Jes Lee

Month: December 2011

8 years and a photo project

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For some, the Christmas season starts the second the calendar pages turn to December. For some it starts earlier. The hustle and bustle, the parties, the dinners, the gifts, the nic-naks, the decorating, the lights.
For me, celebrating Christmas doesn’t start until today, December 22nd. Eight years ago today, on a bright cold morning (much like today, except there was snow on the ground) we were in Buffalo, MN welcoming home the soldiers of the 353rd, and I would actually have my husband home for Christmas. December 22nd was the day he got to see our home, the day we started working on being married and living together full time, not only on weekends (like we did while we were still in college) and not with thousands of miles between us. He was then, and will always be, my best Christmas present.
So often I feel that through the month of December I am only going through the motions of the holidays – decorating, shopping, wrapping, planning meals. It isn’t until the 22nd comes that I finally feel like I know what I’m doing, and have a purpose.
This year seems even more poignant as it is the official mark of the end of this war, and many other soldiers are returning home. It is bittersweet as we quietly welcome them home, watch families who are having a magical holiday celebrate, watch others wait, know that there are still many other soldiers out there in other ‘war zones’, and many more still who aren’t coming home to celebrate.

Life is a series of experiences that change you, make you grow, and learn things you maybe never thought you would. 10 years ago, I had no idea any of this lay ahead of me, for us. 7 years and 2 months ago, I was celebrating my 1 year wedding anniversary with my mom and aunt and friend, thinking I would spend Christmas without my husband as well. 8 years ago today, everything changed and I am so grateful it did.
So, today is my Christmas – our happy homecoming day. And even though I don’t think about it often, I realize I can still remember that day so vividly.
It is with all of these thoughts swirling in my head today, that I am starting a new photo side project. I have been wanting to do a 365 photo project for some time now. I have in fact tried it in the past and have not been super successful. Today I am trying again. Today I start documenting one year in our journey. One year of snap shots of where we are. Every day and every year is a journey, and I’m excited to see where this year takes us. The technical details: yes, this photo series will be of digital photos, at least as far as I can tell. I’m planning on taking all of the photos with my iPhone to make the uploading and posting part easier, and to get myself better acquainted with my iPhone camera. These will not be the only photos I post over the course of the year! There will be many more photos, and many many film photos. In fact, I am trying to be a bit better of posting photos to my Flickr account, particularly of all the film snapshots I take of my friends and family when we are out. The photos will be posted everywhere I can post them – here, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, and most likely eventually in a special gallery on my website. The more I post them, and the more feedback and interaction I get with them, the easier I think it will be to continue and remind myself to post a photo daily.
Today’s photo will be posted a bit later.

For now, I am off to get my work done for the day – printing photos for a show, processing photos for a job, and a bit of holiday cleaning. I want to be done with work by the time my husband comes home from his job, so we can celebrate our happy homecoming day.

Until next time,
~Peace~

Festival of the last minute

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I’m hanging out at one last art festival today. Jes Lee Photos along with Dad and Kiddo Pottery have two tables near the escalators in Calhoun Square in Minneapolis. This is our last art festival of 2011! We’ll be here until 7pm today. I hope you can come visit!

New film and photo walks

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Last week The Impossible Project sent out an email to all it’s Pioneer members (addicts from the beginning) with a special offer: buy some packs of their new silver shade (black and white) film at an awesome price, test it out, and post your pics for all to see. I squealed with delight, and then groaned, remembering how much my photo/art spending account was already in the red (this is what happens when you are working super hard on an non-traditional education program that doesn’t have the option of a student loan or grants). So I sent a little tweet back to the great Impossible people expressing excitement over their new product and that I wished I could order some, and determined that this time I would just watch from the sidelines and see my other Pioneer friends post their pictures, knowing someday I would be able to afford more film. Much to my surprise, a tweet saying “Merry Christmas” came back to me, along with a notification that two boxes of the new film were being sent my way, free of charge. Seriously?! I couldn’t believe how lucky I was! I looked at the statement on my computer with tears in my eyes. Not many companies would do something like this, even at the holidays. But here I was, going to get my chance at shooting this new film.

I promised to do a blog post about shooting with it – something I am hoping to get in the habit of doing a lot more often!

After a busy week of catching up on photo work, staring at the mound still waiting for me, I decided that Sunday was going to be my day for a photo walk. I started out loading new film in my Polaroid One Step (an autofocus point and shoot Sx-70 type camera) because I have an external flash for it. Since it was quite cold out (30 degrees) I thought trying out this film inside with a flash might be a better bet. Unfortunately, little did I know there is a short somewhere in that camera, which proceeded to drain the battery in the first pack of film. Thankfully, they sent me two packs (and thankfully I can still transfer the remaining shots from this first pack into the empty cartridge from the second pack and take some more photos later this week!). So, I loaded up my Sx-70 and headed out to Stillwater with my husband for a day of walking and photos. 

