Jes Lee

Hasselblad 501c/m

Moving right along

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This week I get to share with you that my #Mississippi book is now also included in the permanent collection at the Minnesota Historical Society! It is so exciting to have that book travel so many places, and be seen by so many people. I never dreamed that would happen!

I have been busy the last few days editing film scans of photos from our trip last month, and working on a new series of artwork. I have more plans for this year, though it is a bit too early to share them now. It is an exciting and full year, in all the best ways!

If you follow me on Instagram, I’ll be sharing many film photos from our trip this week, as well as a couple of work-in-progress photos from the artwork series I am working on.

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Long days

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Days stuck at home being sick can get really long. Today, after feeling like I would burst without a bit of creative time, packed up my laptop, notebook, and some sketching tools and headed back to bed. Yes, just like a little kid taking all their toys to bed with them. It helped though. I stayed put for most of the day, and am starting to feel a bit more human. I participated in Wet Paint’s Weekly Work-Outs by making a charcoal sketch of my hand. No, it isn’t great, I haven’t sketched for a very long time. But, I started sketching again today.

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I also edited the black and white film photos I took of the swans a couple of weeks ago. I realize that it is not at all easy to photograph swans with black and white film, and that I should have brought color film with me. But I am still enjoying these. I have a 150mm lens for my Hasselblad, which is what I was using for these. Not as much zoom as the lens I had with for my digital. Next time, I think I will bring a different film camera with that has a bit more zoom capabilities. I rather like being able to get in really close to them. But, I do adore the square format and the graininess of these photos! Different mediums…

Hopefully I’ll be back out to photograph these birds again soon. This year has already brought about many changes and challenges and a dose of sorrow. But so every year goes. And perhaps we are wrong to think each year will be different in that respect. When really, the years are the same, with their ups and downs, but each has a different theme. Maybe the theme of this year for me will have something to do with nature. I don’t expect it will take me long to find out!

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12/26/14 – 12/27/14 Traveling to Okinawa!

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This year, John and I decided to head out on an adventure. Our adventure began on Christmas Day. The next bunch of blog posts will be quite photo heavy…but I’m excited to share this little adventure of ours! If you don’t want to see photos of the beach, pottery villages, caves, and castle ruins, well, wait about a week and I’m sure I’ll have something else to blog about! For those of you sticking around, enjoy!

Somehow, Jeremy Messersmith knew that we would be heading out on this adventure, and wrote a travel song just for us!

 

We had a fun breakfast at the airport with some other traveling friends, saw Santa Clause directing airplanes…
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….took one 12 hour flight up above the clouds…

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….landed, took a taxi bus full of people out to the runway, walked up to our plane and up the stairs…I thought they only did this in the movies!

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Ok – enough with the crappy airport cell phone photos!

After another 2 1/2 hours we landed in Okinawa. It was pretty late on December 26th by the time we got there. It was awesome to see a familiar face at the airport, and have a home to stay at after all the traveling.

The next day we finally got to say hi to the rest of the family (Eric, Millie, Evie, and Clara) before we headed out on our first adventure.

I journaled quite a bit on this trip. Some of those pages I will include for you in my posts, so you can read more about the day, or just skip to more photos if you like!

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Being out by the sea wall was amazing. I love visiting the ocean…something I don’t get to do nearly often enough.

I brought my Hasselblad 501c/m with me on this trip, and a lot of film. Below is a little slide show of photos I took our first full day there. If you would rather just sort through them yourself, the gallery is here.

[Show picture list]

Instant change

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It has been quite awhile since John and I hiked the ice caves along the south shore of Lake Superior. Almost two months, to the day in fact. Though in my mind it seems like just a couple of weekends ago.

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This was our first adventure of 2014. I know it is far from being our last.

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Seeing what nature can do and create is quite humbling at times. Realizing how fast she can change the landscape is even more so. Walking out on a frozen lake to see these ice caves itself is amazing, and a bit scary…I have never been fond of trusting an ice-covered lake. Knowing that a strong wind can change how the icicles hang, how the ice sheets cover the water on the walk out to the cliffs, is all a bit mind-boggling.

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I could go into all the inspirational stuff about how if you don’t let go of your fears you could miss something great, about how important it is to have adventures, about how things can change so fast, blah blah blah. If you know where to look, you will find meaning like that every day. What I find I need more often, is a particular event that not only reminds me, but makes me listen. The hike to the ice caves is that event for me.

There are more photos from that hike on my Flickr page. You can click this link to get there, or click on one of the photos above.

There is a lot coming up in May for Jes Lee Studios! Most of the events and dates are now up on my ‘Announcement’ page. There are many more to come that I don’t have all the details on yet, so please check back there again soon!

I have still been going with my film 365 project. Someday soon I’ll post all the photos….and get caught up on developing the film. In the mean time, it has been amazing having my cameras with me constantly.

 

 

Film 365 – Day 29: January 19, 2014

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Such a lovely weather day with sunshine and lovely shadows on the snow.

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I love this little archway next to our house. I have plans to decorate it with lights this summer.

Hasselblad 501c/m 80mm lens (my favorite!)

Rolei Retro 100 film developed in Ilfosol 3

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When John got back home from a trip out to his parent’s, we went for a little walk. There is a way down to the train tracks by our house, and it wasn’t too full of snow to hike it. These last two photos were taken with a Nikon FG camera using the Lomography Xpro film that I have decided I’m not terribly fond of. It was still a very lovely walk though!

 

Film 365 – Day 27: January 17, 2014

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8:03pm 9˚ mostly cloudy

I went to an opening reception for a friend’s art show. It brought me close to where I spent many college days, to streets I wandered day and night. I drove by for one quick look back.

Hasselblad 501c/m

Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film developed in Ilfosol 3

f2.8, 60 second exposure.