no title

I'm going to publish some photos that didn't just make it to the challenge. This one's taken on October 25th. By the way, it's going to be a very rainy week again.

And I'm missing the snow already, but luckily on next weeks thursday we'll head to Ruka for a long snowboarding weekend! WOhoooOOO!:)

day 31

Past month has been full of happenings. Maybe it's also due to the fact that I've written daily, why I've realized many even surprising phenomena from life. It feels like a strange coincidence that during this month I've had, on one hand the time of my life, and on the other hand witnessed sad things like the loss of our loved grandma.

Keeping the blog was probably a suitable way to handle my own thoughts. And what comes to photography, maybe I progressed a little bit but at least I become pretty effective at taking advantage from the moments I didn't have lots of time to take photos. Sometimes I felt stressed about the challenge, have to admit, but I have no regrets afterwards.

Because I've got the mind of an engineer, I have to submit some statistics from the
period of 31 days:

pictures taken: 1196 or ~ 9 Gb
hours spent to editing: approximately 45 hours
hours spent in total for the project: much!

So the challenge is done. To conclude I'd like to emphasize my indebted thanks for the support and comments I received!

day 30

(No text today)

Okay guess I'm obligated to write something. This morning meant early wake-up and traveling to Imatra for me. I had packed my camera with my but I didn't have time to take pictures. And it was raining all day, even when I came back to Helsinki. So I considered that it would be best to skip the floorball match from the evening and instead have a relaxing evening at home.

If I hadn't met a guy from my floorball team in the grocery store, I would absolutely have fulfilled my mission of ultimate peace and relaxation. But since I had promised to join the match if I was back early enough, I had no plan-b to avoid sports.

For that reason I had only half an hour to take the photo of the day. In terrible rain. Actually I took only six or seven shots, half-a-minute exposure each, and rushed back indoors. The original filename for the picture I chose is IMG_0299.CR2 which means that I've taken over 20'000 pictures with the camera. In my photo development software I've got more than 10'000 pics. Thus, according the percentage from above, the cost of one picture equals, rounded down, 20 cents. So if one faces a claim that photography is an expensive hobby, he/she can feel free to cite to this scientific evidence as a counter-argument.

day 29

We planned to shoot some portraits in the afternoon light, and earlier this morning I was sure that we would get cool shots as the weather was cool. But it turned out to be all gray when I met with Krista. So we just wandered to square of Tuomiokirkko but there wasn't anything interesting. And if I wanted a picture of the church, it had to be amazing piece of art because we're talking about one of the most photographed places in Helsinki.

Later on we walked to the harbor and found a full set of commercial lights placed in front of the main door of a building. Like jackals we took advantage of the opportunity and had our own photoshoot in some others set! Even though the traffic was pretty busy in front the building, we got something to walk out with.

Still, I wanted to publish an other shot today since I've been lacking the chance to shoot "traditional" portraits. Tomorrow I'll go to Imatra and hopefully manage to take the POD from the journey!

day 28

Have you already seen the Finland's Nature Photo of the Year? If not, it might be worth to take a look:

http://www.vuodenluontokuva.fi/default.asp?V_SITE_ID=3

There has been lots of critical conversation and even debate about this years winner pic. While some bloggers have praised it as a "superior piece of art with amazingly beautiful dark tones" and "wonderful work and smart way to criticize climate change", others have shot it down as "staged suburban photo with no elements of nature".

I have to that the photo sold itself for me at the first glance, although it would possibly have fitted better to other kind of competition. That must be because its style is pretty close to my standard what comes to photography. So I don't pick my side in the debate but just inform you that this particular photo would have been my choice for the Nature P.O.Y:

http://www.vuodenluontokuva.fi/Default.asp?V_DOC_ID=4194

I love its softness and especially the green tones! And what comes to the light, it must have been very challenging to freeze the motion while letting enough light to the censor. I might have been in trouble with my 20D (yes you can consider that as an old-timer already) as the new camera censors seem to be far ahead what comes to high ISO numbers. Luckily I haven't yet fallen into bird or nature photography, because otherwise I had neither time nor money to do anything else!:) And actually I've just recently noticed that one can easily shoot with ISO 1600 if the frame is properly exposed. So no need to be afraid my Canon, we still have years (or at least months) to come!

day 27

Today I found a internet site on which there was this article: "11 Ways to Get Inspiration for Your Photography".

