I HEART JULIA

Julia is one of those positive and upbeat people you always want to be around. Her growing love for photography is contagious! Take a peek at some of her amazing images here.

XO

FAVORITES // HEATHER CHAMP

The wonderful Heather Champ has started something that is quickly making checking my email even more fun, Favorites. Favorites is an email list you subscribe to. Each week Heather choses subscriber submitted photos to send out in an email. Most weeks there is a theme that you can interpret and submit to or you can just join the list and receive really awesome photos that you might have otherwise missed in our fast paced, visually overstimulated world! I am absolutely guilty of scrolling through Tumblr or Instagram very quickly, taking just a few seconds here or there to "heart" something, so the idea of an email being sent to me with carefully chosen goodness is super appealing! I think it's a brilliant idea! 

I was lucky enough to have a photo used in one of the emails a few weeks ago, here's a screen shot of my submission. 

Subscribe to Favorites here! Big thanks to Heather for brightening up our inboxes! 

CLARE MASSEY // POLAROID PROJECT

My friend Anne sent me an envelope with a tiny piece of paper in it with instructions. The directions were to choose two Impossible Project photos to send along for a project. The photos will be a part of an exhibition and a final project for an artist named Clare Massey.

I loved this concept so of course I sent in two pictures. My submissions were created with the Instant Lab and Impossible Project's PX 680 CP film. I chose one image of a pretty wall I saw in Boulder, CO that I photographed with my phone and the other was a wall of lips from Ikea! On both occasions that these photos were taken with my iPhone I was without proper camera and I'm so glad that the Instant Lab exists so I can have a tangible photograph to mail out! Read my review about the Instant Lab here.

Excited to see the other submissions from around the world! Speaking of projects, as they say on Game of Thrones, "Winter is Coming!". I need to start brainstorming fun photo projects to keep me sane during the cold Chicago Winter months!

XO

LISA + CHRIS // DENVER WEDDING

I had such a blast at Lisa + Chris' wedding last month in Denver. They got married in a really cute church turned photo studio turned wedding venue with a backyard perfect for any party, Ralston's Crossing! Lisa and Chris were the models for cool calm and collected on their wedding day. I loved the little nesting doll toppers on their cake. SO CUTE (and a total, why didn't I think of that moment- I love Nesting Dolls!) Lisa picked them up on a trip to the Ukraine, she wanted to include a bit of Chris' heritage into the day which made them that much more significant! They enjoyed themselves with family and friends and A LOT of dancing. Props to Lisa who can and will shame the best of them on the dance floor!

Wedding Day Details:

Photographer: Me! Azuree Wiitala // Venue: Ralston's Crossing // Florist: Cori Cook Floral Design // Wedding Dress: Sottero-Midgley // Wedding Shoes: Chelsea Crew (Lisa added those cute blue bows herself) // Wedding Invitations: Hairpin Press // DJ: A Music Plus // Groom's Bow Tie: Tommy Hilfiger // Groom's Pocket Square: J Crew // Salon: Honeycomb Salon // Bride's Headpiece: The Yellow Peony // Musician: Aaron Foster (who makes his own beautiful guitars!) // Lisa and her friends and family made their own beautiful backdrop, embellished bookpage garland and paper rosettes! What a crafty lady!

You can see more of Lisa + Chris's wedding on my Facebook page! 

RACHEL WINSLOW // PHOTO FRIEND

I am super lucky to have some very talented, creative friends. It's wonderful to be surrounded by people who are constantly pushing themselves and creating - it makes me keep pushing forward too! One of those rad people is my girl Rachel Winslow. Rachel is an a master at experimental film photography. She's always trying different things, experimenting with techniques, coming up with photo ideas. I love that! I'm much more of a take-pictures-of-whats-going-on type of gal so I'm always impressed with people who can come up with great ideas and execute them well!

We recently got together with some other friends to go on a photowalk here in Chicago on the Bloomingdale Trail but it was fenced off and drizzling out so we just hung out under this bridge instead taking pictures with all of our different cameras and it was just as fun. How cute is Rachel's outfit? It hasn't quite felt like Fall here yet, but since it was rainy Rachel wore her Tretorn lined rain boots and her outfit was so cute and functional! I love effortless style!

Thank you for being such an inspiration Rachel! Do you have friends that inspire you?

THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT'S INSTANT LAB // MAGIC MACHINE!

When The Impossible Project made an Kickstarter for their Instant Lab I jumped on it. I love the idea of a camera that allows you to make instant pictures from your iPhone! There have been so many times that I've wished I had one of my SX70's with me and made due with my phone. Now I can have that physical print!

