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.

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.

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.

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.

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.