Hint number one: A Photo a Day Challenge: Challenge yourself to take a photo a day for 3 months and post it to a daily blog. These photos should be beyond your comfort zone. Study areas that you do not normally shoot. For example, if you take landscape photography, shoot people’s faces. If you are a stock photographer, shoot a landscape. If you are an industrial photographer, take pictures of flowers. This is a great way to grow as a photographer, and you may discover inspiration in a whole new way.

http://hyperphocal.com/?p=176

Doesn't it sound familiar to what I've been doing...Well I'm not going to keep this up for three months - it would be too much! Even today I had problems motivating me to take a picture. So even though I still have time, I'm gonna publish the easy picture that I took from my room. Only couple of days left so I promise to put more effort for the rest of the photos.

day 26

I shared the same feeling with my brother this morning. To be more precise, both of us realized that it was pretty early that we had waken up due to the fact that one was supposed to turn clocks to winter time last night. I also slept pretty well which isn't always evident when I'm sleeping in an "unfamiliar" bed.

However, I was trying to catch some lost working hours from the past week with my thesis. Surprising to me, it wasn't difficult at all to concentrate (okay I start to understand the connection between enough sleep and being effective) even though the patent texts that I went through are some what complex by nature ("--In yet another embodiment...in still another embodiment...")!

Today is the day for Finland's municipal election. Therefore I took a train back to Helsinki right after my godson's birthday parties where I was taking the first photos for the day (none of which turned out to be interesting). Voting took only a couple of minutes and I was ready to edit the POD. This time I leave the contents of the photo unexplained. The contents is quite easy to distinguish, isn't it?

day 25

This is my little brother photographed in my grandma's former room while we were moving her belongings away this evening. Hard to apprehend that just a few weeks earlies we were carrying the mirror table to opposite direction.

day 24

I wasn't that efficient with my studies today. Actually I'm going to have an exam tomorrow but haven't prepared enough to raise the grade. Well I've been quite busy recently and there will be another opportunity to do the exam in December.

This evening we went to play a laser game and celebrate the graduation of a friend of mine. And the winner was our team, the reds! The one with the highest score was the player with the nick name "Nebula" and 17'950 points. Accuracy 58,82 per cent, shots fired: 187. Do I have to say more?!

After the swetty game we aimed to the bus stop and waited for the bus number 550 back to our place. While waiting, I took a picture of this young couple who were sticked together like fast-glue. Tomorrow I'll go to see my parents and pick up the battery charger. There's been a bit of stress lately and many unfortunate incidents taking place. I hope that there's happier things to come in the future.

day 23

It happened that my grandma slept away last evening.

Last couple of days she hardly opened her eyes and was weakening in spite of the good care she received. Yesterday evening my mom decided to go to the hospital and stay there through all night, even though the nurses had promised to inform her if something happens to grandma. So she went there after 10 pm and walked into grandma's bed. She whispered restfully into her mother's ear the words "your daughter is here with you, don't be afraid".

Soon after she stopped to breath and slept away in my mother's hands.

Bright memories about you will remain in our hearts forever.

Rest in peace grandma.

day 22

So I woke up at 5 am and had half an hour to prepare before jumping to the airport taxi. With the driver I mostly talked about cars and traffic - as if I knew much about either.

In the flight I sat next to a business woman and didn't change a word with her. That's so Finnish. Arrived to Vaasa I took a pre-ordered taxi who drove me to my employer. Actually I took four different taxis today and spent around 150 euro for the fees. The last one was a guy around his thirties who drove a Merzedez from the 80's. I bet that no else would have taken that ride but I thought it was just cool - reminds me the atmosphere in some foreign country's taxis, most probably Thailand's. Even the cab driver was pretty mellow with his thoughts and drove me home pretty fast.

