Jes Lee

Quiet

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Today will be a quiet day of work.

I am definitely looking forward to it.

A day where I can just dig in and cross many things off of my to-do list.

On my list is framing the very last piece for my new show. I can’t believe I am finally at that point! It seems like it has been such a long time coming.

I also pre-ordered the Paper Darts volume 4! I love this publication! If you are looking for fun distractions during the day, follow them on Twitter! Maybe if I get my work done early today, I’ll sneak out to their publication party tonight!

Have a great day friends! May we all have a productive one!

Instant fall photos

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There has been a lot of quiet contemplation around here, which has led to me writing a lot more privately and a bit less here. There has also been a lot of catching up of things I had to set aside while I was getting work done for deadlines that came up way too fast. So, while I have been working hard, it hasn’t all been very blog worthy! Hopefully that will change soon.

Tonight! Tuesday, October 9th 6-9pm, is the Fine Books and Fine Wine celebration at Minnesota Center for Book Arts! My series of Seasons books will be on display along with many other amazing pieces! I love this event. It isn’t often you can find so many artist books out where you can actually look at and touch them! If you have ever thought of starting to collect artist books, this is the event that will answer all of your questions! I’m super excited for it, and I will definitely be there tonight! (Not to mention I will be doing some photo documenting for MCBA while I am there).

Next Friday night is the opening reception for my show at The Larson Art Gallery on the St. Paul University of Minnesota campus! I am so excited for this. The work is almost done. . . I am finishing up the last piece today. The reception is from 6-8pm. I hope you can make it! This will also be my last gallery show until later next year, which makes it just a little bit bigger and a little bit more exciting.

In the mean time, I have still been practicing with my Sx-70 and the new color protection film from The Impossible Project. This is really such lovely film! It takes a bit of camera adjusting, but I am starting to get the hang of it. And experimenting is always so much fun anyway!

There will be more updates soon. For now, I’m off to ink up my printing press.

Fall colors at Tamarack Nature Center, White Bear Lake, MN

Tall grass at Tamarack Nature Center, White Bear Lake, MN

A huge sculpture of a frog made out of all sorts of materials at Tamarack Nature Center, White Bear Lake, MN

Instant photos from the Renaissance festival

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A few weeks ago Mr. FN and I headed out to the Renaissance Festival to meet up with a friend. This place has always held a certain nostalgia for us. Years ago, this is where Mr. FN proposed to me. The pewter shop there is where we got our cake topper and bride and groom drink glasses for our wedding from. We haven’t gone for a few years. It was quite fun to walk around, remembering all of those little moments.

I of course had a couple of cameras with me, one being my Sx70 loaded with the Px70 V4b test film. I don’t usually end up with many photos from the fest, but I really enjoy how these came out. This film is amazing. The Impossible Project has come such a long way, and I am so immensely proud of them!

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Sneak peek: McKinney family photos 2012

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Family photos in the fall can be so much fun!

Saturday I had a chance to catch up with the McKinney family again. I love watching these kids grow up! I have been doing family portraits for them since they were quite little. Since we usually meet in the fall, there of course has to be one photo of the kids playing in the leaves!

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More of their photos to come soon!

A sort of calm

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It was a wonderful weekend around here.

After working very hard last week to finish books to be included in the Fine Wine and Fine Books event at MCBA, I had a little bit of downtime with my favorite Mr. FN. Friday night included a date night and a trip to the Cult Status Gallery to see a poster show that one of my awesome print maker friends was included in. I love the city we live in, and I love having nights out like this.

Saturday included a fun family photo shoot. It was the perfect day for it! I can’t wait to dig into editing photos and getting a few posted here. Mr. FN and I managed to get in a little bit of kayaking on the lake. We bought kayaks this year in celebration of 10 years of being married (a bit early – that anniversary is actually coming up in a couple of weeks). We have had so much fun with them!

Of course now I am paying dearly for all of the time spent outside this weekend, and breathing is a bit harder than I would like (stupid allergies). But it was still wonderful.

This week will be much less intense. I have work to do writing and letterpress printing the last of the pieces for my upcoming show, and then framing. At least this week, the deadlines don’t seem quite so tight. I’ll enjoy that feeling while it lasts, because I know it is never around long!

 

Sneak peek: Sampson!

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It is not every day that I get asked to do portraits of a horse, but I’m starting to wish that would happen more often!

Last Saturday I was up and out the door quite early for a photo shoot with this handsome guy:

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Sampson (Sammie for short). He was sweet, and cooperative (with the promise of breakfast after). I learned a lot about horses and their behaviors and temperaments, boarding facilities, different ways to ride, and how much they love to eat grass. Sammie’s human, Tony, was very kind and willing to share his knowledge!

I sorted through photos from our session last night, and I am almost giddy to start working on them!

Best. Job. Ever.

