Category Archives: New Work
A Camera to Love
Well, I finally bit the $2500 bullet and upgraded to a new, full-frame sensor camera: a Nikon D700. That means the photographs are much more sharp, much less noisy, much more versatile, and the image files are waaaay better quality. I can not put into words how excited I am! Took it out of the box and started playing around – in the limited time I had all I could do was walk around the house and try to make things look interesting. I am absolutely in love with the sharpness and crispness of these pictures. Of course I played with the colors and contrast in post-production, but really had very little to do. All of these were shot with a 24mm lens, which on a full frame camera is actually 24mm – much wider than I am used to!
Sigh…I am in love!! Can’t wait to start working with it and see how this changes my wedding, event, food and editorial photography. Stay tuned for more!
Deathwish Piano Movers
Deathwish Piano Movers is a Malden-based company that has been around for over 20 years moving the heaviest, largest and most unwieldy objects that humans could own. A few weeks ago a new reality show premiered on the Travel Channel featuring these guys and their crazy endeavors. And, I swear, before the Travel Channel thing even became widely known, I was knocking on their door asking if I could photograph them on my own time, for a personal storytelling project. They said yes to me, despite the fact that they were becoming weary of having camera crews on their heels every second. And in mid-March, I finally got my first chance to witness and document a piano moving adventure.
This was a 7-foot grand piano moving into a first floor apartment in South Boston. First, the Deathwish team removes the window. Then they hook the piano up to a crane and lift it 10 feet off the ground. One of the crew guides the piano in through the window. They unhitch the crane, unpack the piano and assemble it in the client’s living room. This move, they said, was easy.
I hope to tag along with them several more times this spring and summer – enough to build a project. Stay tuned for more photos of Deathwish Piano Movers, and also tune in for their show on the Travel Channel, Wednesdays at 10 pm.
Also posted in Boston, Storytelling
Tagged Deathwish Piano Movers, personal work, small business owners, storytelling
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Competition!
Last week, I submitted some images from my adventures in Boston’s restaurant world to a contest called the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards. They are looking for images that tell a story, and the criteria was that you submit 3-8 pictures that comprise a series and that work together to communicate a story or an idea. I chose to submit 5 images of Boston restaurants – telling the story of the world of commercial kitchens – a world I have grown to love. This contest has two rounds and the winners will be notified on January 18th. Winning means being included in a book, shown in an online gallery and getting some prize money.
The point of all of this is that I have passed the first screening.
My Restaurant Kitchens series was accepted and is moving onto the next round. Stay tuned for the decision in January. And until then, I’ll be shooting more and more in the restaurant world, continue to tell this story.
A Chef Reviewing the Orders
The Serving Dishes at Marliave in Boston
Preparing Basil in a Busy Boston Restaurant
Incoming Orders
Chicken Ready to Cook
Behind the Scenes in the Kitchen
Cupcakes!!
Over the weekend I finished editing a shoot that I had done recently for a small cupcake company, just getting off the ground on the South Shore. We did fun shots of the assorted products and a nice headshot for the CEO. I loved shooting these beautiful cupcakes, and of course I got to take some home which was an added benefit! They’re delicious, believe me. Once she gets up and running, I’ll share the company name and contact information, so you can all order a dozen!
With Sprinkles!
Specialty Cupcakes
A Delcious Cupcake Trio
Closeup of the Cupcake Tower
Photo Camp!
Yesterday, I held “Photo Camp” – an afternoon of photo skills and creative exercises for middle-high school students. We were a little cold, but had a lot of fun and even got to enjoy some delicious hot chocolate! Teaching people how to make better pictures is rewarding for me, and its even better when I can shoot for fun and see what happens. I managed to get a few exposures off yesterday and it was great. I don’t do enough shooting for fun! So I took some of my own advice and shot for a few of the assignments.
I loved being in school and having to fulfill fun assignments. Your brain grows so much when you do this! We’re doing another session of Photo Camp in October, so if you’re interested, let me know!
Make a picture of the sky:
Make a Photograph of the Sky
Make a picture of the ground:
Make a Photograph of the Ground
Make an empty picture:
Make an Empty Picture
Make a full picture:
Make a Full Picture
JP Greenhouse Party and Art Show!
One of the carpenters at the JP Greenhouse, where I have been documenting the construction of a carbon-neutral home, called today and asked if I would like to show some of my photographs at an end-of-construction celebration they will be having on January 22nd! Of course, I said yes and exclaimed that I was so flattered they even thought to ask me, and now will pick between 5-10 photos to print and display on the newly constructed walls. This party marks the end of Placetailor’s work on the construction and ushers in a new era of sub-contractors, electricians, plumbers, and others who will take the home into its final stages so the family can move in.