After 9 hours of discussion about the research I was free to go to the centre of Vaasa to do some serious photo shoot. Actually I walked from the main post office to the sea shore and back while the sun was falling down like stock market prizes lately. Oh what a brainiac comparison that was! Even though I just carried a 5o mm prime lens with me (didn't have much room in my suitcase), I still got a few shots that I liked.


By the way, I sure did leave the battery charger to my parents' place. Thus I have to live with the fact that there's three days to go before I get it back. As if there wasn't enough challenge without that!:)

day 21

Preparing for tomorrows trip to Vaasa.

Promised to go to sleep early.

Guess what?

It'll be 12 a clock again before I'm in the bed.

Just now it feels that everything is against the challenge, because not only being almost late on updating the blog, it might be that I left my battery charger to my parents' place. Maybe I just have to borrow a camera from some one if my batteries die before Sunday, when I'm going for a visit to my parents.

This evening Lauri was kind enough to stand in front of the camera for a while. Big up for you!

day 20

Sometimes it feels funny when I'm taking pictures and people are trying to avoid getting in the way of camera. Actually the bowing phenomenon is itself something to consider taking photo of. Today I was supposed to have company for my photo shoot, but eventually I found myself alone from the bridge with my photography equipment as the only fellowship. Well, Vikanda had a decent reason to fade the session, and we decided to go on another day. Portraits! I want to shoot portraits! Well presumably that wish is about to accomplish soon - I've got a few victims in my mind already.

day 19

In the morning we went for a walk to a park which is located in a hill behind my parents place. There's lots of sculptures made by Olavi Lanu and thus the park is called Lanu Park. The sculptures are mostly made of concrete with various techniques. So I did my share as a guide although was snapping some pictures every now and then.

On friday I was thinking about the rest of the challenge, and whether I'm already repeating myself (two pictures of stairs, tunnel theme and so on). So I thought it would be wise to decide a couple of themes to reach for. The ones that came to my mind were:
a reflection, a (close-up) portrait, an animal portrait, a self-portrait, a sports shot, a nature photo, a long exposure - moving subject, and a macro shot.

Even though todays picture might be classified into two of the above groups, I'm still going to keep the list fixed. Although my purpose is not to follow it too strictly, suggestions with new themes would be gratefully appreciated!

day 18

Sightseeing and pretending to be a tourist in Lahti today included for instance checking the following spots: skijumping towers, my childhood neighborhood, radio towers, the city hall, the sibelius hall and so on. We took plenty of pictures from each others and also some shots together. I found myself taking lots of pictures from Fei with her camera but when the weather got better, began to snap something with my black machine, too.

Actually I have to admit that I came into conclusion that Fei got better photos from numerous places that we paid a visit. That has to be either because 1) she has better visual eye for a photo or 2) the surroundings in my prior home city are too familiar to me, if you know what I mean...Actually it surely was a combination due to both of the facts mentioned above.

Any way, what comes to the picture of the day, I've first a story to tell you. That is my mom asked us to join her to meet my grandma to the hospital where she was carried in the beginning of the week. First I wondered whether or not it would be too shocking to her (grandma) to bring Fei with me, but my mother assured that it's totally okay. And when I thought about it again I just had to agree because even if she had some prejudice against foreign people (yes, old people in Finland might still carry some negative thinking for foreigners, especially as a girlfriend), she wouldn't probably remember it tomorrow.

So the three of us drove there and went into her room to say hi. It appeared that her hands were tied into the bed due to the fact that she was in an intravenous medication and had been ripping off the tubing. She tried to explain how sad it feels when she's unable to cross her hands together. My mom was luckily clever enough to tell her that the reason for that was to make sure that she doesn't fall off from the bed as has happened when she hurt herself. To be honest, the meeting was very emotional, even for me. Grandma was able to recognize me as "a person who she has definitely seen before" and Fei as "a person who's a new face in her circle". So they said hi and so on.

