Bright Spring Days...

Hello Lovelies!

It has been awhile since my last post. Life has been very busy, almost too busy to take time to share it with you lovely readers out there. So let's play a bit of catch-up, shall we?

Let's start with some business news. I have released the entire first part of my Modern America Series! It took almost a year to shoot and complete the first 7 shots in this series. I am very happy with how the series is going so far. I'm planning to do 5 more to finish this work off. I am actually opening these last shots up to my followers for suggestions. I will be asking for ideas over on my Facebook page in the coming weeks, so follow along for that. A few of my favorite pieces in the series are below, and you may view all 7 over at my Behance site. This is some of my best work to date as an artistic photographer: I'm very proud of it. A big thank you to all of my models, assistants and hair and makeup people for helping me realize my vision. I hope you like it!

I have also been listing and selling things like crazy over at STAG as usual. A ton of great items in the shop and more to come very soon, including the amazing buffalo plaid vest, women's Russian jacket with gold buttons and an amazing vintage Windmill brand stadium style overcoat for the ladies, all shown below! Stop by frequently, new things are listed almost weekly...

And the final bit of business news is in the area of illustration. I was recently hired to do the design work for the Old Port Festival Weekend here in Portland, Maine. It's the biggest music/vendor/arts festival in the state of Maine and this year they're extending it to an entire weekend, so I was delighted to be asked to do it! I'll pass along more official site/poster information as I get it, but here are some of the sketches and then the final work. I am happy with how it came out...

I mention life has been busy, and boy, it sure has. A lot of great things are happening and the weather is getting warmer and spring is here in Maine! Here are just a few of the beautiful things I've seen, done and enjoyed since my last post...

And finally, today is my birthday! As with most people, birthdays are a fun time of reflection for me. I like to take the opportunity at least once a year to stop for a moment and really appreciate all of the wonderful things that have happened over the last year. I have so much to be grateful for: amazing friends, a studio, the ability and opportunity to make art and get paid to do it on occasion, a life right near the ocean that is so beautiful in a community of kind, caring people. I co-celebrated my birthday yesterday with my dear friend Timothy and I realized I'm a very, very lucky girl. I hope the next year is as good as the last...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Double the Fun...

Hello Lovelies!

How are you all doing out there? Well, I hope. Things here are busy and also very good. Spring is just around the corner and the weather is finally giving us a break. (Not that winter weather kept me from shooting all season, but my models appreciate this break in the temperature. Haha!) So much to share!

To start, I have finished and entered my Double the Fun series into the portrait section of the Photoville Fence Project out of New York. I think I may have mentioned, I decided to photograph sets of twins for this contest and I put my own twist on it with the introduction of party things to formal portraiture. I hoped it would bring out personalities, and it did. This series became unintentionally tongue-in-cheek and I really like it. Here is the entire series in a layout and then a couple of close-ups.

And because I thought they were so cute, I made a couple of GIFs of the twins with the confetti and those are below. You can't tell here, but one of those girls really thought confetti was hilarious and I guess it is, come to think of it... Fun stuff.

What else? Oh! The next behind the scenes video of another one of my shoots has been put up. My Last Ones Standing series was the subject of this one and I think my videographer Jessica did a great job of capturing all the tiny details that make my photos unique and perfect. Such beautiful work she does. A huge thank you to her and to the entire crew for helping with that project. I have also added a video page to my portfolio if you'd rather follow along there: PORTFOLIO. One centralized place for all good things...



Last Ones Standing Shoot from Jessica Beebe on Vimeo.

And speaking of good things, this past Sunday was my birthday! What a wonderful day it was. I started the day off right getting kisses from my friends' baby who's 4 months old. She's one of my very favorite things. Such a sweet girl. The weather was beautiful and warm, I spent the day doing the things I love with some of my very favorite people and I got a ton of flowers and books. (Both of which I enjoy immensely.) It was a perfect day and I am so very lucky. Take a peek at some shots from the day below... Delicious, aren't they? I have a feeling this coming year is going to be a very good one.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Yep, We Went There...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope this week finds you all doing well out there. Things here are busy and very good! I have a ton of projects in various stages of completion, so let's hop right in, shall we?

To start, I finished up my Mermaids of the Maine Coast project and submitted it to the Water, Water Everywhere competition this week. This was one of the funnest projects I've done in quite some time. (We always have fun, but this was too much.) All humor aside, I feel these shots from an execution/editing standpoint are fairly strong, so fingers crossed! And a huge thank you to the boys who wore the tail... thank you, guys! The mermaid photos are also available as fine art prints in both the Stapelia shop and over at Society6, so if you're interested in decorating your walls with crazy, place that order!

