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Happy New Year!!!!
Oh my goodness, how did the year fly by so fast? I have a feeling time is just going to feel quicker and quicker the older I get. Nothing like being reminded time is of the essence by realizing you have none. LOL I celebrated my birthday on December 19th - now happily 28 years old. I went to my favorite restaurant Bad Hunter and kept it pretty chill. No more parties for me! Ha. I had a wonderful time celebrating the holidays with my family, too. I didn't go too far. My immediate family are all based in the suburbs so it's just a small skip over a town or two. I hope you all had some special bonding time with distant family, simply had a break to yourself for once or maybe the holidays aren't for you and you worked just the same and nothing changed- fuck it. 2018 is all about taking the struggles in your life and making them your friend. I think perspective is everything and we have the ultimate power in shaping our reality. If I learned anything in 2017 - I have the opportunity to chose how I internalize things and how I react. 2017 was kind of crazy when I put into perspective all the work I did. I managed to do projects with Lenovo, New Balance, NBC, Adobe, Mercedes, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Google, Nike, Bud Light, Finish Line, Effen Vodka, American Express, Fruit by the Foot, Moncler, Mozilla Firefox, Apple and Red Bull. As I have been sharing this list, the most asked question has been, "How?" I don't blame you for asking. I have the same question and I even have a few answers in my latest tutorial. Scroll down to the tutorial portion to hear all that and more. January started out beautifully with a project I did with Lenovo for their new 360 tablet. It was up to to me to successfully promote this product and it took some back and forth to get to a final image - I even had to shoot my own video. A big first for me! A few years back, I visited Budapest, Hungary for NBC's show Emerald City. It took quite some time for them to come back around after we shot for me to actually post the images I captured during my visit. It was a conflicting situation because I felt my style had shifted in a better way since then and it was definitely a first for me having to share work from so long ago. I can only imagine what a director feels when a movie comes out years later. I had a innate reaction to ask if I could re-edit the photos and they let me - which was freaking awesome. Still in January, I went to Obama's Farewell speech in Chicago, released a collaboration hat with my friend Timmy Ham and shot the first half of a fun project with Hypebeast. Hypebeast has always been a great supporter of mine and being the fan that I always have been of them, it's been wonderful to know that they think of me for different projects that come up for them. I was asked to be the subject in a fun role reversal scenario with my new friend David as he switches his natural landscapes for my Chicago grind then I visit his home turf in Switzerland in support of the 247 New Balance shoe. It was so super lit. Closing out the first month I visited San Francisco to record 3 days straight of 2 hour live editing sessions with Adobe. Immediately coming into February, I began working on my project with Kelloggs introducing the new Cinnamon Frosted Flakes. That was wild and definitely a dream I never knew I had until it happened. Up popped a small gig for Google promoting their favorites feature and skip on over to March with another for Nike at Nordstrom on Hypebae. I have had some conversations with people about the concept of getting work through your DM's. I think some of my favorite gigs have been from a DM- This one included. Iceland has always been on my list of absolute must visits. I had the honor of visiting thanks to Pursuit of Portraits and Ink Law Clothing. It was fun but it was quick and it was indeed something very different for me - though not far off from my talent - awesomely different. I met a lot of really amazing people and learned a lot about time management. LOL April going into May was extremely exciting because I got to visit Barcelona with Adobe to speak about Mobile editing and do super dope workshops for 1 hour every day for three days, and another Adobe live! I absolutely adore my relationship with Adobe. They have always been so open to everything I do creatively and putting me in a position to be out of my comfort zone in a great way that pushes me into better fields of work. It's just honestly an honor to even say that I have worked so much with them. I wrapped up a big project with Finish Line. I even designed my second Vinyl cover, started my Bud Light partnership and became a Bai Influencer. With a hop right over to June, I had the amazing opportunity to go to the opening of the Murakami exhibit at the MCA, I even got to meet the man himself. Such a friendly and kind artist! In this month I stopped eating meat, I started up in a soccer league and started a project with the Wounded Warrior Project. The WWP was something I hadn't felt would fit into my style but I said yes because of the message. I successfully figured out a way to spread the message of support to wounded veterans, physically and mentally, by taking helicopter rides above the certain locations where they would be playing their respected sports. It was indeed a feel good moment and an eye opening