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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.