Simply Jessie Photography - San Francisco | Chicago Photography » green

Maria + Luis | Chicago Modern Maternity Photography

Jessie — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:52:44 +0000

Maria is so beautiful and Luis adoring. This session is in my top five ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you for trusting me fully and allowing me to create these images of intimacy and expectant waiting. Maria has five weeks to go. Congratulations to you both.

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Think Happy Thoughts.

Jessie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:17:23 +0000

Isn’t it Peter Pan who said, “All you need is to think happy thoughts, a little fairy dust, and you can fly!” This terrarium is my happy thought. During these long dreary grey days, I’ve been fixating my eyes on this glass jar of life. I planted this terrarium around Valentine’s Day and it has been a spot of happy green alive joy every single day since. I parade it around to Eric as he tries to understand and glean the same kind of wonder and delight that I do. Its ok. Its just the way I’m made. It reminds me that Spring in fact going to come, and that I will again be surrounded by life in the form of trees and green blades of grass. Some of these really dark last days of winter I’ve even closed my eyes and tried to imagine it all away, think my happy thoughts, sprinkle my fairy dust and be transported to Hawaii, or maybe even Never Never Land. Just somewhere , anywhere there is sunshine and warmth. I’ve imagined sandy beaches, walks in the forest or given up and just wished hibernation. The winter is hard for me. Anyone that knows me, knows that. It is s apparent and embarrassingly obvious. I am a different person when the sun comes out and the air warms up.

Remember this post? I really have tried to remain true to embracing each season, to enjoy the stillness, the deep rest that winter brings to all living things. To not fight it, but agree that yes I too need winter. I need it to slow down and to think deeply. But March is hard. I am straining to live present in the reality of each day, to not wish away my days. I don’t want to miss one day of this one life I have, to embrace it even if with difficulty. I too need winter as do you. We need the dark dismal lifeless daysto remind us of how amazing life really is, how connected we are to nature and the world around us, to rest, to be still, and to yearn for more. More life. More green. More dreams. More Hope. Its renewal. I just can’t wait.

So dear Chicago… help me out here… bring us all that Spring has to offer! And please bring it fast!

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Valentines Day in 70 degrees!

Jessie — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:20:36 +0000

Eric and I decided to head to the Garfield Park Conservatory for a day spent together in 70 degree greenhouses filled with ferns, spring flowers and the like. I woke up like a kid on Christmas morning, excited, smiley and all twitchy for the fun to begin…. Eric was sleeping peacefully while I was starting at his face intently willing him to wake and immediately asked … ” Can we get up so we can go?? “. Eric gracefully smiled and said ” Yes. Let’s go.” We had our usual morning coffee, exchanged our cute cards which by the way did not involve big red hearts or over used words, but words of affirmation and celebration of what we have together.

My favorite space there is the Fern Room. It has plantings of mosses, ferns and cycads and an indoor lagoon. It was created to evoke what the landscape would have looked like in pre-historic times. They had plants in there over 300 years old. This was my favorite room. I was in heaven….

We then headed off into the Show Room for their Spring Flower show. The greenhouse was FULL of blooming azaleas in bright pinks, fushias, whites and purples along with perfect white camelias and sweet smelling hyacinths. Towering overhead were big Southern Magnolias and a few crabapple trees. Now this room felt like home, sweet home Alabama will soon be full of all of these blooming beauties. ISpring is my favorite time of the year in the south.

Told you I loved them….

We continued on to the Desert House full of cacti and succulents. This is a favorite for Eric. Doesn’t this look like a little village?

We even found one that looks like Eric!

We headed back to the Fern Room to soak in the last rays of sunshine and enjoy the 70 degrees!

Where did you go with your Valentine??

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Monday Morning….

Jessie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:57:09 +0000

On Monday morning, my soul found some quiet or at least less panic. It was very cloudy, and the air was so humid you felt like you were walking in the rain. Now I know for many, this is NOT an ideal morning, but for me it was just right. Warm sticky mornings remind me of home and despite my bad hair day ….calms me. I found myself drinking it in, my wandering was not frantic but pensive and my mind was still. I was stuck by the water lilies, with their vibrant green on the dark water. Because of the cloud cover , the edges of the lily pads were crisp and distinct and dark water was glassy.

With my camera all packed up walking towards my car, I ran into beautiful Dahlias in the parking lot. I didn’t even know flowers came in these colors!

Also in the parking lots I found fruit still covered in the wetness of the night’s rain. Last week I would have walked right past.

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Quieting my soul….

Jessie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:15:38 +0000

My newest venture is teaching a Photography Portfolio Workshop at Chicago Botanic Gardens for eight weeks. Last Monday was the first class where I met a variety of talented aspiring nature photographers. I designed this class to help these individuals develop their own nature portfolio to show off. Each student has a theme or focus . They vary from, water, lines and textures, leaves ,fall flowers etc. They turned in their first assignment last night and I have already been blown away by the glory of nature and the talent of these students. They are each on their unique journey to express what they see to a camera lens. I feel humbled and privileged to help them in their next steps of this journey. My class is broken into two parts. First part, is technical instruction and critique, and the second hour is shooting time in the garden to develop their portfolio and complete their next assignment.

WhatI learned in the hour, was not mind blowing fine art, but was about myself……that my soul has not been quiet for quite some time and apparently does not know how. That morning started off with over preparation and plenty of time,but turned into traffic to the MAX, wrong turns,hurrying to my classroom, organizing my things and having 5 min before meeting the class. When the second hour of our time came to go out with our cameras and be inspired …. I found this hour WAY harder than the rest of my morning even compared to the stopped traffic on I-94. My iphone kept ringing, and buzzing with new emails. I just found my self listless, wandering and uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable to be silent, to be still, to let down and to just be.

My life for the last few months has been NUTS. Moving into this new space, painting, designing, advertising, efficiency, new sights, new everything!! Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT complaining. It has been more than I could have dreamed up for myself, yet…. in that only one brief hour at the garden, I panicked in the presence of quiet.

I am looking forward to the next seven weeks of this class, to stretch me, inspire me and to quiet me. I am looking forward to Monday where I am once again uncomfortable in the quiet where I know is home for me, to get reacquainted with nature and with myself. Funny how for me they are so intertwined….

A few from my wandering….

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