process. July was dope, I got to see Kendrick perform twice. Shouts to my g RetOne! I also went on a camping trip with my family and boyfriend. That was something I will never forget. All my life growing up we took yearly trips to go canoeing in Wisconsin and it was definitely special to bring my man along. My new friend Lorraine Loots had an amazing gallery show at the Annex featuring her tiny paintings. I was honored when she chose one of my images of the giraffe to paint. The event was so much fun! August came and went with the yearly Lollapalooza chaos, Bud Biliken Parade, meeting of Lady Gaga. Oh. Wait! Yes, I met Lady Gaga. It was an experience. She seemed sweet enough to know for a mere few seconds, though the real experience started immediately after because someone took my purse with my camera, phone, and everything I own in it. I ended up missing the entire show with my front seat being in the first row. Security eventually found my bag with some guy, he said he thought it was his bag... Yeah, okay. Anyway, I got to watch the last song and my night was over. Meeting Lady Gaga was alright. LOL I cried though. I could hear her entire performance going on while I was stuck in the security office dramatically checking Find My iPhone. In September quickly rolled around and I was whisked away to visit my mom's side of the family in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It's always wonderful to see them. Growing up my mom always told me not to stretch my ears out. I had gauges but this year I finally do not. She gladly exclaimed, "I told you so." As I called her to tell her I was getting my ears sewn up. My teenage scene years are over. Ironically enough, a few days after the small surgery I went to Riot Fest with my friend Jetzi. Talk about bad timing! Closing up my teenage angst while watching my favorite bands like Paramore and A Day to Remember. Oh well. A ton of things on my personal bucket-list had been surprisingly written and checked off at the same time this year. Having an interactive photo gallery at Champs Sports on Michigan Ave was indeed one of them. What a beautiful event that was! It really would not have been so many amazing without all the people who worked so much on it. With September being a month of firsts, I began experimenting with moving images. Anyone interested in learning more about them should check out and learn more about Plotagraphs. Well, well, well I'd continue this fun adventure of speaking so much about myself but we're all caught up technically. If you remember, my first Swopes Note went out in October. I hope you guys enjoyed my yearly wrap up and that you find interest in my latest vlog. Let me know what you think as always by commenting on my blogs, videos, sending me a tweet a direct message, or simply replying to this email. Anything! Have a wonderful day, Happy New Year and remember to always keep your imagination alive! 
tutorial / vlog
Hey loves! How are you? I hope well and happy into the new year. I am excited to share my fourth tutorial, though this time it will be a tad different than the rest because I will share some personal insights into how I get the work that I do and just a few other random ideas and advice. Let me know what you think in the comments! I hope to continue making these into the new year and beyond!
Be sure to follow along with my Twitter for contest giveaways this month. Tutorial #004 from Elise Swopes on Vimeo. wallpaper download
newyorknico
Newyorknico's instagram isn't your average thought out cityscapes or surrealistic edits, no-no, this is something beyond your imagination. If you've stepped foot on the random turf that is New York you would know that there are many different types of characters you'll come upon. Nicolas Heller makes friends with them. Not only does he make friends with them but he puts them on. A lot of his street friends have been featured on Action Bronson Untitled Show recently and I actually got to meet a few of them when I stopped in New York recently. I was hooked.
It was Halloween weekend and it was the first time I would meet him in person after chatting it up a bit in his comment section on some of my favorite videos of his. He told me he was going to buy a mask for a friend of his named T-Rex. T-Rex was a short-armed drummer who played in Union Square that I had seen a bunch on Nick's instagram. We walked over to Union Square to find T-Rex chilling with his homies and Nick pulled out the mask from his plastic bag. He fit it on T-Rex and the rest is history. This happens to be one of Nick's most played videos at 1.5 million views. We sat around that area for hours and hours and still I had felt like I was so obsessed with learning about each person and even more into the idea that Nicolas Heller was a super, super cool dude who really genuinely cares about these people. Can't wait to link again. health is wealth
I am such a fan of affirmations. Well, a newfound fan. I have to admit - I am the type of person who hates anything that's too cheesy or corny. I really do enjoy realistic expectations of things and making sure we don't act like everything is perfect. Maybe I am just not a fan of fake but I've learned that self love is never fake. Self love should always be uplifting and whole and positive because we are all personally wonderful and intricate and deserve the world.
af·firm·a·tion noun
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