If this film is any indication of what is to come next out of their factories, then seriously, the future is bright for instant film addicts! I am amazed at the results I got with this film, even though I was outside shooting on a very cold day without a frog tongue for my camera, using only my hand to shield the image when it first came out. I used a cold clip (two little metal pieces taped together to make a photo holder) and stuck it inside my jacket with the developing shots inside it so they would stay warm. Even in those conditions, I still got wonderful, dreamy shots of our day out by the river with the most beautiful silver tones….

This crazy little table was in the window of an antique store we walked past. 

The saw mill

This little fence lines the river along the walking path. Just enough snow had melted to create a puddle and a perfect reflection of the fence.

These shots have a more dream-like quality to them due to the cold (you get the absolute best results from their film around 70 degrees) and the fact that I wasn’t using anything but my hand to shield them from the light as they were first being ejected from my camera due to the wind (it was blowing my light shield around too much). I really love the effect though! Plus, I am still so excited that even under those conditions, I still got pretty awesome photos! Past films wouldn’t have fared as well. Instant film has come a long way!!

Ice bubbles on the river

The lift bridge

I still have 5 shots left. I will post results as soon as I can get out to shoot them. I will definitely buy more of this film as soon as I can buy film again! Also, I’m hoping to try some emulsion lifts soon….perhaps for a new book project????

Way to go Impossible Project!! You are doing awesome!

Until next time, 
~Peace~

Catching my breath

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I have been doing a lot of catching up this week. There were many things that fell behind a bit with all of the art festival prep work, but I think I can now safely say I am almost caught up.
Yes, there is still one more art festival to prepare for (Saturday, December 17th at Calhoun Square, more details soon)

Yes, there are still two shows to have work done for (by the end of this month)

Yes, there are still many things to be finished

But, after a lot of hard work today and a lot of time spent at MCBA and in my studio, and a lot of hard work Monday and Tuesday processing photos, I am beginning to catch my breath and feel more in control.
I have not had any melt downs today. One day at a time.

Thankfully, I have a really cool husband who knows when I need to work in the evenings, and when he needs to pull me away from all computers and email and make me watch a movie (Howl’s Moving Castle) to make me relax, and re-focus.

There is more work to be done tomorrow, but I am looking forward to the weekend.

Until next time,
~Peace~

It is a new week

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Just like that, the big festival that worry and fret about for weeks is here, and then it is over….

At least that is how it seems to always work for me.

I spent much of this weekend with my dad at No Coast Craft-o-Rama at the Midtown Global Market, enjoying loads of people watching, chatting with friends who stopped by to say hi, eating great food from a couple of the restaurants there, and of course selling loads of pottery.

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It was a lot of fun to participate and be there! Now, I feel like I am left with a lot more questions about people buying artwork (specifically photography based work) and marketing, and feasibility, and supply costs, and a whole bunch of other things that I still haven’t come up with answers to, even after a gigantic Snowball Mocha on Sunday from the coffee shop down the road from us.

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I’ll figure out my answers to these questions someday. Today isn’t going to be the day though. Today will be filled with working and catching up on things that have slid under the rug for awhile. But the sun is out, and there are a few snowflakes floating past my window, and overall I think it is a pretty good day to sit by my window and get caught up on my to-do list.
Until next time,
~Peace~

Ready

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I think I am as ready as I will be for No Coast Craft-o-Rama. Set up starts exactly 12 hours from now. Here we go!

Memory of trees

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There are times when photos can take you down a strange rabbit hole of thoughts. Leading through music to video games* to books.

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(These images were taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m camera using the Polaroid back and expired Polaroid Sepia peel apart film)

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(This image was taken with my Hasselblad 501c/m camera using Kodak Ektar 100 C41 film.

All of these images were taken at the Tamarack Nature Center in White Bear Lake, MN. You can also see them on Flickr.

This wasn’t at all the blog post I had planned for tonight, but through all of my distracted thinking, this is what happened. Really, I think I am on to something here, potentially good. 

*For many who won’t get all of those connections – the title ‘Memory of trees’ randomly came to me when I was sizing these images for the web, and it reminded me of one of my favorite anime series ‘Haibane Renmei’, and the title of one of the songs in it’s soundtrack ‘Refrain of Memory’. Going down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos just a bit, I found out that the composer, Ko Otani, who also composed music for a video game called Shadow of the Colossus which looks to be gorgeously animated as well.

Until next time,

~Peace~