My name is Ritva. I am an avid, self-taught photographer from southern Finland, currently living in Kirkkonummi. Interest in life is evident in my diverse subjects, capturing anything that catches my eye. Whether it’s the delicate intricacies of a plant, the breathtaking beauty of a landscape, or the compelling energy of urban life, My lens finds and celebrates beauty in all its forms. Nature serves as an enduring wellspring of inspiration for me, as I seek out and immortalize its enchanting moments. Additionally, in portrait photography I try to capture human emotion and connection , as I aim to encapsulate the very essence of each fleeting moment.
I totally enjoy playing with photos and immersing oneself in the editing process. It’s truly satisfying to have the flexibility that shooting in RAW provides, opening up a world of possibilities for editing. I’m of the same mindset when it comes to photo editing; I prefer to maintain the authenticity of the moment captured, striving to avoid over-editing and keeping the essence of the shot true to life. However, I also appreciate the occasional opportunity to explore artistic expressions through my edits, transforming images into minimalist monochrome representations that beautifully convey the essence and emotion of the scene. Or using colors to enhance the mood of the image. This delicate balance between realism and artistic expression is what makes photo editing such a captivating endeavor for me.
Inspiration and ideas change. My knowledge changes and grows. Each piece I create is simultaneously an extension from the past, where I’ve come from and what I’ve learned, as well as a preview of the future, where I’m going.
I do not classify myself as just a photographer, as some might think from looking at my work. I am a sculptor, a painter, a photographer, an artist.
If a viewer stops for just a moment to view and reflect on a photograph, a photo collage or a painting I have created, then I have succeeded in my work.
I live in a country with no real mountains, I have seen few on my travels. Here are some photos I have taken. I have linked this post to Amy’s post #Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #222 – Mountains Are Calling
These first are from Vancouver – the beautiful Canadian Gulf Islands and View of Mt. Rainier from ferry coming from Victoria Island.
The second set is from Whistles mountain Whistler is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains,
Huge mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns, and the world’s largest trees exemplify the diversity of landscapes, life, and beauty here. Sierra Nevada mountain range – Sequoia!
Table rock (mesa) on the Central plateau of Sri Lanka in the rain forest.
Celastrus orbiculatus is a woody vine of the Celastraceae family. It is commonly called Oriental bittersweet, as well as Chinese bittersweet, Asian bittersweet, round-leaved bittersweet, climbing spindleberry and Asiatic bittersweet.
Oriental bittersweet
Oriental bittersweet growing on our fence, needs yearly cutting.
Shooting Through Something – basically have something between your lens and your subject that “interferes” with the viewer’s view of your subject. It could be something as simple as leaves in front of your lens. Or if you wanted a more dramatic effect, you could use a piece of glass like a lens ball, a prism, a magnifying glass, etc.
I went out to to capture nature, carrying two camera’s, nearly broke the other by dropping it on the ground, if I’d succeeded it would have been my third camera I dropped and broke. I went out with the intention of trying to shoot behind the trees and leaves, I also did that. I brought some plastic wrap with me to use as a prop. I took this shot placing it on the lens, shooting towards the sun so the flare came nicely on the shot and also gave the shot a misty quality. The autumn colors play a big part in this image of an inlet in Kirkkonummi.
Through cling film
A thin plastic bag or kitchen plastic film (cling film / Saran wrap) over your lens can produce some very creative looking effects too, but you really don’t NEED any special props this week. The idea is that if something is very close to your lens, and your focus is further away, you will create a dreamy, shoot-through effect. This is of course more exaggerated with a shallow depth of fields (wide aperture, smaller f/ number). Go ahead and experiment and have fun!
You could do portraits or street photography by shooting through a window with some reflections showing up, or go the creative route and use vaseline on an old lens filter
The idea is that your foreground, even if it’s blurry, becomes part of your story. So, let’s get creative in a new way.
autumn colors through cling film
Grandchild through beer glass
TIPS:
Refraction: There are tons of ways to use glass to bend and shape light – a wineglass, a magnifying glass, a prism, a lens ball, shooting through a colored pane of glass etc.
Use Nets: A net or thin grid can add some creative effects. If you’re too close, of course, you might not see the effect, so distance yourself appropriately.
Use Plastic: Kitchen film wrap can be used creatively – you can draw on the film to make creative colors and interference patterns without ever harming your lens. How about that empty plastic bottle of water you were about to toss away? That can work too.
Rule Of Odds. Simply put, there’s a school of thought that multiple subjects in a shot are more pleasing if there are an odd number of them, as opposed to even. Think 3, 5, 7, etc.. The number “one” is technically odd, but I don’t think that’s what this “rule” is referring to.
Often an odd number of subjects creates symmetry in your shot – use an odd number of things for the viewer to focus on without making it too cluttered. If you have people subjects, go for 3 or 5; maybe food photography is your thing and you want us to check out some tacos you’ve just made. Or if you’re out and about – maybe you spot 3 birds sitting on a wire. Oh look, it’s five canoes moored together at the lake – all it takes is for you be to a touch more aware of what you see and try and train your mind to compose in odds.
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Remember not to over-crowd the image with too many elements. The average human brain has a better chance of feeling attracted to arrangements of 3 or 5 elements, but as you increase that number, this rule will be less relevant.
Still life
TIPS:
Movement: Add dynamism and a feeling of movement by composing shots with good space on the correct side, usually more space in the direction of the movement.
