Hwhup The Deans List? The Jason Dean here, bringing an end to the penultimate weekend of summer. That’s right folks, don’t shoot the messenger, but it’s that time. Next weekend is Labor Day and if you’ll indulge me some light cursing in my own newsletter…where the poop did the summer go?

I am normally not a big summer guy, honestly. Even though I live minutes away from the largest freshwater lake in the world*, I don’t enjoy biting black flies, large crowds, tourists, or high temperatures; all prominent features of a summer in Marquette. It’s why I don’t have a lot of summer images. Honestly, I took more photos this summer than I ever have before, but that is only because I’ve really discovered my love of abstract macro photography.

Still, I know some people absolutely adore summer. So to those people, I honor you by pouring one out.

Anyways. Let’s get into it.

Economics

Last week, I teased THE THRILLING CONCLUSION OF (editors note: nope, still not actually concluding) THE JASON DEAN. But I underestimated how slow the world is sometimes, and so I don’t have anything of substance to really announce here. Next week, for sure*!

What I can tell you is I’m continuing to develop my photography business. I’ve updated the photos I intend to be available for sale on my website, and in a shocking development…I’m actually making headway on having photos available to be purchased on my website! And in the meantime, you can always reach out to me if you see a photo you like that you want to own. I can print locally-Taryn and Kurt at Second Story Studios do a wonderful job of printing photos (among the many, many other things they do wonderfully!)- and even if you’re not a local here in Marquette, we can make it work!

Also, if you just want to donate to the cause and the art that I’m creating, you can do so below.

Finally, a big thing you can do to support me is to simply share this newsletter! Be it on Facebook, X, LinkedIn…letting your friends know about this awesome photographer/artist/writer and the cool things he’s doing would be a pretty cool thing to do.

Civics

If you’ve been paying a little bit of attention to the news (and full disclosure, ‘a little bit of attention’ is my amount), the current presidential administration has been launching an assault on some of the most vulnerable people in our country- people who are homeless.

This assault is both direct and indirect and puts at-risk people even more at-risk. And for why is he doing that exactly? I don’t know. Could be legit policy reasons or economic reasons I guess…but if you tell me that God saved you to be president and then you actively are working to hurt people that you should be protecting, you might have lost the thread.

Especially as a “Christian” administration.

Now I’ve laid out the case before that the Trump administration is not Christian administration and nothing has happened since to change my mind. But maybe you’re still on the fence. If that’s you, then I think you might want to strongly consider how Jesus is likely to think about the administration’s actions towards people who are homeless.

Spoiler alert- probably not a fan.

See, Christ compels us to treat those less fortunate with kindness, compassion, and mercy. Not for gain or reward, but because we are all God’s children, made in His image. BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

“34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”- Matthew 25:34-40, NIV

Just some food for thought.

Art

This isn’t going to happen often, but sometimes in my art-focused newsletter, I’m going to be light on art. If you’re a member of The Deans List, you understand that I am a complex person and I contain multitudes.

Why are you laughing?

Anywho, I’m not going to leave you completely empty-handed. Here’s a couple of images to get you through until next week (although I do still share images on Instagram if 2x week interaction with me is not helping you meet your FDA-recommended daily amount of The Jason Dean).

I hope you like them! I am currently sitting an about 800 images that are crying out to be culled, sorted, and edited. While not all 800 of those will see the light of day- not even close to that number, really- I do have some images coming up that I am SUPER pumped to share with you all 😍

Field Trip

This weekend I’ve submitted to a few artist calls to some new galleries. I’ll keep you posted, although I am not sure any of them will come to fruition. My motto is ‘Expect Rejection’- not because I think my stuff is bad by any means, but because I’m a bit of an acquired taste. Ultimately I keep trying because I believe in the vision and know that there are people out there that do to.

Like you! Aaaand my awesome bros and broettes with The Secret Society Of The Finch. I just can’t say enough about these wonderful people and how they’ve helped me grow tremendously as an artist!

For the first few years of photography, I was largely a lone wolf, which fed nicely into my deep-seeded “Me vs. The World” complex that I had, still have, and will probably always have on some level. But finding a group of fellow photographers that are kind, encouraging, knowledgeable, talented, and passionate has helped me hone my own craft and discover my own voice in a way that I would have never thought possible until this year.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being a part of this group is having other people that are, like, ‘Hey, you want to go out and shoot?’. I’m such a homebody, it’s quite easy for me to get done with work and call it a day. But I’ll absolutely tag along on a photo outing, as I have done several times already this year. It’s extremely rewarding on multiple levels- I’ve been able to develop new relationships, which is an important part of being a social animal, I’ve been able to watch how other people do photography- what they are drawn to, what they see, and how they set about capturing it, and it just gives me a reason to go out exploring with my camera, which is never a bad thing when you live in Marquette!

This past week, me and a few fellow Finches met up at Little Presque to wander around and capture the sunset.

This would have been enough to qualify the evening as an absolute banger, but then David let me borrow his 500mm Prime lens and OH MY GOD. Ima halfta get me oneuh those.

Thanks David for letting me borrow your lens and ensuring that I will remain in debt since, I mean, obviously I have to get my own!

(Mrs.The Dean, if you’re reading this…I’m not going to actually get my own…yet 😁)

And that brings us to the end of another Weekender. I appreciate you making it to the end of my newsletter! While I do tend to dilly dally and sometimes don’t fully land the plane…you have to admit, you just can’t get this kind of “content” anywhere else!

See you around,

Jason