HELLO AGAIN!

Annnnd I'm back! The past few months have been busy with lots of fun photo projects, weddings, portrait sessions and even some adventures! I can't wait to start catching up on here which I hope to do soon since things have begun to slow down a bit!

It is Thanksgiving weekend and I feel that I have a lot to be thankful for. This year has proven to be the most exciting one yet in pretty much every way I can think of. It feels good to slow down and reflect on the good things in life. I feel so thankful for my tiny family, Christopher and his support in all my endeavors, the fun adventures I've gotten to share with my Mom, our health, an amazing group of friends and new ones that have been made this year, all those little things we can find joy in daily (for us it's probably starring at the rabbits and being so amused by them), and that I have a hobby and career that I find so fulfilling! 

I have mixed feelings about black friday and what it brings out in all of us, but I'm happy to be spending the afternoon with my two best friends working on a post for our Chicago-awesome-places-to-eat-blog and catching up on life, eating amazing thai food and feeling thankful!

XO

azuree

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