Sunday, March 29, 2015

LOCAL MILK'S FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP IN VENICE PART II


AT MARKET

Venice workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Getting ingredients was a big pleasure. Walking through Venice on it's paved and narrow streets was an experience. You get easily lost there but you might even find something wonderful because of that! Like I found organic shop full of different kind of products from organic wines to gluten free products. Rialto Biocenter in Santa Croce.

Venice workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

At St Mark's Square you can find beautiful details like corridor floor tiles in front of legendary cafe Florian. We were playing with camera there. We had a bit bad luck though. On Monday it's closed.  


Breakfast Venice workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


We have enjoyed the products from Rialto market everyday. In the mornings the styled breakfast table was waiting for us. Everyday.

Grand Canal Venice workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
I think in Venice everything is in walking distance. You see a lot more if you walk. Of course it's great to see Venice from Grand Canal so take a waterbus and do that too.

Rococo wigs in the window photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Venice is the place of mascarade party. There is plenty of shops that sell masks but we found also a place selling rococo wigs! If you buy a mask be sure it's a handmade one from local artisan. 

Restaurant window Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
When you walk through Venice you see so many nice restaurants and cafes. This place looked tempting but because the lack of time never went back. But through the window it looked very tempting. Maybe next time. Venice is so gorgeous place that there might be a next time :)

Grand Canal Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Finally we were close to Rialto Market. When you walk slowly and watch all the details it might take awhile before you are there where you were going to. But I don't think it's a bad thing. Vacation is for relaxing and enjoying not so well timetabled time, I think.

Rialto Market Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Different kind of shapes.

Rialto Market Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Fresh colors.

Rialto Market Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
There we were. At Rialto market. So many fruits, veggies, berries, fish, sea food, meat - you name it. Expecially I loved the way lemons and other fruits had still a bit of branch with them. In Finland you see more seldom things like that. If only one could go everyday to place like this to buy ingredients. It would be superb! ...I'm also sure I would eat more veggies and fish.

Rialto Market Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

I hope you enjoyed the walk. If you want to see my Local Milk's food photography workshop in Venice Part I, you can find it here. We made pasta. It's my favorite :)

Have a lovely Sunday!

xoxo
Kreetta
 

Saturday, March 28, 2015

GOOD MORNING!

I feel good. The flu I had has gone away. Jippii! Such ordinary things like breakfast feels great when you aren't sick anymore. I'm happy.  But one thing I've been thinking during this week. We do think a lot about our own happiness, don't we. We people. Or we think things what would make us happy.

Good morning! photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Nowadays I think I am happy about my daily life. Don't get me wrong. I mean my life is enough perfect for me. There are things I like to change, there are things I dream of...but luckily I've noticed I have less and less to complain about. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You get easily too blind and tired of everything. You can't get out of the situation or you might not be brave enough or you feel paralyzed to do something about it so what you can do is complain. 

So I thought this morning is just perfect time to remind me and you whatever our thoughts are - please think again. Make something to change the situation if there is more negative thoughts than positive ones going around in your head and if you find yourself thinking positive and good things - Yes! Keep it going! 

I know all this might sound annoying but I have to admit that writing about these things,  it's not easy task because I feel a bit ashamed. It's hard to admit own weaknesses but same time maybe I should be proud of myself because I've learnt something. That's life!

Have a great weekend, my friend!

xoxo
Kreetta

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

THAT FAMOUS HOSPITALITY - WEDDING IN WARSAW

Warsaw old town photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


It was our second time in Poland. Above you can see old town of Warsaw. We were guests in Polish wedding. I would not have believed if somebody had told me how many different courses we ate that night. 8-10. Yes. Depends on how you count. That I call true hospitality. We ate, danced and had beautiful party like you can imagine.

When we arrived to the party restaurant - tables were full of decorated food already.

Wedding food photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
After party - next day - we had time to go a bit around Warsaw. We noticed that there were Easter already on the streets.

Easter in Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


Food stalls selling traditional food.

Warsaw street food photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Colorful details. Great cafes like Cukiernia Nenette. It's a place where you can eat at least gluten free and sugar free.

Easter in Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Funny details.

detail in Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

 Music.

Music in Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
 History meets new way of building.

 In Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Street art makes a statement?

 In Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Interesting and colorful contradictions.

 In Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
The scene from our hotel room's terrace. Our hotel was in center of Warsaw. This is maybe a bit like sterotype thought of Eastern Europe. Concrete jungle. But there are much more to see.

 In Warsaw photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
There are big parks in Warsaw too, small one you can see here in the picture. But in one day with tired eyes from yesterday party we decided to keep our day in Warsaw quite laid back and slow. Walked around old town and made easy and fast decision when choosing the restaurant and ate well in Polka restaurant. Polish traditional food.

If you want to see more, you can find my Poland post from the summer 2012. That time we flew to Gdansk and took train to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Krakow. I prefere travelling by train. It's more environment friendly.
 
