the main thing is the image. That said, the latest compilation that I have been working on, is composed of 3 digital images I took on our trip in Japan with my Canon 40D.

It is not complete yet, but it is a start. Besides this one coming from a compilation of digital images instead of film, this one is a bit different from the rest. Aviary, a web application and community appeared on my radar awhile ago. I didn't pay much attention at first, and checked it out again just last week. What makes Aviary special, is it is a web application which allows you to edit photos very much like you would in Photoshop. In fact, it has many applications that mimic a lot of what many of the Adobe Creative programs do. I like to think that I can be one of those people who are open to trying out new things and not always being stuck with the old 'tried and true' ways, so I decided to give it a shot! That said, this image was made with Aviary's Phoenix photo editor instead of Photoshop. I did take me a bit longer, and I did have some issues with the tools, but this program is still in Beta, so that is to be expected. Otherwise, I think it is great! Something new to try! I hope they continue to improve and succeed! 

That is all for now! I promise to post more soon!