Suddenly there was a little bird which flew across the room to the hallway. I even managed to get a photo from it standing in the corner of the door. My mom is working in the very same hospital and so she found that sarcastically funny that we were using desinfection liquid into our hands while there's a flying creature in the surgery section. At all events, I'm finally able to bridge todays picture for the preceding. This photo was taken from the backyard of my parents place. Let those birds bring strength to my grandma to get better soon!

day 17

After arrived to my parents place we cooked dumplings and it took almost 4 hours on overall. I had a idea of going to shoot some long exposures after the dinner in the dark city but it was definitely too cold to even hold the tripod (no gloves naturally) in the freezing rain. So we get back to my parents place and played with the camera a little bit. I was trying to catch a photo of my brother during he was playing with the laptop but just didn't get it right. So I followed my moms suggestion and took a photo from Fei in the candle light. Obviously I like the shot! Hopefully it is a nice weather tomorrow for some landscape photos.

day 16

Rainy day it was.

Already look forward to the weekend with Fei to come in my parents place. Promise to write longer posts during every following three days!

day 15

Sorbus aucuparia photographed in the morning light was destined to be the middle way divider in my photo challenge. This photo was taken around 8 am just a few hundred meters from my apartment. The sunrise was pretty cool too, but couldn't get anything interesting out of it this time. Now need to hurry to the library before luch time. Maybe I'm going to write something about my day later in the evening - if there's something interesting to write about.

day 14

Todays efforts: woke up at 7, at 8 went to swedish lecture, made phone call to the employer, had lunch, bought flight tickets for next wednesday, met Fei and went together to Helsinki for a brief photo session. Then rushed back home and bicycled to play floorball. Now editing for one and half hours and almost ready to call it a day.

I'm sure we were just half an hour late from the perfect moment for the landscape moon photo since the sun was already pretty much set down. So I ended up taking the simplest possible picture of the moon. Sometimes less is more, isn't it?

day 13

Well it's not nothing new that I'm in a hurry with my blog. Today I took a concious risk to leave the photography until evening while it's already dark. That is, yesterday I noticed that there's pretty cool moonlight during late evening hours. But unfortunately this evening the moon was hiding behind heavy clouds so I ended up just with the idea of playing with long exposures and external flash.

Of course I forgot to take extra batteries for the flash which energy was fading away. Still I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of friends of mine who were kind enough to pose for a couple of pictures, one of which turned out pretty cool. Nevertheless that's not the one that I publish today but the one I took with just before the batteries finally died from my flash. So Jussi, you'll see the picture of you later!

day 13

Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth to each other with rackets (also known as 'bats' or 'paddles'). The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Players must allow a ball played towards them only one bounce on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side. Points are scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. A skilled player can impart several varieties of spin to the ball, altering its trajectory and limiting an opponent's options to great advantage.

Source: wikipedia


Today I didn't have many ideas for the POD. But I've been planning for a while to go and take photos from ping pong players in the nearby house. Thus I went there while my laundry was still spinning in the machine and asked whether it was okay that I took a couple of pics from them playing. They were nice and so I stayed there for some 20 minutes.

I have noticed that it is easier to go to ask a permission to a photo if you have a reason for that. Also putting up your words in a right way helps a lot. For example there's a difference between "Can I take a photo?" and "Do you mind if I take a photo?". Similarly, picturing strangers is a nice way to get to know new persons. Maybe I even got a few new readers to my enermously popular blog!

day 11

As I've previously mentioned, I like to take pictures of people. Today I had a perfect opportunity to do urban portraits because Krista, a friend of mine, promised to join me. Although I had slept only some 4 or 5 hours, we get up early and met in Helsinki around 10 a clock. The weather wasn't that fine, I mean not the kind of weather one wants to hang around under the open sky. Ok, it was rainy, windy and grayish.

So we decided to get the underground to Kalasatama which is a couple of stops to East from the centre. I had an idea to shoot a portrait with long shutter speed and burst my fancy Metz flash handheld. But when we came to the underground stop, something suddenly arrested my attention. To be more specific, It was a stairway with yellow walls going down to the street. And because I'm into framing, the thing that there was nice window grates to take advantage of, inspired me even more. Thus I asked Krista to do couple of walks up and down in the stairs while I was pressing the shutter. Easy enough for me.


