Hazel de Vela

As I dropped my tea bag into my mug of hot water and blankly stared at it this morning, I noticed how oddly beautiful the water became as the tea began to infuse it slowly. I quickly reached for my phone and this is what I got.

Hotel Heartbreak. Queen Street West, Toronto

The family and I enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend in the city. We stopped at Yogurty’s on Queen and as I looked out the window, I was thrilled to see this picture-perfect view. 

Lately, the photos have been infrequent because of the lack of inspiration. This is the kind of eye-candy I wish I ran into all the time.

It really doesn’t get any better than having a delicious dinner at a sleek restaurant surrounded by some of the big players in the advertising industry - Tribal DDB, KBS+P, tag, Y&R. Cundari, Mediacom, and Three Training. In its second year running, Ad Lounge’s Dinner Series was another successful networking event for the bright up and comers. 

I had my chance to wine and dine last year, and if there is one thing I learned from that night, it’s that the advertising world is small - in a good way. I made connections and kept those connections. This year, I was invited to cover the event in photos.

It was a much darker room than I remember since the curtains were down, and I didn’t have my flash (If I were being honest, I wasn’t really planning on using one), and the lighting seemed to be slightly different in various corners of the room. So my 50mm f/1.4 worked real hard, with the help of ISO and exposure tweaks, and I’ve never appreciated it so much. Safe to say that with some tweaking post-shoot, the photos turned out well. See what you missed here.

I love cheese.

Goat cheese.
Cranberry goat cheese.
Smoked applewood cheese.
Sharp cheddar cheese.

King Street West lights up at night

Any guesses where this was taken?

Cabinet at the Distillery District

(1) and (3) Choreographer’s Showcase
With my brother front & centre

Cover to Cover at University of Waterloo
March 9, 2012

Fun with halftone.

Fun with colours.

Sometimes you pass by things over and over and over, without stopping to really understand what you’re passing by.
Now I know people can lock up their bikes at the Union Station Bus Terminal. And it’s over there.

From TED TV: Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes —
capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.

I’ve always tried to minimize post-production in my photography, this project shows how Photoshop can be put to good use to create a new piece - Brilliant.

Next month presents Ad Lounge’s Conversuasion, and guess who got her second invitation to be at the event and take some photos? *woot*

This event, back in 2010, was my first “gig” in photography and helped me realise two important things:

1. I really enjoy event photography
2. I might really enjoy working in advertising

So who knows what’ll happen this year…

Anyway, this event finally pushed me (maybe a little too quickly) to create a logo. While I can’t say there won’t be any rebranding in the future, I’m pretty happy with what I ended up with, given my limited skills…

(And thanks to free fonts from fontsquirrel.com…!)

Thoughts? :)

My one-photo-a-day attempt, hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped, but it’s only been 15 days since 2012 started, I’ve got more chances.

Here are some of the things that kicked my year off (clockwise from top left):

1. My second 1,000 Places to See Before You Die calendar - This reminds me to never forget to discover the world and its people. I learned so much from my exchange term and my Europe trip, and this calendar has 365 amazing photos of countries I’d like to see in my lifetime.

2. The Narcissism Epidemic - From reality shows like “My Sweet 16”, facebook statuses with drunk photos from “THE MOST EPIC NIGHT EVERRR” to our obsession with celebrities, our North American society is incredibly self-absorbed, it’s really scary to think what our future holds. I’m fascinated by this cultural phenomena and this book sheds some light on how it started, and what we can do to prevent major disasters.

3. I saw this poster on a recent trip to Urban Outfitters. I laughed and took a photo because I’ve been doing a lot of whining and complaining to get hugs, smiles, and warm fuzzy feelings. Is that too much to ask?
Also, it costs $40. $40 for something I can create on Photoshop and print out.
The economics of this doesn’t make sense to me. Are there people out there who will pay for that?! 

4. Polaroid photos from the VERN Christmas, 2012 edition. I only see these girls a few times every year. I’d say this is one of our best Christmases yet.

5. The most thoughtful present I have ever received. My friend Gen is the absolute best at presents. This year, she took some of her favourite photos of mine and framed them for me. If that doesn’t inspire warm fuzzy feelings, you have a heart of stone.

