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.
While at the countryside I noticed that it looks positive for the berries in the autumn. We can look forward to lots of blueberries and lingonberries or cowberries. Wood strawberries are looking good too.. I did have my camera with me so I did take photos. Here are some of my weekend pics of blueberries
Spent on long weekend with not laptop and I was too lazy to post anything with my phone. I am in for a life change for a while, I’m starting a full time job tomorrow, but it is a fixed term contract so this joy won’t last for long, but it is what it is. The only downside is I will be that I will be working all through summer, no holiday day to enjoy the best season ( my opinion, I’m a summer person) in Finland.
For Blueberries
While at the countryside I noticed that it looks positive for the berries in the autumn. We can look forward to lots of blueberries and lingonberries or cowberries. Wood strawberries are looking good too.. I did have my camera with me so I did take photos. Here are some of my weekend pics of blueberries
Yesterday we had vile weather, lots of rain and wind. I still went out, braced myself to the weather, for a good cause. I picked few of my art works from the printer and later took my artwork to the person who commissioned them, sound so formal and grand. I felt so good to see the finalized work to see it as an artwork instead an image on the screen. She was happy, I was happy 🙂
If you like my artwork, take some time to check out my Art By Ritvapages.
I took a drive by myself to enjoy the nature in Kopparnäs in Inkoo as it was a nice May day. Not cold, not hot. As it was a weekday I was one of the first to be there. When I arrived a group of kids in daycare had been enjoying the morning there and were just about to leave. One of the girls was complaining that she had not enjoyed it reason being that the water was cold 🙂
It was windy in the first spot I stopped, but as I walked little bit further I found a spot were I was shielded from the wind by the trees, but I was able to enjoy the view, sun enjoy the hum of the wind, the sound of the sea and birds singing. So nice, so calm.
I would not me if I did not have my camera with me, but even to my surprise I took less the 40 shots and I was there nearly three hours 🙂
We went seeing local sights with our grandsons – all three of them. To my total surprise there were no fights or need to raise my voice once, well not in a angy way anyways. They were on the move all the time running around in such speed. Luckily the oldest boy to the youngest under his wings, he was so caring and guiding all day. The only place they were still was at dinner table 🙂 this post has photos of the boys the scenery are another post all together.
I was trying to capture the mood and the care and their inquisity towards new thing into these shots.
Looking closely at this plant that makes a memorable impression on you if you touch it in the foliage that is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash. The stinging nettles, looks pretty when looking at it closely, as most plants do.
I was walking taking photos of nature blooming – lost my spectacles luckily found them as I had to go through the same spots again. I was a bit frustrated, as I have lost two pair of sunglasses while taking photos. One in the rapids of Kumiankoski few years back, One in the Chapora River in India.
this is the time to take photos of this small and delicate beauty the comes to life when you look close enough. These are taken after the rain with small droplets still to be found in some shots.
We are having some heavy duty rain at the moment, I woke up couple times in the early morning hours to the sound of it. Luckily I fell asleep again quickly to an odd dream. These ones are taken from my car while waiting for my hubby to come back from the store which I had no desire to go to.
Itsy bitsy spider Climbed up the bird cherry; Down came the rain And washed the spider out; Out came the sun And dried up all the rain; And the itsy bitsy spider Climbed up the bird cherry again.
This month’s theme is peach, in my FB photography group. I struggled with it for a while since peaches where not available in the stores until recently – it was not their season 🙂 Well, anyways I found some peaches in the end and took photos of them. Feel free to comment, I am still on a constant learning curve.
Nostalgic
I tried to create different moods, time periods (nostalgic) and obviously variations in compositions. I was not all that creative this time in that sense, but you cannot always succeed 🙂
I have done my best to stay away from the computer and social media, I have not posted in days or answered any comments. I will be doing that today. I spent nearly a week at our summer place enjoying a mini summer, we don’t usually have summer temperatures at this time of the year. So I took the advantage of it with all I have. Spent time in the hammock, spent all of the day outside Saw the miracle of spring summer bloom in one day. Amazing green is surrounding us at this moment.