Cropping: Consider using cropping in your editing software to improve the composition. When done correctly, it can improve things immensely.
Positioning: Try to align vertical elements such as buildings, people walking on the street or a solitary tree along a gridline to generate more visual interest.
Less Is More: 3 to 5 objects of interest in a scene usually work best. Avoid making your image cluttered.
DoF: Use an appropriate Depth Of Field to ensure good sharpness across all your subjects.
Yesterday was a lovely and sunny day between gray days. I took myself out to take some photos. I drove to Porkkala, and park area near us. The nature an scenery there is so delightful that I go there several times yearly.
A unknown flower to me, but it is, a beautiful and delicate. I’ve so many flower photos, that I have not shared. These are taken from my trop to Sri Lanka.
Since I do post editing on my art, and my photos, I also do several variations of them, so this is great challenge for me to participate in LAPC #220 One Subject Three Ways. These are very similar, but slightly different –by zooming in on the details or stepping back for a wider view. Sorry, there is four images and a header. 🙂
End of the path
Summer season ended, we closed our summer house for winter on this beautiful October day. The autumn colors are so lovely.
Lower view of the path
and lower you go still keep the focus in the front
Place the focus to the end of the path, and you get a different mood.
I have no idea as what magic mashroom this is, but it looks like Psilocybe mexicana a psychedelic mushroom. Its first known usage was by the natives of North and Central America over 2,000 years ago.
We did not pick them up, they ended up being cut down by the lawnmower.
I just took photos necaused they looked great, like from a story book.
More Magic mushroomsMagic mushroom growing in my yard
Rose, flower is a flower and beautiful in its own right. As is hydrangea, both in pink tones
Pink Rose
Since I am sharing close-ups, mostly of flowers I’ve decided also to participate in Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. This time I am just posting shots of roses.
I love to have fresh flowers at home, I picked some roses this time.
Since I do post editing on my art, and my photos, I also do several variations of them, so this is great challenge for me to participate in One-to-Three Photo Processing Challenge-October. I used a photo of onions to play the edit game with. #tsc_1to3
Three onions in a color edit done in LightroomOnion in black and white – in old BNW style.Colorful artistic style oil and structure added in Photoshop
I always ,first pick out a photo when I start write a blog post , I decide what I want to share, and then maybe write few words to accompany it and come up with a title. I keep repeating the title as I am bad as coming up with them.
I mean, flower is a flower and beautiful in its own right. And I want to believe, that so are most of my photos that I choose to share. They should speak for themselves. Not that they always do, but I can make believe ☺
Pink Carnation
Since I am sharing close-ups, mostly of flowers I’ve decided also to participate in Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. This time I don’t have violets, but some of the carnations have violet color.
carnations looks lovely even as black and white image
I love to have fresh flowers at home, I picked some small carnations this time, because they stay looking good for a long time. I take photos of them to pass time and in the process get few nice shots. Edit them see what I can create from them.
Since I am sharing close-ups , I’ve decided also to participated in Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. This time the T letter is also is attached to it 🙂 Tulips. The stylish and graceful Tulip is always elegant. it Is a delight.
It’s all about your creativity and what you come across. You could shoot some cool looking signs in your neighborhood or capture the emotion of someone reading a heartfelt greeting card.
This week’s challenge is more about getting the feel of the story than anything else – like the sheer happiness of reading a college admission acceptance letter or contemplating wabi-sabi in an abandoned carnival sign.
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Capturing emotion in an old-school task of penning one’s thoughts to paper is about patience and composure – your own as well as that of your subject. So, just breathe and take a think about what it is you want your viewer to see through not just your eyes but also your subject’s.
Getting typography shots isn’t something you might have thought of shooting earlier , but here’s your chance to try something new. Look out for cool and funky letters and fonts that are worth a dekko – you never know what you’ll find unless you start looking.
Visiting the circus In Helsinki
DoF: Depth of field can play a role here to show just a single line or word while blurring out the rest. Or to ensure that you’re in focus, front to back.
Contrast: Consider playing around with local contrast to give that extra boost to individual letters.
Cropping: If you want to showcase shapes that look like letters, cropping down is essential to eliminate other clutter.
White Balance: Modifying white balance can alter the tone of your shot. Use warmth, cooling and tints to give mood and depth to your image.
Here are some letter I’ve picked either this week, some from further back. My Signature is letters?? so I added it here. This weeks fresh letters are from the circus and I decided to go with the one with the first shot. I would have loved to use some of the older ones, but that would be cheating. So
Autumn iis about letting go of summer and preparing for winter. Greens give way to dead stems and yellow drooping leaves. Darkness slowly takes over the time of light, but how beautiful it can be at the beginning of autumn🍂
yellows ang orange, in a misty settingLooks so pretty!
What clouds, I loved the contrast of the dark clouds against the autumn color by the road as we drove in to the rain and finally to the otherside of it towards the raindow.
We went to see a traditional circus and I tried to take pictures of the acts, but they did not come out so well, here are some. I am amazed of the skills these circus people have. There were lots of kids in the audience obviously, their joy was so delightful.
The show started with the horses, then the MARIONETTE’S DREAM had some great Skipping Rope act,there was also a MYSTERY OF GENTLEMEN, Acrobatics group, so skilled and ended with DIORIOS, five motorbikes riding in the round metal cage, Globe of Death. These performances impressed me the most.