The Instant Lab's creative possibilities don't stop there. Since you are able to control when the film ejects, a whole new world of creative opportunities unfold including double exposures, printing mixed media art, and hacking the lab to use it as a camera itself. I can imagine someone making a pinhole camera out of it for instance.

The lab is easy to use, I've roughly outlined the steps in the pictures above. It can take any integral film (except Spectra or PZ films)- you can use the free Impossible Project companion app to make adjustments to your digital image before printing it, including telling the app what kind of film you are using. The app is pretty cool, it has a built in "scanner" that does a pretty good job at getting a square picture of your image so you can easily share it or upload it to the Impossible Project gallery right from your phone.

Speaking of which, The Impossible Project Gallery is an amazing place to get inspiration from. The app allows you to view the gallery right from your phone. You can like and comment on people's photos as well as follow your favorite photographers.

The packaging is amazing. I'm definitely a sucker for good packaging / boxing and I was not disappointed with this. The USB powered charger even came a velcro cord wrap! How is that for attention to detail?!

I have no complaints about the lab at all. It's easy to use, beautifully packaged, seems to be well made, and produces some fun images. There is a learning curve to getting images the way you want them since the films have an aesthetic of their own, but I found a few settings I liked in just a few tries. (Less contrast seems to work best for me).

So. GO GET ONE!

I've made a set on Flickr for my instant lab images. Let me know what you think!

XO

BUTTERFLIES + BUFFALO

As soon as I heard there was a huge working camera downtown Chicago I literally ran out of the house to go see it. I brought my 195 and some Polaroid black and white film with me, which I had never shot before- it's beautiful! At any rate- I learned a little bit about the project, called Butterflies + Buffalo. Photographer Dennis Manarchy has built this camera from scratch, I believe it's the largest working camera in the world! He is embarking on a journey around the United States to photograph American cultures with it. There were some portraits taken with the camera on display that are stunning. The details are incredible and the print size is awe inspiring! 

The camera itself is gorgeous. The lens plate is beautifully constructed. The entire thing is a work of art in itself. Here are some photos I shot of it. 

So excited to see this project unfold. If you're interested in donating to help make this a reality you can do so on their website here. 

I believe the camera will be out on display until October 31st so if you find yourself in Chicago, make time to go see it! It's really an amazing thing to take see in person!

XO

PARIS ON FILM

Paris was the dreamy photographic feast I imagined it to be and so much more. It is definitely the type of place words fail, you really just have to go and experience it. I am so glad that I got to take this trip with my Mom- ten days in Paris to see the sights, shop, and fill ourselves with coffee and croissants, which we most definitely did!

It's been almost a month since we returned from our voyage. A few things that stand out in my mind-

Everyone there seems to be so leisurely with their time- people don't seem particularly hurried there. There are so many cafe's to just sit and relax at, people watching and sipping at tiny cups of coffee and enjoying conversations.

The ladies dress so well! I was expecting to see high fashion scary intimidating girls everywhere, like when you're in SoHo and you're walking down the street with actual models but it seemed to me that women were more casual about their dress. Not to say that they didn't look well put together, but it looked so effortless and flawless! I thought everyone wore clothes that suited their bodies and they looked so comfortable with themselves. I didn't see a ton of designer labels or too trendy types either! I loved that!

You're lucky if you get one napkin at any given restaurant and they aren't laying around for you to grab either. Ice doesn't seem to be a thing there.

People on bikes don't look like bike people, if that makes sense. I know here in Chicago bike culture is a huge thing so it was interesting to see beautifully dressed girls riding their bikes right alongside a cute old man. No Chrome bags!

Every street is beautiful. I mean, hands down. The graffiti was pretty terrible, but not as bad as the "street art" in Rome. I guess there it's more tagging than murals and murals are my preference, but I thought that even the tagging was kind of bad. I'm no expert though!

The butter. Omg, the butter. My Mom and I made a little ritual of going to the bakery near the apartment we were staying at every evening and getting a baguette to eat with butter and cheese. We ate an entire baguette every single night we were there!

The trains come about every three minutes! I was so amazed by that. THREE MINUTES! We didn't ride any buses but I thought that the public transportation there was excellent.

The only negative things I can think of are that Coke is extremely expensive there, but I believe that to be true in most of Europe and probably for the best, it can be a little difficult to find a bathroom - although they did have these public restroom pods here and there- the line for them was always ridiculous. IT'S SO EXPENSIVE. Food and shopping, but really I would be happy if all I had eaten was bread and butter because I was feasting on the culture and the sights there!

This post ended up being WAY longer than I was expecting. All I meant to say when I started writing was that I've started posting pictures of Paris on my Flickr! Take a peek at this set. In order not to be overwhelming I'm adding new photos over the next few days.

Have you been to Paris? What are your thoughts on the city? Can I see your photos?!