Country road in the mist
As my last post was shared and it featured night shots, I am going to continue that theme. Saturday night we had a rain shower that lasted for about a hour and after that it cleared. At 11pm I went out side with my camera for a short walk, the air was so fresh and the mist on the fields lovely -I started with t the blue hour and watched as the sun was about to set. Here are some shot from my walk…
Franks Night post shared has some of my photos, read his well worded thoughts of night. Fell free to comment here or in his blog. Night can be full of magical beauty, with summers light nights we have here in the north. Winter sky with the beautiful star art. Nights capture the imagination, thoughts can circle in your mind during the night when you are supposed to sleep. Night is time for parties, time to meet friends or rest so you can survive the next day. It can be full of bliss or loneliness.
Special thanks to Ritva for providing the photos. Ritva is in Finland and I encourage readers to visit her blog Ritva Sillanmaki Photography. Please tell her I sent you and feel free to comment on her images here. She was also willing to try something different for me – collages. Any thoughts? Ritva’s work is copyrighted by Ritva Sillanmaki Photography.
Click the video above for 2 minutes of background waves while reading.
I like to walk on the beach. It is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.
Although now is a time of daylight, my thoughts are about night – that period of darkness ending with the arrival of light rising over the horizon.
Night is the time also called evening, nighttime, or even nocturne – the time between sunset and sunrise on the continuum of time. When does night start and…
What a difference a day makes. We got touch of summer today, the joy of it 😊. We took a short walk at Kloppen Marina. You could see the new green taking over the brown.
I am posting this for no other reason than I like this, I might have posted this before in color. This shot says so much about our culture nowadays. Post yourself in all photos, all in glamorous or nice places. I do not do that many selfies, but I do also like to look my best in them.
I also played with the light and contrast in this, how it sets the mood of the photo. I prefer the darker image myself
A new week ahead and we are supposed to get summer temperatures, so looking forward to that.
The weekend went by quickly. Saturday we had -Talkoot- it is a word that english, german or swedish has a equivalent to. We we enjoying sausages, beer, cider and for kids juice by the grill taking after hard work of cleaning the common areas for summer. Raking, cleaning the playground area, washing the flagpole. Sometimes cutting down trees.
Well anyways, I asked our neighbours, a brit, Peter, Harald from germany and a swede if they had a word for this event that we all are participating in at the moment. Talkoo. No. Voluntary work? Dictionary had this to offer: bee, voluntary work, work party . The activities of the association are entirely based on volunteer work. I did find a work for german – Gemeinwerk.
Sunday, Mother’s Day we spent tidying up our own backyard enjoying the rather nice sunny day by being outside. I got a flower bouquet and mudcake with ice cream that we enjoyed with our son and grandkids as they popped by for a quick visit. Nothing fancy, but a nice day.
I obviously took photos of the flowers. I am sharing them with you now.
I looked our travel photos from our trip to Goa, India, this caught my eye this was taken at a local market. I noticed that this photo has rather nice light and contrast going on. I started to edit it because of it, for some reason this has not been a photo that I’ve paid a lot attention to. None to be exact. Well, now I did – I also converted it to black and white. A sepia one to capture an old time feel to it.
Any thoughts on how I spent a hour and some of my time with? Worth the effort?
In Finland, window glass was blown until the 1930s. The thickness of these glass panes was about 1.5 mils. For a long 19th century, glass was made only from domestic raw materials and because of that, the glass was greenish due to impurities in the sand.
Old window In Fiskars
The brinks are also interesting. Fiskars Village, has two two prominent buildings on the riverbank, each with a striking red-and-black brick exterior. The mill and granary, built in 1898 and 1902, respectively, were constructed from a combination of traditional red bricks and unique black bricks. The secret ingredient of these black bricks was slag, a smelting byproduct created by the blast furnaces of the ironworks.
We have had a slight setback in Spring, the forecast is predicting snow to some areas of Finland, here we just have cool temperature and rain to look forward to. Well, it is what it is. When the warm weather returns we can enjoyed it even more. You really learn to appreciate nice weather when you don’t have year round.
Tinka was longingly looking out of the window, for some reason the photo looks like it was a drawing… must be the old glass we have in the windows and that I took the photo at dusk. Veikka was equally disappointed for not being able to be outside during the daytime.
Tinka the cat
If some longing goes unmet, don’t be astonished. We call that life. ~ Anna Freud
Here is a bit of my abstract shots, can you guess what I have been photographing? What do you think, too red? Photographing raw you can bring all kinds of colors out… I don’t know about you, but I had fun taking and editing these.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 