Fireworks

This is one of my first attempts ever to shoot fireworks. Not a special good one I admit. It is shot at the inauguration party of the new harbour of Helsinki. Fantastic place fantastic party!

First Snow

The first snow has fallen. I'm looking forward to a better winter than last year. The above shot is shot from our window this evening.

If somebody thinks sailing is just about sunbathing and shampagne check this out. Quite extreme wouldn't you say.

Playing Pool

On friday we had a boys night out. Some beer and a couple of rounds of pool. Here's Miku opening the game.

Raindrops

It is this time of the year again.

More Autumn Colours

Shot yesterday couple of minutes afer sunset.

Autumn Colours

For the past couple of days we have had nice sunny weather and the colours of the autumn are looking really nice.

Cranes

Here's a shot from yesterdays photowalk. I'm exploring HDR again.

Lapland

This is a shot from our hiking trip to the Kevo canyon. You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Light Trails

I haven't shot anything decent lately so here is an older shot from this July. It was shot on the way back to Helsinki from Hämeenlinna.

On friday I will be leaving to Lapland for a hike in the Kevo canyon. I promise to shoot at least a couple of decent images.

Row row row your boat

From time to time I think that I should shoot more in black and white because I like monochrome images a lot. I just don't seem to get my black and whites really stand out. No matter whatever I try to do with them they just turn out dull median grey. I've come to the conlusion that I am a colour photographer and the more the colour the better. Here goes one b&w anyway.

The above image is shot on the island of Jurmo which a really outstanding place. The image was originally shot in colour but I wanted to see how works in monochrome. Heavy vignetting added by Photoshop.

I have also posted a small gallery of photos from our sailing trip. You can see the gallery here. It is ok to leave comments.

Hanko by Sunset

Last week I was on holiday and we went sailing. It was fantastic we were really lucky with the weather as the sun was shining almost all the time. The above is a shot of Hanko skyline when we were approaching the harbour.

Hippodrome

I have been lazy publishing. That's because I haven't been shooting much lately. Last weekend I was at Juva and went to see these trot competitions. It was fantastic.

Taj Mahal

Finally I've had the time and the energy to go through my photos from our trip to India. Take a look at the gallery here.

Wooooo...She's a Little Runaway

I went to see Bon Jovi on the Olympic Stadium yesterday. It was an ok show, nothing mindblowing but nice. Here's a boring shot from the gig. Enjoy midsummer. I'm sure I will....

Happy Birthday

On 20th of May it was the anniversary of my blog. I was supposed to post something on that day but...

Anyway I decided to post something today because I have some time on the computer before the football match kicks off. You know the European Championships are on.

I know it comes as no surprise to anyone that I like shooting reflections and twisting and turning them but here goes another anyway. It is shot at Fiskars. We went there with my Belgian mate Kristof who once again was visiting us. Thanks to Kristof for that it was nice having you here.

During the first year there were more than a thousand visits to my blog. Thank you all. Keep on reading. I will publish a gallery of photos from our trip to India someday soon.

Merihaka

This is the beautiful district of Merihaka in Helsinki in nice evening light. To me it looks like wartime Sarajevo with some of the windows on the seaside shot down.

I have also posted a picture to the Canon Assignment competion. You can see the image here. Check it out and give it a vote if you like it.

Hippies

Some time ago I posted a shot of a squatted old theater. This picture is shot one week later. You can see how the hippies have made progress.

Biking

During the past couple of days I have been experimenting with my camera . I've been zooming and panning while exposure. Both techniques that I've tried before some years ago. The above is one of the better ones. Most of the frames were quite blurry as you might guess.

Speedy Gonzales

Yesterday evening I took my bike and rode to Lauttasaari to shoot some boats in this small leisure boat harbour. I took some fifteen frames of a nice looking old boat in beautiful evening light. Then I got bored of it and took out my monopod that I had been carrying around all evening and started to try some zoombursts. The results varied but it was fun and interesting. More of that stuff please.

Squat

A bunch a hippies have squatted this old theater in Rajasaari Helsinki.

Traffic Jam

I've never seen such a traffic jam in Helsinki as I saw today.

Cross Country

Would you ski from Helsinki to Riihimäki? I know I wouldn't. Anyway I went Pyhätunturi in Lapland and skied 65 km which is roughly the same distance as from my home to Riihimäki.

Tiger

I decided to post another picture for today as I have not been publishing much lately. The yawning tiger is shot at Korkeasaari on sunday. It is a nice place to visit off-season.

Bretagne

Finally I have published the photo gallery from our trip to Bretagne and Normandy. It can be viewed here. It was a nice trip. The weather could have been better but luckily we did not get any snow as some sorry people in London and Northern Spain. It would have been quite tricky to drive around in snow without winter tyres.