So after around 10 shots we continued to do a couple of more traditional urban portraits but due to the fact that only one can be named as a winner, this time it was a stairway photo that got its 15 minutes of fame! By the way what comes to winning, I just returned from a floorball tournament where my team lost both of its matches. Next one takes place at October 29th so I'll report on the results then.

day 10

I put all in for this evenings bowling session for the picture of the day. Unfortunately it didn't pay off big time. But tomorrow is a new day and new game! Here's the most valuable player of our bowling competition, Lee.

day 9

This morning I went to do a photo that I've been planning to do for a while. Even though the temperature was hardly over zero, I got help from Fei, again. Nearly frozen we got back to our apartments. I recommended her to take a warm shower and short nap, but I'm not sure if she followed that.

This time I'll tell some technical info about the picture:
- 200 mm
- shutter speed - 1/250 sec
- aperture - f / 2,8
- ISO 400
- handheld
- some post-processing was carried out, including adjusting highlights, setting up curves and finally some selective blurring.

day 8

To start with, I still feel that it was a mistake to have a dinner prior to going out to a restaurant with Fei. I'm not into comparisons, but I feel just like a over-filled balloon. But the dinner was nice and I can sincerely recommend the place for anyone who's into Chinese food. No names, but It's located in Annankatu 29, Helsinki.

Earlier we went to buy some foodstuff from the Chinese store, and as reported by the person who I was with, I seemed to be hilarious around there. Go figure! By the way, I kept my promise and took a few (not more than 10) street photos today. Actually in the morning I went to take photos from the sunrise. Thus it was a difficult choice between "proving the promise" and "proving that I woke up early enough".

In either way, there's going to be a few that think that I didn't do the other!:) Because I feel like that I've got plenty of opportunities left to shoot the sunrise, here's the picture of the day (and I still have 15 minutes of time left!).

day 7

In my opinion, when one takes a picture with person in it, it usually unavoidably turns out to be interesting. Probably it has to do with human nature and natural curiosity of it. I like to take pictures of people. What I admire is to show the feelings and character of one in a portrait shot. That is very challenging, I've noticed. I'll look forward to publish a decent portrait during the challenge. We'll see if I'll be successful or not.

Today I went bicycling with my girlfriend to the nearby area. It seemed to be nice weather and light because sun was already setting down a bit. I took a couple of pics in the tunnel that was surrounded by yellow birches that painted by the soft sunlight. And I wanted to publish a sunny picture to prove that it's not rainy and gloomy every day! Tomorrow I'll try to do some street photography in Helsinki.

day 6

Typical monday. I had only one hour to take the photo. So I pretty much rushed to take a shot pretty near to my place where I noticed a tunnel in which appeared to be a reflection of light from nearby building. That's it for today, good night!

day 5 - Economies of scale

So far I've been struggling quite a bit to get the POD done. Today it was the opposite. I woke up at 9 a clock and went to check my emails. Doing so, I noticed Tupu (a cat) behind the window. It seemed like a nice opportunity to get a portrait of her, so I went to the front door and opened it. In the same moment I crouched down, she jumper over me and ran inside. I followed her in the kitchen and managed to get a couple of moderate shots in consideration of rapidly moving object and low light condition.

After a very decent breakfast (cheers Aki & Maiju) I started the engine and began my journey from Nyystölä to Lahti. In the midway the weather started to get better so I did the unusual and parked the car in a bus stop. I spent around half an hour shooting pics with a 200 mm tele lens with the help of tripod. It was raining slightly but not too much to get the shots. I paid the most attention in composition and correct exposure since I wanted to get a clean landscape image. Having finished I gave a call to a friend of mine who's also into photography and asked him to shoot some landscapes with me. He did join me in spite of his major hangover and It was a nice session regardless the sunshine was already gone.

So the very successful day in photography left me in the difficulty of choosing the one and only image out of a few strong candidates. Fortunately I was lucky enough to get an opinion from the council that was composed of my room mate and his girl friend (or friend girl...). I would have probably made the same decision but thanks anyway!

day 4

My 85-year old grandmother suffers from altzheimers disease. She's very demented but on certain days she's very sharp, in particular with old memories. She lives in a nursing home nearby my parents, who visit her every now and then. Today I joined them to bring my granny her mirror table since she is such a beautiful looking lady and likes to comb her hair for hours. Her husband took heavily the fact that she had to move away from him. When he visits her, she's usually begging him to take her along to their home. Because my grandfather has already had several heart failures, he's not strong enough to take care of her any more. It's hard for him to leave her there crying. That's why he, with a heavy heart, seldom visits her nowadays.

day 3

Oh I had a busy day. First in the morning four and half our meeting with my new employer. Yes it was kind of a interview. Yes I got the position.