6. Last but not least, mate. The coffee cup of Uruguay. This is a traditional South American drink, of yerba mate leaves infused in hot water (similar to full leaf tea here in North America). It’s a very social drink, usually shared, with everyone drinking for the same straw - you won’t see North Americans doing that anytime soon. I’ve got a kilo of yerba mate leaves and it’s about time to see why Uruguayans are so addicted to this stuff. Supposedly it’s way better than any caffeinated drink we’ve got here.

Well, there’s 6 pieces of my 2012 year so far. Next time, I won’t cheap out with Instagram.

Cheers.

Christmas Market at the Distillery District.

See more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazeldevela/

December: the “Friday” of the months of the year.
21 days until Christmas! 

I’m trying to find a project that I’d like to commit to for the new year. Something like the daily photo meme but not quite as common, to try and keep the creativity going (but mostly to practice discipline and commitment).

I’m not a fan of taking my DSLR everywhere, given that it would give me a third bag to carry with the other two I already do, on a normal work day…but again, that’s just laziness talking. 

If there are any ideas out there on mini personal photo projects that have been done in the past, send me a note :)

xo.

Still too early for Christmas decorations…?

Did a family photoshoot for a great friend, and here are some of my favourite shots. Any and all feedback are most welcome :)

Batangas, Philippines. Lizard’s silhouette.

As soon as I saw this, I ran for my point-and-shoot (the travel sidekick). Thankfully, the lizard didn’t have anywhere important to go in that time and I was able to take this beautiful shots. I was really creeped out by lizards when I was young and lived in the Philippines…they’re everywhere. And they’re jumpy little creatures, those lizards.

This picture strongly contrasts that feeling.

AdAge wrote a short and sweet article about how an ad salesman proposed to his  digital associate media director girlfriend.

I couldn’t get past the first few sentences of the article because all I kept thinking was “Is that Monotype Corsiva? Why?! Why did he choose that font face?!”

Maybe it was on purpose. I hope it was on purpose. I hope she didn’t mind. Well obviously, not because she said yes.

I sure would have had a hard time getting past that font face; I would have missed the entire proposal.

I’m not sure how I feel about these new ads. 
Well no, if I was being completely honest, I don’t like them. Too much of celebrity + Siri, not enough Apple.

And yes, I adore Zooey but when will the ”I’m so cute and quirky” strategy get old already?

Well, this time it’s not about functional packaging per se. It’s more about how pretty it looks.

The “Bees Knees” packaging below is a great example of how to use clever and elegant design to reflect brand identity throughout the packaging.

Honey packaging for Klein Constantia Farm by Terence Kitching

Eduard Duch of Barcelona-based design studio Atipus

Allan Peters

With the clutter and noise of our ads today - not to mention that we can’t take a single step forward without being bombarded with advertising messages - these ads below are refreshing in their simplicity.

If only we weren’t always rushing to get places, too busy to stop and read an ad…

From “14 Great Ads By The Real Mad Men, And What Drove All That Cleverness”

• ClientDB Breweries
• AgencyColenso BBDO, Auckland
• CountryNew Zealand

For the guys.

Always trying to break routine.

It may not have been all kangaroo. In fact, it may not have been kangaroo at all. But when the menu tells me I’ve got the option of ordering game sausage, and kangaroo is one of them, the only thing I’ve got to say is yes, please!

It’s been a while since we’ve all been out to dinner together, but my friends are always down for somewhere and something new, so we ended up at WVRST on King Street West. I took a quick glance at the menu, and while I’m not a fan of sausages, I couldn’t turn down the sausage-beer combo. 

We went on a Tuesday night so the place was pretty empty, though that didn’t take away from the modern charm of it. Loved the hanging light bulbs and the simple, wooden tables and benches. It carried the casual beer-sausage-dinner vibe really well. Not to mention the one wall covered in red subway tile (love :))

The menu is short and simple. Appropriately enough, there were suggested pairings of sausages and beer. So like a noob, I picked the local beer that paired with my kangaroo sausage: Sawdust City (Imperial Stout) from Gravenhurst, Ontario. Light enough for me :)

And we couldn’t resist fries, we ordered some duckfat fries with two dipping sauces (the special WVRST sauce, and Maple/Rosemary, I think). Fries were a *tad* too salty for me, but had all the makings of great “pub” fries.