The above photo is from Pointe du Raz which is the westernmost part of mainland France. The area is called Finisterre, the end of land. The weather was quite challenging for photography and for survival as well as the wind was blowing roughly 30 m/s. It was quite a wind. We wandering on the cliffs tens of metres above the sealevel but the wind was blowing saltwater on my lenses which was not really nice. I got them cleaned anyway without any damage.

Railroad

It has been a lazy week in photography for me. I am looking forward to next wednesday when I head to Bretagne with Salme. If the coast there is not inspiring then I think nothing will be.

Here's a photo I shot today. I gave it a sepia toning in Photoshop. It was done with duotone which I find a very useful tool. I just don't know how to use it properly. In this one the tones turned out really nice.

Frozen

We haven't had much of a winter this year. But from the beginning of March we've had the most snow this year and at some points the see has frozen. That is quite strange because usually March means the beginning of the spring. I wonder if this has something to do with the climate change or is it just coincidence. I suspect the latter because I wouldn't think the climate change to be this dramatic. Rather I think it will be more gradual over the years. Not +10 degrees in a year.

Fresh Water

The tap water in Helsinki is very good. It is brought from the Lake Päijänne via a tunnel. Next month the tunnel will be closed for maintenance and we will be drinking this. Water from the River Vantaa. Looks delicious.

Lomography

I decided to post another shot from the past couple of days. Yesterday I had real trouble choosing between this one and the one I posted. I quity like both of them. This photo looked a bit dull straight out of camera so I decided to boost it with this cool lomo action I found on the internet a while ago.

Reflections

During the past couple of weeks I have been shooting quite a lot but I have been lazy processing the images. I had trouble choosing which photo to publish. I could have gone with any of the numerous seascapes but I decided to go with this one of the headquarters of the Sanoma Corporation. I like the symmetry in it and something makes it quite striking in my opinion. It is HDR of course.

Fog

Last sunday was a foggy day as I had wished because I wanted to do some HDR experimenting in fog. Above is the result.

Seize the Moment

A couple of days ago I read this great column about exercising creativity and finding inspiration. One of the main points was not to be afraid of failure and not to take photos because of that. The author's point was that whenever you see something interesting you should take the photo and not to think about whether it is good or not. You can leave that to later. If you start hesitating the opportunity for that shot might pass by and you end up with no shot at all. It is better to have a bad shot than no shot at all and think about how it would have been. You might not get the oppotunity for that shot again.

On friday morning as I was preparing to go to work I looked out the window and saw the perfect light. I quickly grabbed my camera threw on a coat and rushed down the stairs. I managed to get this shot around the corner of our house but as I moved towards better spots for shooting the light washed out as the sun rose. Had I hesitated for a moment longer I would have ended with no shot at all. I think there is a lesson learned eventhough the picture is nothing special.

HDR

For those who don't know, HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It is a photographic technique used to combine two or more differently exposed photos into a single one. It is usually used to compensate for the lack of dynamic range of the sencor cell of a digital camera. The results can be quite stunning or horrible depending on how one sees the photo. Some people like the surreal results achieved by excessive use of software and some like more discreet results.

I have been wanting to explore HDR photography for a long time but it was only today that I gave it a first go. When I bought my digital camera I already felt like testing HDR but by the time my computer was too crappy to have a conversion software in it. When I updated my computer there was another setback. My tripod broke down. You may want to try and shoot HDR hand held. Give it a go. Seriously.

As you might know I got myself a nice and solid Manfrotto tripod for christmas present but until now I haven't been using it. Today I finally took my gear out to grab a shot of the full moon. As I was heading out I realized I might as well try some HDR photos as well. The above photo is the one that worked out the best in my opinion. It is shot in Eiran ranta in southern Helsinki.

Verona

Last weekend I went to Verona with Salme to celebrate my birthday. As a surprise Jani and Anne came along which was fantastic. Verona is a nice and quite beatiful city. Some tourist brochure titled it the Bonsai-Rome. I don't quite understand what that is supposed to mean.

We had a fun weekend, lots of food and very good Valpolicella. On our way back we stopped at a couple of villages by Lake Garda which is supposed to be beautiful. The weather was awfully foggy so I don't what it really looks like. You can view a gallery of photos here.

New Year, New Gear

As soon as the tax refunds are paid to my account I hit the camera store for some new gear. This year I have added a tripod, a monopod and a couple of neutral density filters to my gear. I haven't had the time yet to give them a try but hopefully during the weekend I will get something done.

To sum up last year I uploaded a gallery of the best shots from last year. You can see the gallery here.