MyPublisher x Christopher Hainey – Giveaway
Our friends at MyPublisher make really cool albums and books with your photos.
Their Premium Albums are built with beautifully curated materials and have an array of detailed options that elevate beyond the average printed album/book. From leather options to page thickness and everything in between, you get to choose all the details.
These Premium Albums are top of the line quality and have a super professional esthetic while the ease of the layout process allows photographers of any level to create these masterpieces. Simply upload your photos and they design it taking into account your personal style preferences. Approve the design or request revisions then they’ll handcraft and ship you beautiful new album. Easy!
To give you an idea of just how cool these Premium Albums are, we teamed up with Instagram superstar and Chicago local Christopher Hainey and asked him to create one using his beautiful photos and MyPublishers design service. Here is what they came up with!
Christopher’s beautiful album is a limited edition. There are only two in existence. Chris gets to keep one and we are going to give the other away to one of you lucky Yodelers!
To win this one-of-a-kind masterpiece from Christopher simply sign up for MyPublishers newsletter in the widget below. If you want there are a few ways to get additional entries through the widget as well. We will choose a lucky winner on September 1st, 2015. Good luck everyone! (retail value of $700)
After you enter the giveaway don’t miss Christopher’s interview below.
Name: Christopher Hainey
Occupation? I’m a freelance photographer, content creator at Havas Worldwide, and drummer/touring musician for the band Maps & Atlases
Please tell us something about you that most people don’t know. I split my time creatively both playing music and doing photography and they both are so gratifying and mean so much to me I can’t imagine my life with just one or the other. I’ve been touring and recording with my band Maps & Atlases for nearly a decade now; we’re a three piece indie rock group who met in art school. We’ve been very fortunate enough to have fans from all over find and connect with the music we make and we’ve had the terrific privilege to be able to travel all over the US, UK, and Europe to play that music for these wonderful people.
What is your favorite thing about photography? Photography is one of the easiest art forms to get into and also one of the most versatile. It’s never been so easy to pick up a camera and get started, there are also endless creative directions in which to take it. Photography equipment is getting more and more advanced at such a rapid pace now and I’m constantly excited to see how far people can push it. I also love that there are also so many photo platforms like Instagram to share work and meet and collaborate with other artists where everybody is part this wonderfully supportive community.
Can you offer a few pieces of advice to aspiring photographers? I would say just shoot as much as possible and you’ll find a style and get into a groove that works best for you. Sometimes I just get the strangest ideas that kind of pop into my head, but no matter what I always try to shoot them. Sometimes it works and sometimes I fail miserably at copying a scene I have envisioned, but I always try to put the effort into shooting it. There was a time where I would have a pretty low success rate at being able to create something that I felt embodied the original idea in my head, but I guess it’s like that with anything from painting to playing an instrument in order to recreate the melodies in your head, the more practice you have at it the more natural it comes.
What is the theme of your limited edition photo album? All the photos I chose I feel have a complimentary aesthetic and color scheme, and is a good representation of the work I love most to shoot and aspire to be able create on a constant basis.
Why did you choose that theme? Tell us about the photos you submitted for this project. I tried to select a group of my images that fit really well together as a collection, but would also represent a good array of the work I’ve done since this time last summer. I tried to select a wide amount of interesting subjects, environments, landscapes from recent travels around the United States to kind of summarize in a nice way the photography I’ve done over the last year.
What was the experience like working with MyPublisher to create your beautiful Premium
Album? The website couldn’t be any easier to use and everything came together really fast. The MyPublisher team did an excellent job composing the album and were really fast and on point with making slight alterations. The shipping was really quick, and it was a really impressively short turnaround from start to finish while maintaining a super simple process throughout.
What is your reaction to seeing your photography in a book format as opposed to online? I was so happy to see my photos in an actual book for the first time. Typically from start to finish I only get to see my images in a digital format on various screens from the LCD screen on my camera, to the laptop screen, and then on my phone when I post it online, it’s a completely different viewing experience seeing it on paper and in my opinion a far less harsh and more enjoyable way to view images.
What was your impression of the album MyPublisher produced for you? The album was really impressive to see in person, it was extremely well made and came together very cohesively. You can tell it’s been made to last so it can be enjoyed for a very long time.
What did you like about it? I’ve actually never had any of my photography printed before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was such a cool feeling seeing the photos being actual physically represented in a book, it made me look and enjoy them in a brand new way. The materials used were really high quality and the leather bound cover is beautiful. The pages were made of a super nice stock and had a wonderful weight to them. Overall it’s something I’m really proud to own and share with others.
Name:
Christopher Hainey
City:
Chicago, Illinois.
Can you sum up Chicago:
Chicago is a wonderful place packed full of beautiful architecture, wonderful food, and very creative people. It’s easy to get around and there is so much to experience, so it’s a must visit for everyone. Chicago is a wonderful mix of people from all over the country and world that culminates in a really strong culture that has a much different vibe than you’d find in New York City.
Best place to eat:
I tend to suggest people try Pequod‘s, definitely the best deep dish pizza in the city in my opinion. It’s so good it’s worth enduring the loud atmosphere and near exhausting wait. Admittedly it took me awhile to get into the deep dish thing, but I think if I would have tried it here first I would have been hooked instantly.
Best place to shop:
A good place to go would be the bucktown/wicker park neighborhoods on Milwaukee and Damen avenues, there are a lot of really cool places to check out, all within in a pretty close proximity of each other along with a large amount of great local shops, food, coffee, and donuts in the vicinity.
Best outdoor activity:
Montrose Harbor and beach is a really cool place to go with a great view of the city and good place to walk around and just enjoy being outside. There’s also a wonderful large grassy hill where people go to fly kites that’s really great for photos.
For the visitor:
The summer is definitely the best time of year to visit the Chicago, the winter’s can be really harsh and everything sort of slows down, so the city comes alive in a really cool way when it thaws out in the summer months. There are so many cool music and food festivals to make a special trip here for. But if you want to go for the Chicago staples pretty much every activity they do in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is still a great place to start.
Get a CTA pass and take public transportation as much as you can, it’s a great way to get around and easy to use. Traffic can get pretty bad, so taking the train can save a good amount of time and money and is a great way to see the city from a different perspective.