I have a flu so today is a home office day - great day to blog :) 

Have a great week!

xoxo
Kreetta


Friday, March 20, 2015

BACKDROP - ATMOSPHERE


I love feeling. Beauty. A moment. Atmosphere. 

arabia design photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.grethengretchen.com

But how to create the one you want? I made two backdrops for this week's commercial food photoshooting. This one that you can see here in this picture we didn't use - yet. I wanted to try it with these stylish Arabia cups and plates with Rörstrand plates. I couldn't resist the evening light. 

Have a great weekend my friend! 

xoxo 
Kreetta

Sunday, March 15, 2015

NEW BLOG'S HEADER DESIGN - BOILING UNDER BLOG

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Today I will tell you about photographing a header picture to food and lifestyle blog. I was asked to photograph a blog's header for new cool blog Boiling Under by Pauliina Siniauer. Her blog is about food stories and good recipes. I was very happy about this assignment because I could photograph my favorite things - food and lifestyle. I usually love the word editing but this time I will show you many photos that you see the process.

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com Because she lives in Berlin at the moment we planned the project only writing each other. We went through her favorite ideas, ingredients and made a Pinterest board together. That is very useful tool. There were things she liked and ideas I wanted to show her. Important was that we speak same language. But still I got quite free hands to photograph what and how I thought things would work. I started to get images in my head. I love that moment. Boiling Under name gave me thoughts quite generously. Finally it took one day to go and get the ingredients - most of them are Pauliinas's favorite ones, style, photograph and send the photos to Pauliina. 

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
I tried different kind of compositions and changed order and ingredients. I made simple compositions and more complex compositions.

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
My love for vintage items is quite obvious - I admit :)

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
It's a great feeling when you feel that there is a flow going in your brain and things makes sense and looks good.

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Just changing little things you make the difference.

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
But at the end of the day I usually have to say that less is more. But if you don't try different kind of things you don't find the right one if you know what I mean... 

I was designing the blog's header to blog about food and good recipes. It gave me a lot of possibilities. But I happen to know the person and the name Boiling Under is - to me - something not so obvious, a bit hidden and trending. This person has an excellent sense of humour and she is greatly skilled in writing and she is very good speaker. But still the less is more is better than too much and way too many thoughts. 

We both agreed the same picture. We like more about a hint of something than obvious things even though they look good and are pretty. Back to square one. The first idea I had in my mind was simple and I got it when I saw this charming little casserole that my workspace friend Meri-Tuuli  have full of salt :) 

Boiling Under blog header photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

That's our beloved Boiling Under.



xoxo Kreetta 

ps. I wonder what should I do with all those photos. They might be quite nice pics on the kitchen wall or what you think?

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

LOCAL MILK'S FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP IN VENICE PART I


MAKING PASTA

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com



Eggs and wheat flour. Very simple. Just need some extra power to make the dough. Our workshop cook Aaron Teece from Studio Neon made the pasta for us. But in the photos you see charming Ashton who was so übercool and beautiful in our pictures.

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop Venice photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Working in Venice. It's unreal. In every corner, there is beauty. A bit decayed yes but lucky me - I happen to like old and frayed.

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com





It was perfect pasta making day. We had a cool cooks, superb stylist Ginny Branch and as a teacher was Local Milk's talented photographer Beth Kirby. We were in pretty good hands.

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
I think we couldn't have made any of this if we wouldn't have had the light. (I hope it's written right, haha)

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com





So it was 4 days ladies with cameras. Everywhere and almost all the time. I enjoyed a lot and it is always - always - a pleasure be inspired by people around you.

Pasta making by Aaron Teece at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com






Ok, finally we see a real work in front of camera and it's a man who is doing all the work :) Aaron made wonderful pasta with so stylish pasta machine.

Pasta making at Local Milk's workshop photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
Pasta.

We had a big dinner in the evening. There we met again handmade pasta.

As I promised you there will be part II and III of Local Milk's food photography workshop in Venice. I will post them during this spring. I hope you enjoyed the part I.

xoxo
Kreetta

PS. There will be great food photography workshops in this summer. Go and see Angela Ritchie's Ace Camps. There you can find Local Milk's workshop too. You can also find Aran Goyaga's workshop there. She is also talented and lovely cook and photographer. I've been also her student and I can recommend with big heart. Here you can find my blog post from the last summer's food photography workshop with Aran in Iceland. We went to picnic and it was just gorgeous styling by Aran and Aslaug Snorradottir. You have to go and see it!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

...AND THE WINNER IS


Patrice. Congratulations! I hope these postcards bring joy to you and your friends and family :) They are soon on their way to you!



postcard photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


Thank you all who took part in. I will do this again later this spring with different photo. I guess I'm doing it also in IG.

I have few blog posts in my mind at the moment. Like to show you my new big cupboard at my workspace and my painting spot. I love the light there and I have made soooo many Instagram photos there. If you want to see some, they are here.

Have a creative week!

xo
Kreetta
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