Jess LeClair Photography Blog

Here is the second public show I’ll be in this season:

I will be sharing a table with the lovely Diane Brakeley of Della Mano Designs (who also happens to be my mom!).

I hope to see you all there!

It’s hard to believe it, but the holidays are here again.  And whatever your particular reason for celebrating, most likely you are going to need gifts galore for the special people in your life.  So come buy my stuff!  I will be in several craft shows this year and the first of the season is only a week away!

Its the first annual Craft Fix! in Kittery, Maine. I will be there from 10 AM to 6 PM and will be selling not only my lovely line of greeting cards (some of which can be found on my etsy site here) but some new products as well! There will be pinback buttons in a variety of styles, magnets made from vintage buttons, flowers made from more vintage buttons, some lovely little baby body suits (yes, they are “onesies” but legally, I can’t call them that. Ask Gerber why.) and a few other goodies you’ll have to come see for yourself! So come support your local economy (and me!) and get some really cool and unique things for your friends and family this year!

As most of you know, Matt and I have been working on a project called Callithump! It is a magazine of arts and literature distributed through toy capsule vending machines. An issue is distributed across multiple capsules. Each capsule contains an “article,” which might be a poem, a series of photographs, a small sculpture… really any sort of creativity that can fit inside a capsule! (You can read more about it over at www.callithump.org )

Well, the lovely folks over at the UMaine Today Magazine got wind of this machine and what we were doing and asked if they could write an article on Matt for their fall issue!  And it just came out today!  You can read it online here:

http://webwpmu.ume.maine.edu/magazine/past-issues/volume-9-issue-4/extra-curricular/

If you click on the link at the top of the article that says “Slideshow” (or just click here), you’ll be able to see a series of photos I took of the machine and some of the contents of the capsules (and a few of you will recognize your own work there!)  And if any of you wonderful creative types are interested in submitting something for the next issue, we are always looking for more work!  To qualify for the magazine, what ever it is has to fit in a 2 inch capsule.  That’s it!

Check it out!  I’ve been blogged!  The lovely Delia who writes a guest column for fierceandnerdy.com wrote a wonderful bit on Valentine’s Day items that rock.  And she included one of my cards!

Read the article here: http://fierceandnerdy.com/?p=4476

My card is letter “s” in the list!  Woo!

Now go buy one at my etsy shop!

More exciting news on the greeting card front: you can now buy my cards at a real bricks and mortar type store!  Starting January 29th (or possibly the 30th) you can buy a selection of my Victorian Mash-up greeting cards in a real shop!  The store is called Ferdinand and it features an awesome selection of eclectic handmade and vintage art, cards, tshirts, acessories and other wonderfulness.  The store is located at 243 Congress Street in Portland, Maine and you can also see them online here.  Check them out and support some local art!

Oh yeah, and Happy 2009!

I am pleased to announce the official opening of my online Etsy shop!

Check it out: Jess LeClair Photography on Etsy.

There you will find greeting cards, buttons, and prints from my some of my favorite photographs (well, you’ll find those soon - I haven’t finished uploading all my goodies yet!  Keep checking back for more good stuff!)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Etsy, here is the About Us section from their site:

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.
Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.
Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice.
Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.

As I mentioned before, there are only a hand full of items listed at the moment, but keep checking back! I’ll be updating constantly. And if there is something of mine you are interested in, but don’t see up in the shop, let me know! I’d be happy to do a special order just for you!

I’d also like to add a small personal note at the end here.  I just wanted to say thanks for all the amazing support this year folks.  Its been a tough year all around and I am grateful to have so many wonderful people supporting me and my business.  I really appreciate it!  So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate, and take my warm thoughts with you as you visit family and friends.

Come see Jess LeClair Photography this weekend at the MECA Holiday Sale! I’ll be there all three days selling my photographs and greeting cards. You’ll also get to meet the woman behind Della Mano Designs, the lovely and talented Diane Dellamano Brakeley (who also happens to be my lovely and talented mother).

For more information, check out MECA’s website.

Mollie is another one of my favorite people to photograph!  I’ve been photographing her since she was a little tiny baby!  I can hardly believe how grown up she looks in these pictures!

Part of why I love working the way I do is that is makes the kids I photograph completely relaxed.  Because my studio is entirely portable, we can take the pictures anywhere a parent could want! These were taken in Mollie’s bedroom! It meant that she was completely at ease in an environment she is intimately familiar with.  Kids tend to open up and smile so much more easily when they aren’t uncomfortable or scared by a new place.

Of course, it does also mean they are a bit more distractable. This is Mollie showing me her dancing skills. She had the keyboard on the floor set to one of those auto tunes all keyboards seem to come with these days and was literally dancing circles around me!

And here she is hugging her Mumma’s belly. Mumma is going to have a baby any day now!

And of course, since we took these photos the day before Halloween, we had to see the costume. It’s a real cowgirl costume - all the way from Texas (via her aunt)! Personally, I’m a huge fan of the red boots.

So I’ve mentioned before that these are some of my very favorite kids on the planet.  And I am delighted to announce that they have a new baby brother Morgan!  (well, he was “new” 7 months before the photos were taken, but you get the idea)  He is just as adorable as his siblings and already has just as much personality.  He is a super mellow kid, which is good news for this highly energetic family.  He actually fell asleep in my arms while I was playing Rock Band with them one afternoon.  Now granted, I was only singing (and not for instance, playing the drums).  But it was far from a quiet performance I was giving.  I had him perched on my knee and when i looked down at the end of the song it was drool city all over my arm and he was in dream land.  The ability to sleep through anything is an excellent quality to have as part of this family.

At any rate, we did our annual portraits a bit later this year than we usually do them.  But the weather worked out perfectly and we got some awesome shots!

I had to include this outtake in the mix of photos I posted. Jackson has one of those super expressive faces and this just cracked me up. I’m not even sure what happened at that moment to catch his attention! But the look on his face was just priceless!

And here he is! The newest member of this wonderful family! The ever adorable Morgan!

Some kids are just born to be in front of a camera. Michaela is one of those kids! She was so much fun to take pictures of! She has a beautifully expressive face and a great imagination and was an absolute joy in front of the camera. We were out at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. We wandered down among the rocks and tide pools and then back into the woods for a few more formal portraits. I barely worked - I just followed her lead! Here are a few of my favorites from that day (there are even more up on my flickr account).