Hwhup The Deans List! The Jason Dean here, with the first official edition of The Weekender, my Sunday Newsletter packed with goodies, treats, and just a hint of shenaniganism.
Art
I was on vacation this week so I got a little extra camera time and tried to make the most of it. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it out to the lake during the HUGE Wednesday snowstorm. I started to head that way, but with the whiteout conditions and uncertainty about the plowing of Presque Isle park, I decided to be safe and headed for downtown, where I thought it would be neat to capture some of the brick textures
Not a bad pivot.
After returning home for a few hours, I decided I just had to go back out. These kinds of snow storms don’t happen every day after all, even in Marquette. Thankfully, there is a beautiful patch of woods right across the street from my house, so after shoveling (for the fourth time!) the end of the driveway, I grabbed my trusty Nikon D7500 and headed out into the woods. When the snow is blowing, one of my favorite techniques to use is a slow shutter speed with a flash and a motion drag. I end up with a lot of unusable garbage, but then there’s times when I capture stuff like this:
The last shot I have to share is a shot from Monday when I caught a gorgeous sunrise on the beach across form the Superior Dome. It was a quick stop- I had just dropped my son off at school, so I wasn’t ‘Photographer Prepared’, but I had my camera and a dream.
History
Just a housekeeping update this week. I’m still working on getting my streaming capabilities up and going. One of the exciting but sometimes slightly frustrating things about wandering off the beaten path and trying new things is that you are constantly confronted with all of the things you don’t know anything about.
For instance, I thought I could just use my YouTube account to live stream photo editing from my computer. Apparently you also need to have separate streaming software to be able to do this. And if you thought the same (or don’t even know what any of these words mean), congratulations! You know as little about technology as I do.
Early returns aren’t what I’d hoped for, but I’m not giving up yet. Rest assured I will be providing further updates as events warrant.
Field Trip
I received confirmation yesterday that the three pieces I submitted for the April Juried show at Sault Area Art Center have been accepted! I’m excited to once again be participating in one of their shows. The Alberta House is a gorgeous location for an art house, within walking distance of the Soo Locks, and new Operations Manager Libbey is doing a great job of taking their programming to the next level. The show will run from April 3 through May 9 and the three pieces that will be shown are:
I have a couple of submissions out for consideration in upcoming art publications; Hintology and Humana Obscura. Really quick- if you are an abstract photographer (or have even taken some abstract photos), poet, or graphic designer…PLEASE consider submitting to the next issue of Hintology! They are looking to get 100 submissions by May 1. This is a top notch publication with pages and pages of some of the most breathtaking images and thought-provoking words you’ve ever seen.
Finally, I am participating in the 100dayproject being put on by the Bonifas Art Center. The basic premise is that for 100 days, you either make art or work on art, and then in November there will be a gallery show of all the art that folks have made. I chose to take photos every day of my glass apple, cleverly* calling the project An Apple a (100) Day(s).
This is one of the first (unedited) photos I took for the project. I’ve been enjoying finding new and creative ways to photograph The Apple and put The Apple into new and unique settings. It’s been a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for you to see the final version!
January 20, 2025
That’s it for today. Thanks again for being a member of The Deans List. At some point I’ll stop telling you how excited I am for this journey…but it is not this day!
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See you around,
Jason
*Not actually all that clever
**Not actually Uber Eats