 

Could this help?

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I apologize, this post will be quite lengthy and rambling. But it needs to be said.

Maybe it was just a grumpy day on Twitter. I am not the type to argue on the Internet. It never does much good anyway. But something that happened today made me think. I retweeted a post from NPR picture show for a photo essay written about a festival in India honoring the Hindu deity, Ganesh (one of my favorite deities to study in college in my India Art History courses). The photos were colorful, bright, and of course make my desire to travel to India that much stronger. It showed people celebrating with exhuberance what this deity stands for: new beginnings. The essay talked about the photographer, his stay in Mumbai, making sense of India’s crowded, over stimulating streets through his camera lenses. He talked of taking photos with his cell phone, digital slr, and a medium format film camera. There was a note in the article that all of the photos for the essay were taken with his cell phone camera. So what, right? The best camera is the one you have with you at the time. The photos still captured a story, I still enjoyed looking at them, they still made me smile.

I checked back in to Twitter later in the day. I don’t ever expect any responses on things I post, or any discussions on things I retweet. But in reading through my timeline I saw that a few of the photographers I follow were picking apart that photo essay for the simple reason that the photos were taken with his cell phone camera. ‘Why not with his medium format camera he had mentioned? Why are journalists using cell phones?’ I wanted to scream. Why dismiss an entire essay, pick it apart, and practically spit on it because of the tool that was used to take the photos. Yes, I prefer film as well and I would honestly love to see more photos this photographer took while he was in India, the whole collection, and I will be looking for it. And yes, I am especially curious what he photographed with his medium format camera, and what kind of camera it is, because I have a special love for medium formats. But the best camera is the one you have with you. When did that stop being enough?

And why, I wondered, am I so upset by this? And what can I do? Admittedly, I have been in quite a funk lately, and am probably just more sensitive to things people say. (Please don’t worry, I am quite fine, quite far from doing anything rash, and constantly surrounded by friends and family and a husband who have all been wonderful and help me a ton and I know this huge funk is only temporary.) Admittedly, being the age of 30 has not been the easiest for many reasons that have everything to do with life and coincidence and nothing to do with the number. So is this reaction just part of my funk? Or is it adding to my funk?

I have decided it is time for a bit if experimenting. I have adored Twitter and the community there since I opened my account years ago, but like with any social media, the happiness degrades with time. Is it time to step away from Twitter? Maybe. But not completely yet, and here comes my experiment. For one week, I will not read to “catch up” on Twitter. I have various things that auto post there (Flickr photos, blog posts . . . except seemingly when I update my blog from my phone, which I find myself doing quite frequently, and Instagram photos. I will respond to messages friends send, but I will not read through and get into discussions in my timeline. And I am not replacing it with Facebook. I will remain on there as little as I already am. And in that week I will focus on my blog, and my artwork (particularly for my upcoming show!) and taking photos with any camera I have and posting them and see how I feel after that week.

Please don’t take this as me saying all of Twitter is bad or discouraging. It isn’t. I have made friends with some very wonderful people on there around the world who are always very positive and supportive. But the bad news and pessimism often speaks louder than the positive, and perhaps this is what I need to avoid right now for my own mental health.

I want to be the type of person that encourages everyone to take photos regardless of what camera they prefer to use. It is time for me to focus.

Untitled

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I will miss this little guy being around.

There are so many things I have thought of posting here about this, but I start typing and end up with nothing.

But if you could read what is in my head you would see a ton of happy memories, and a bunny that was with us a really long time! We bring animals into our life to keep us company and we get so attached and they stay as long as they can, but it is really not that long before they have to leave. It is one of the hardest and happiest cycles to live.

I am grateful for the time we had together. . .

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Fall photo shoots are fun!

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I am deep into finishing work for two large October shows, and getting work ready to sell at the holiday festivals that are rapidly approaching. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the photo sessions stop! Fall tends to be one of my busiest times, and this year seems to be no exception. I am not complaining at all!

Tomorrow I have a photo shoot scheduled that I am quite excited for (wait until you see the sneak peek photos from this one)! It will have me up and going quite early in the morning, but I will survive!

Next weekend I will be meeting up with a little family that I adore seeing every fall.

These are the times when I look forward to afternoons spent on the computer processing photos!

Today I am waitressing – my day job. There are a few errands this afternoon to get more supplies for artwork projects, and plenty of things to keep me busy. My mind is full of plans and details, but I think it is a good full today.

Not ready

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I’m not ready.

I’m not ready for summer to end, not ready for the end of the color green outside, not ready for the smell of wet leaves on the ground, not ready for the end of days of swimming, not ready to feel sick from being outside, not ready to just watch from the window, not ready for an end of biking to work, not ready for the cold, not ready for dark mornings, not ready for deck nights and patio nights to be over. I’m not ready for fall.