Semjase Portrait Sketch Photoshoot

by Ted Denmark

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As I was reviewing the image library on my web site (TedDenmark.com), I was surprised to find that Julie’s second sketch of Semjase, dating from May of 2019, what I called the “portrait sketch” at the time (to distinguish it from the first sketch of her in “fashionable Pleiadian dress”), was not included, even though the ebook in which it first appeared (Star Time Convergence) was published in September of that year. Many of Julie’s sketches of our other conference “regulars,” such as Hilarion, Athena, Phindar and Rhi, did appear in my image library and which have long since gotten out onto the Internet for retrieval—but not the second Semjase portrait sketch, which still does not show up (as of March, 2023) in a suitably directed browser search.

But it just so happens that I made a serious effort late last year to do a photoshoot of all of Julie’s delightful sketches, which now number to twenty-five (including Semjase), with my (25 mp) Sony Alpha 6500 camera on a tripod with several controlled lighting setups. I had done scans of them earlier but now needed to take the best images possible for producing suitable archival versions that could be slightly tweaked to correct a few minor defects (water having dripped on a couple of them, etc.). It turned out to be a little more complicated than anticipated since I ended up having to use an image editor (Gimp) to change the background brightness and contrast levels in a number of the images (too dark) that the camera couldn’t seem to do as well as I had hoped by itself, so I ended up with several versions of each sketch.

I love all the wonderful Sketches Julie has made of our “dear friends, exo-family and exotic visitors,” as we most commonly refer to them, but I do have my group of favorites among the sketches, and the one of Semjase heads that shorter list since Julie, it seems to me, was able to achieve such a high level of perfection with it—the true realm of artistry. It amuses Julie—or makes her a bit nervous—when I tell her the Semjase likeness is reminiscent of the work of the great Italian master painter Leonardo himself. Well, the rare beauty of this image of the wonderful Semjase has been captured, I feel, in a way that fortunately we are able to share online, so here are a few of my favorites of these shots most recently taken of it. BTW if you haven’t heard, there are no genuine photographs of Semjase, who is rather modest in a way that was initially surprising to me, that have ever been made public, though she did characterize her likeness in this sketch of Julie’s, that will now be showcased here … as good.

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