Jennifer Elias Photography

This week, the weather has been beyond phenomenal - especially for March! I think it's finally safe to say Spring has sprung! .. or at least, I hope so! I know we're all crossing out fingers that it's here to stay and mother nature won't come in with the ol' one two punch any time soon to drop some of that [awful] white stuff on us. You never know what can happen in March! We've been driving/sleeping/living with the windows open and loving every minute of it. With warm weather comes the instant desire to spend some extra time down by the water, and we have been doing just that! A lot has been going on in my personal life - and it never fails that being by the water offers some sort of peace and serenity. When the going gets tough, the tough head to the beach! ... something like that. Naturally, I've been taking my Instax with me every time and snappin' some more shots. I know, more Instax photos? Oh yes. Believe me, the fun is just getting started. Ch...

Since the weather has been absolutely beautiful today, AJ & I finally decided to go check out this building near downtown Cleveland that we've been aching to photograph. I took along my new Instax Wide to snap a few shots as well, and I think it's safe to say I'm absolutely head over heels in love with it! Here are the shots I snapped with it: This building is absolutely beautiful - I feel like the pictures might not do it justice. I also took along my Pentax, so once I get the negatives back from that I'll be scanning those in to share as well. Oh, and check out this awesome photo AJ snapped of my Michigan tattoo. I'm submitting it to a blog that is all about state tattoos, so I'll be sure to share the link to that once it's up! I'm so glad we went to check out this building! It's a Cleveland gem, that's for sure. Buildings like this always fascinate me - I want to know more about them... what they used to be, how/when they became vacant, et...

To a brand new baby Fuji Instax Wide! Last week after much debate, I finally decided to spoil myself and purchase a camera I've long drooled over. I figured with it being tax return time, this would be my one big "splurge" .. and I'm so excited about it. I try to do something nice each year with my tax return because well, I worked hard all year for that money . My camera is "schedule for delivery" sometime tomorrow along with 2 wonderful boxes of film. I absolutely cannot wait! I suppose I guess what this post should really read is "Watch Out: Lots of Instax photos comin' your way!" In other news, but I've been cutting, scanning, photoshoppin', cutting more and scanning again all week. I think I've finally finished my first piece, but I don't want to show quite yet. It seems out of context at this point, so I think I'm going to wait until I have a few others to share! Keep your eyes peeled!

I've been out of school for 10 months now ( wow, where has the time gone? ) and lately I've been feeling like something is missing. It's hard to explain, but I'm been feeling off. Different. No one really prepares you for what is next. Not just "the real world" but what really happens, mentally. It's a really weird and different experience to go from dedicating your whole entire life to creating something, anything, every waking moment, to simply, not . I was a full time student for four years. I worked as much as possible outside of school to support myself, but I still dedicated myself 100% to my school work. I left jobs because they consumed too much of my time, and I was so so so focused on what I was doing. I loved my Thesis. I loved every bit of pouring a year of my blood, sweat, and tears into one project and having a magnificent final show to show for it. I've never felt more accomplished and more in love with anything. ( I didn't know it...

I finally got around to scanning some of the images from a wintery beach adventure AJ and I had last month! It was a total spur of the decision where we just decided to grab our 35s and drive out to Lake Erie to see what we could find - and I'm really glad we did! These are just a few of my favorite shots from that day, you can see more (and larger versions) here . I don't know what it is, but there is just something so appealing about the beach's landscape in the winter time. While I'm thankful we had an exceptionally warm and short season, I'm always left wishing I could have shot something more. Maybe it's the fact that the lake never really froze this year and I wasn't able to capture certain things I had hoped to. There's always next year though! And really, who can complain about Spring making an early arrival, right?