A Summer Job on the Jersey Shore

Not something I ever really thought I'd have! Here I am in Asbury Park, New Jersey interning with Andrei Jackamets. I started this past Monday working with Andrei, and have had a blast so far!


So this is my first entry in the communal blog we have for this wonderful program. I will, therefore, introduce myself:
Hello! My name is Elyse Lenore Leyenberger. I graduated in May from UArts with a BFA in Photography with a minor in Art History. I was lucky enough to recieve the opportunity to intern with a fellow alumnus of our wonderful university, and am very excited for the month ahead of me.


Back to business! Asbury is a really cool town full of neat shops and restaurants, which Andrei was kind enough to give me a short walking tour of. We travelled the neighborhood and he pointed out good places to park and good places to grab a bite. 

This little guy is called"Tillie"... he's Asbury's mascot, kind of.

Back at the studio we talked about our goals for this experience. Andrei is interested in learning more about Adobe software to maximize his workflow, and I want to better understand the business side of things and what makes his operation tick. His operation is rather small, so although he may not need me to do work for him every time I am there, he wants me to work on my portfolio and learn his equipment  during my time in the studio. This is a great perk for me, because I have lots of ideas of how I want to change and improve my current portfolio to fit my goals.

We started off by doing a brief lesson in Lightroom, how it works and how to quickly label and organize images. I learned how his digital archive is organized, and how some of his software and devices work. It was a short day, but packed with new experiences. OH! Did I mention that Andrei is a beekeeper on the side? 

Because he is. How awesome is that? Very awesome. Today he gave me my very own jar of his delicious honey, cleverly called "Honey Moon"

I had a taste of it back at the studio and it is absolutely delicious. I'm so lucky to have my own jar! 


So today, Andrei was busy working through some event photos he had shot. As he did that, he challenged me to set up some still lives using difficult surfaces and unusual set ups. So I kept busy in the studio making photographs. Pretty nice deal, if I do say so myself!

Black glass + pearls = beautiful.

So that about wraps it up as a summary for this week! I'm learning and living and having a great time with a really good person. Looking forward to what is to come next week! 


Elyse