And speaking of Society6, that is a site for fine art prints of all sorts; paintings, photography, illustration and so on. A ton of very talented people are represented in that community of artists. Out of all of the prints made available on the site, Society6 also sub-curates a group of prints to feature/sell in their company store. Yesterday, I found out that 3 of my Zom-B-Vex prints were selected to go in this store, which is very exciting! So, now you can find Baseball Boy, Scout Master & Businessman up in there. Yay!

What else? Oh! I was in the studio all this past Sunday photographing sets of twins for another contest I am entering very soon. What a great group of people. I had a lot of fun. We were throwing confetti and balloons and party things all over the studio. I believe my favorite quote of the day was, Me: "And why are you laughing?!" Model: "Because confetti is funny..." So true. Look out for those shots next week!

This was not the actual confetti used, but I've flung it around my studio so many times, I had this shot available for illustration purposes...

The weather is getting so nice up here and I've been working almost constantly, so Saturday, I decided to take a break and a friend and I headed to a place called Savers down in New Hampshire. Now, I am not a native New Englander, but I find them to be a frugal people. Consequently, there is no shortage of discount stores, thrift stores, salvage stores and the like up here. Which (as someone who loves to repurpose and resell vintage items), is fine by me. Savers was a new one to me and I was not disappointed. 50% of the fun was the customers. While searching through the records, a woman who was leaning all in my personal space, remarked to her boyfriend: "Give me some room, I don't want to fall on this lady and this ain't my good leg." Wowza. But I found some things for STAG as well as a couple of great records, including this Harry Belafonte record with my favorite song of his on it: Suzanne. Not my favorite version, but still good. And that cover? The colors and font are just great.

And these records I did not buy, but maybe someone can tell me about this Ding Dong School, or why that rabbit is all creepy up in the park with all those kids... no one? That's what I thought. Yikes.

And we wrapped a great day at an adorable place called The Friendly Toast, which is full of great vintage advertising things. I want to take up residence in this place, truly. Oh, and the food was also good... Haha.

Until next time: Unpleasant dreams...

Why Did the Merman Cross the Road?

Hi Lovelies~

I hope you're all doing well out there. This ship is sailing at maximum speed these days with lots of exciting things on board! To start, I posted my Last Ones Standing work this morning and I am very happy with how it came out. I think between these shots and the ones taken in the original Last One Standing series, I have a strong set of images to submit to the FOAM contest this week for sure. A huge thank you to my models, makeup people, crew and videographer for helping nail this project and document the process! A couple of the images are below, and the rest may be seen over at my Behance site.

 


I don't know how many of you know this, but I also style all of my shoots: I do all of the costuming, makeup direction and location-hunting. I feel directing the entire process helps me execute my creative vision more effectively. In addition, I work with some amazingly talented people who've now done enough projects with me to understand my "Jess Speak" or rather, the idea boards I use to concretize my vision. This, along with my actual shoot list, help me ensure that things run smoothly, mistakes aren't made, everyone knows what I expect of them and no one's valuable time is wasted! I thought I would show you my costume and makeup idea boards for Last Ones Standing so you could see where we start (some people find this interesting, I guess, hahaha)...

What else? Oh! Goodness. While most people were hunting for eggs and eating ham yesterday, my crew and I were shoving grown men into mermaid tails out on the beach to shoot another contest submission that I'm doing. That's right: mermaid tails. Onlookers in their Sunday best couldn't process what they were seeing and I think the two best quotes of the day were: "Mommy, why is that man wearing a... is that a man?!" and the old man (completely oblivious to the entire scene), who, upon seeing the Narragansett beer we were using as a prop, exclaimed: "They still make Narragansett? Unbelievable!" That's not all that's unbelievable, Buddy. Wow. Oblivious. I will post those shots next week, but until then, there's this:

Hey Sailor, wanna make out? Bahaha.

And I've found some amazing things I wanted to share with you all. To start, are there any audiophiles out there? Yes? Well, you're in luck, because I found an amazing start-up that may interest you: Grain Audio. They create some amazing audio equipment; headphones, speakers, iPod docks that are gorgeous. As the name implies, their equipment has wood graining (which I love) and for those design types out there, their web presence and ID Package is also impeccable. They pay attention to every details. Plus, they have an area on their site called Setlist, which features great playlists weekly! Check it out, you guys...

And I wanted to wrap up with something else that may interest you. Sign painting fascinates me and so do documentaries (dork here). Sign Painters talks to some of the pros about their trade and techniques. (Plus, I find their wild west, cavalier, Hell's Angels-esque approach to a rather benign field both humorous and charming.) Check out the trailer!


Until next time: unpleasant dreams...