And of course my kangaroo sausage, which was seasoned and cooked well, and wasn’t weird in texture at all. I might not have even known it was a kind of game sausage if I didn’t order it myself. 

Overall, an awesome first time at a new place! Prices were reasonable as well: $9 for the sausage, $4.50 for the fries, and well, my beer may have been a tad over reasonable but hey, what’s to splurge here and there :)

And what’s a great adventure dinner without some dessert? So we headed over to One Hour Bubble tea on College/Spadina and I had this surprisingly delicious Red Bean Matcha Slushie. Imagine a green tea slushie with red beans instead of tapioca. Ok, I might not have done that justice. But it’s a must-try!

Oh, and my company? The night wouldn’t have been half as fun without my friends :) There’s nothing like catching up over good grub. So much love <3

That’s enough food talk for this morning. Time for breakfast! 

One of the ways to filter out the wrong guys.

(!) Future home note-to-self

Oh, THAT’S where peanut butter comes from….

It’s not me, it’s you.

Alright, I’ll admit it, that documentary was well-made that I didn’t even think to do my due diligence to research about the cause. But I know that I’m not the only one.

I’m not going to lie, the little boy Gavin in the documentary is the cutest little boy, but the whole time I was thinking…If he loves to be on television like his dad, is his dad just telling him what to say and do? Because isn’t that what television is these days?

Then I thought, they have starter kits for $30? And bracelets for how much? Who’s making these bracelets and how much are they getting paid?

But I went ahead and tweeted about the video to help raise awareness anyway, even disagreeing with @advertisingweek that it was a “branding campaign”. (And that’s why I’m still an AC - much to learn)

It wasn’t until I saw this article on my Twitter feed that I stopped to really think about what I was advocating: As Fast As It Went Viral

It was this excerpt from another article that really got me thinking (after seeing the financial statements and revenue model of the not for profit): 

Imagine that today you heard about what happened in NYC and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 for the first time. You were shown a video of footage from that day. You saw the planes hit the towers, you heard President Bush’s address, you saw the Pentagon wreckage, you watch in horror as you see people plunge to their death, jumping from the burning towers. Now imagine that you are inspired by this disaster. You want to something to help. What if you went to NYC today, expecting to see piles of rubble to clean up? What if you went, expecting that there would be thousands of people in the streets crying, looking for loved ones? But what would happen when you arrived and discovered that there was none of this, but a whole host of other problems?

Social media empowers us - it has allowed us to be a stronger collective because together we have a voice, and the Internet has made it possible to make change happen faster.

And as I look closer at the elements of the ‘movement’, I think man, it is a branding campaign. And while I argue for the humanity of the movement, is it still relevant?

As this article discusses in detail, one of the points the video doesn’t elaborate on is the fact that Kony is no longer in Uganda, and hasn’t been for 6 years.

Even Ugandans aren’t very happy with the portrayal of the issue by the KONY2012 campaign: 

“To call the campaign a misrepresentation is an understatement. While it draws attention to the fact that Kony, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2005, is still on the loose, its portrayal of his alleged crimes in Northern Uganda are from a bygone era.”

- Award-winning Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama

And while I can’t comment on the validity and 100% accuracy of these facts, I’ve written this to encourage everyone to look into the issue before you let yourself get swept by social media fever.

Just make the best of everything…

This song kind of crept up on me. Can’t stop listening to it now. It might even just get me to pick up my guitar again…

Mmm Berry Smoothie - Can’t get enough of Revlon’s Colorburst :)
Thanks to @VicxLy for the tip! 

Just when I thought I would never love Jason Mraz again…
The hobo look isn’t cutting it for me…but he can sing for me forever.

This is one of those photos that go viral in one day.
Because it makes you think.

It makes you think about the people in your life right now,
The people you can live without,
and the people you think you can’t live without.

Then it makes you think about where you stand on other people’s list.
Maybe you’re pretty dispensable.
You don’t really add that much value to their life.
You’re there for coffee dates, and dinner dates, and not so sober nights
But are you the one they call when things aren’t as simple and easy
As coffee dates, and dinner dates, and not so sober nights?

I realised that the people I don’t see regularly,
Are the people who will know what to do when I’m not really sure anymore.

Would they wait around?

Would you keep people waiting?