Lots of things will also take place during next six to eight months. I'll be working full day starting next monday with a literature study about the subject. Then in the next and the following weeks I'll pay a visit to two cities that are located in the western shore and next to the eastern border of Finland. In the preceding I'm actually going to visit once in a while because that's the main location of the plant. After I've completed the literature study I'm going to move to Imatra until I've finished the thesis work. Need some time to habituate myself to that concept.

Afternoon I traveled to my parents place. Due to the fact that I needed to finish a report for swedish language course, I was little bit late to take the pic of the day or POD (nothing to do with that band). My brother joined me and did some modeling but it was too late already by then. So again I publish the first click of the day. Tomorrow I'll go fishing with a few friends of mine. Hopefully we get monsters so that I've got something to show you!

So long!

day 2

At 6:30 am I watched out of my rooms window just to notice that it rained a lot, again. Actually whole day long it's been dropping water and there was hardly any hope of shooting landscapes that I'd planned to do. I was also prepared to do some street photography in Helsinki city center but went to Tapiola instead. There was hardly anything interesting so I took only a few photos. Back to my apartment I tried to shoot tea cup with long shutter speed and lighting it with handheld flash. Being unsatisfied to the results I decided to publish the first picture of the day from Tapiola. At least it gives a hint about the essence of the day.

no: 1

This day started with an unrealistic feeling in my head. Maybe it had something to do with last nights parties but it seemed very challenging - to use the in-fashion term - to do anything with my camera. That's also due to the fact that when I looked outside of the window and saw the very typical finnish autumn weather that can be described with only a single english word, gray.

In the given lighting situation and my personal mood, I decided to go for a after lunch photo session into the Helsinki University of Technology main building, that's one of the most famous works of architect Alvar Aalto. Because that's also one of the most photographed spots in the campus area, I wasn't sure to get anything interesting out of it. But things suddenly changed when a member of the tourist group entered the lecture hall and I got a chance to compose an image with her in the foreground. Since I wanted to start the challenge with a b&w photo, I used high sensitivity (ISO 1600) and underexposed the photo for nearly 1 stop. Then in the post-processing, in addition of setting curves, added I even more grain for a film-like look. So ladies and gentlemen, here's the lucky number one!

On the eve of the challenge

Yesterday I went to see a friend of mine who just started her studies in the faculty of veterinary medicine. Long time no see, it was. In defiance of chilly autumn evening, we walked along the seashore and took couple of photos. I didn't have tripod with me (It's not October yet, haha) and since I only got one external flash, we had to get creative. Mainly we just played with long exposures and used what_ever_standings to keep camera still. Despite that, I think a couple of pictures turned out quite tasty.

Tomorrow starts the big thing. Be prepared.

To start with...

New blogs born everyday. Thousands of pages are contemporaneously left alone like orphans - but they won't vanish definitively. Shrinking blogs are like space garbage - floating useless in the orbit around the earth, yet they still remain. The question is, how long will my new-born be able to struggle before it is launched to the outer space.

Thats it for flowery words. This will be another blog in the field of photography. Besides demonstrating my exposures, I'll also attempt to turn the tastiest moments of daily phenomena into character strings (also called as "words" and "sentences", editors note).

I don't promise to update the blog daily. Actually I don't promise you much.

Instead, I'll challenge myself into a project that I came up this morning while I was shooting pics from sunrise next to my apartment at the seashore. How about publishing one single picture a day for one month, I thought (and yes, I've heard many has done it before me). Would that possibly improve my photography skills? Maybe, but at least it would boost my inspiration to move in the discomfort zone (meaning carrying a tripod on early, chilly mornings for instance) for more interesting results.

I'll start October 1st. It's a promise.