In other Greenhouse news, a few publications are looking at publishing some of the photos with accompanying stories, so stay tuned to see more of this work out in the real world!
And finally, here are some of the more recent shots of the construction, to keep you interested…
Check out my website to see some more: www.leisejones.com/JPGreenhouse
A New Year!!
Well, it is officially 2010, so Happy New Year to everyone out there! This is a big year for me. First, (unrelated to the purpose of this blog) it is the year I am getting married! Very exciting. T minus 131 days and counting…
Second, related to my career and, thus, the purpose of this blog, it will be my first full year as a freelance photographer. In 2009, I stumbled into freelancing when I graduated from school and had to find my way. In 2008, I faked freelancing while I was still a student and therefore was justified in making tons of mistakes and not really being a “business-person.” In 2007 I jumped into freelancing by quitting my full-time job and starting photography school. So I have been working my way to this place for three years, and now I am finally here. I woke up on Friday morning, January 1, 2010, a full-fledged freelance photographer by my own will and of my own making.
Related to that, 2010 will be the year of positivity. You can’t build a business unless you have tons of positive momentum. So in 2010, I am vowing to be positive and create positive momentum for myself. I am making the pledge to myself and to the world that I will try my hardest to look up.
And today I did just that. I literally walked around in the cold, just looking up and shooting what caught my eye. Have you ever walked around looking up? Its fascinating up there! Who knew? Especially in the winter we spend so much time looking down — keeping our faces warm, preventing falls on the ice, looking out for puddles — but looking up creates a whole new world.
Here’s to looking up, literally and figuratively!
Night Photography
Why is night photography so cool? I have never really done much of it, and then found myself with a couple of hours to kill last night, so headed out with my camera. These pictures aren’t even that great photographically, the compositions are nothing to write home about. And yet I love looking at them! Something so magical about how a camera renders nighttime shots. I am dazzled by this.
Slideshow on Grist.com
My project chronicling the reconstruction of the JP Greenhouse, which will ultimately be one of the most energy efficient homes in Massachusetts, has continued through the fall. I haven’t been there as much as I would have liked, thanks to other commitments, bad weather and other factors, but every time I go I am amazed by the beauty of the place, the speed of the progress and the peaceful concentration with which the carpenters go about their work.
A set of my images have gone on display at Grist.com, an online environmental magazine that has been following the JP Greenhouse Project as well. Click here to see the slideshow.
To construct this slideshow I narrowed my images down from about 75 to about 20. It wasn’t an easy process and the editing continues. Feedback is welcome!
Also posted in Non-Profit Groups, Uncategorized
Tagged non-profit groups, personal work
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Its fall already?
Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything. But I have been doing plenty of other things: I got engaged, moved to a new apartment, taught a week of Photo Camp, started a new part-time job, shot a bunch of weddings and portraits and am adjusting to the new fall weather here in New England. This takes more energy than you might realize. The darker and darker evenings and the cooler and cooler days makes me very melancholy and slow.
But I have been shooting and have kept up with my work. Four of my food pictures will be going up in a show called “Eat the Art” at the art gallery at Bunker Hill Community College and the opening is September 24th. It is a show featuring artwork about food, and my stuff was a natural addition. You have seen some of these before, but here they are in case you forgot what the work looks like.
This is a series I plan to continue. I already have shot a few more vegetables and food items this fall in an attempt to keep the momentum going. Squash, onions, peppers, mushrooms. Pretty much all kinds of pizza toppings, actually. I just love realizing what they look like when photographed closely and carefully.
Also Jamaica Plain Open Studios is coming up two weeks from today and I am scrambling to pull together a display. I will have prints for sale, a few framed but mostly unframed. Work from the food series, from my Argentina travels last year and from the JP Greenhouse documentary work. I will have greeting cards and some black and white prints. I don’t know exactly what I will feature, but there will be work and it will be exciting. My location is the Brewery Complex on Amory Street and I have been told that thousands of people go by there every day! Some great publicity, I hope.
So all in all, the fall is coming up to be a much busier time than I even imagined. I am up to my elbows in art shows, weddings, school portraits and digital slideshows. But I am not complaining! It feels great to be working so much, great to be inundated with this career of photography and great to be gaining publicity for my work.
