Cities – Page 6 – Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

Countdown to 2021-29

I can now start counting the days to New Year. The traditional New Years fireworks have been cancelled due to Covid-19, but we have not shot them anyways, we have seen the ones our town fires, but I can live without them. I will post some photos from the past years. Not my specialty , but they are my humble attempts

Today is gray, we have a bit of snow +1C temperatures, maybe more snow in to look forward to. Nothing inspiring in the least.

We have spent few hours of watching M*A*S*H that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983 from a DVD box we got several years ago. It follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the “4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53) It is still a great sitcom, the themes are universal and it is still relevant in many ways even if it is from early 70’s.

That’s it for today 🙂

I will be posting new and old photos somehow related to winter, Christmas and eventually anticipation of new year. My aim is to take one new photo a day, but not going to stress over it, if I don’t come up with anything.

Would you like to join us? Join in with this title and link it to my page.

Countdown to 2021-19

Cities, Photography, Still life

Today: Sunrise at 9:24- Sunset 15:15- Length of day 5:50 hours – time of dusk 0:58 minutes . A minute less of daylight than yesterday. Only 2more days until winter solstice.

One more rainy, misty December morning, no feeling of winter or Christmas. Gone are the days of white Christmas here in the south of Finland – or at least they are very rare and far apart. Our local church looks nice even with out snow.

I can look at old photos of snow…

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Helsinki by night ~2

Cities

On a windy Monday evening I went to take photos of the city by night. First I visited Töölö. After that we drove to the center, I was going to try different locations but the wind was so strong that I decided that it isn’t the best of weathers to be taking photos.

Considering that I have to tripod, I think these night photos turned out OK.

Helsinki by night

Cities

On a windy Monday evening I went to take photos of the city by night. First I visited Töölö. The park between two streets, Hesperia Esplanade, was my main topic, while I waited for my husband to finish his business there.

The name Hesperia is connected to the romantic trend in the early 1800s. Hesperia was the poetic name used by the ancient Greeks to describe the mythical lands far off to the west. Hesperos refers to the evening star, and in Greek mythology the Hesperides were nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world. Hercules is said to have collected golden apples from their garden. (text from vihreatsylit.fi)

Considering how few leaves we have at home I was surprised how many there were at this esplanade.

How to survive November 2020-4

Black and White photos, Cities

I had some errands to run in Helsinki and took my camera with me, so I could take night time. Photos of cities and buildings are something that look good as black and white. In this picture you can see in the front the the old market hall – it is still in use. In the back is the city hall and background the Helsinki Cathedral

If you wish to participate in this survival of the darkest month challenge, use this link to add your post to it. PARALLEL LINES

Hei kaikille osallistujille, minulla on ollut paljon ongelmia postata kommentteja bloggeriin. Blogitse ilmoittaa koko ajan että väärä vastaus… laskutehtävät ovat vielä kuitenkin sen tasoisia että ne hallitsen. Samoin muutama muukin jää epävarmaksi että tuleeko ne näkyviin. esim.
Digi Passions, Parallel lines sama ongelma,

How to survive November 2020-3

Black and White photos, Cities

Kirkkonummen kirkko – Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko

Kirkkonummi’s medieval stone church is located in the center of Kirkkonummi. The exact time of construction is not known, but the work apparently began in the 15th century. A wooden church, was previously located on the site. Kirkkonummi Church is named after St. Michael the Archangel Michael.

Originally, Kirkkonummi Church was very small. In addition to stone, brick was used as the material. In the 18th century, the church began to expand, and in the mid-19th century it was transformed into its present form as a cruciform church. The church bell tower was built in 1824.

If you wish to participate in this survival of the darkest month challenge, use this link to add your post to it. PARALLEL LINES

I chose as an older photograph my take Träskända Manor so I would be on a same kind of topic. I love old buildings, I think they have so much more character.

Träskända Manor Park

Cities, Landscapes

Near the bridge over the Glimsin River, grows the park’s largest oak (Quercus robur), which is about 5.5 meters in circumference. This oak is the thickest single-trunked tree in Träskända and at the same time in the whole of Espoo.

We enjoyed a beautiful autumn Sunday visiting this lovely park, the history these trees could tell. There were people sitting by the trees or benches having a picnic, enjoying the low soft autumn light and warmth. Kids running around playing – so idylic.

I had my camera with me, but I forgot the card home so I had to take photos with my mobile. I have to say, the quality just is not the same as it would be with a camera, but you can still see that is is a lovely place to visit and only 20 minutes from home.

History and diverse nature meet in Träskända Manor Park. Manor Park is a nationally valuable cultural and historical environment and one of the oldest nature reserves in Espoo. Cultural-historical values are combined with the old noble forest of the manor park and several rare tree and shrub species as well as fauna. The manor environment also includes an exceptionally extensive and original landscape park.

We can learn a lot from trees: they’re always grounded but never stop reaching heavenward.

The construction of the manor park began as early as the 18th century, but the park got its modern look during Aurora Karamzin in the mid-19th century, when Träskända was one of the most magnificent manors in Finland.

The current main building in Träskända was built in the 1890s

Manor Park is a popular outdoor area and an important neighborhood for residents of the area.

Träskända Manor Park was designated as a nature reserve in 1961. Kartanpuisto is one of the most significant historical parks in Finland.

Details of carriages

Black and White photos, Cities, Still life

Details of the harnesses and carriages were that dates from the 1880’s.

I did a set in color and in black and white, as I’ve said before, the atmosphere is totally different in them, in my humble opinion. Do you agree or disagree?

A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see–that’s my idea of happiness.
Henry James

Hartola – Koskipää mansion

Cities

Visiting Hartola for the first time, there is not that much to see but we saw the main attractions I assume.

The main green building dates from the 1828. The larder is from the same period and has been built over cellars which date back to the 18th century.

The red side building was constructed in two phases, first came the “savupirtti” (literally a smoke-hut in which there was no chimney) built in the 17th century. The work was finished in the 1850’s. The yellow building, which was the main one during the middle of the 17th century, is not used as a museum.

The shed in which the harnesses and carriages were formerly kept now houses the agricultural section of the museum, and dates from the 1880’s. The windmill was build in 1840. The buildings were all originally here except for the windmill, which was transported to the museum in 1965.

Haikon Kartano

Cities, Travel

The first known reference to Haikko Manor dates back to the year 1362, but the present Manor House was built in 1913, it is located by the beautiful archipelago about 7 kilometres from Porvoo. Now days it is a Hotel Haikko Manor and Spa.

Old town Porvoo

Cities, Travel

as it is not recommended that we travel abroad at the moment, we have been visiting picturesque towns and places in Finland. Let me introduce Porvoo to you again with few new photos. It was so full of local tourists that I did not take many photos from the streets. Enjoy a a small photo tour from this lovely town.

Old Porvoo, with its red-ochre painted riverside warehouses, is one of the most photographed national landscapes in Finland. Here you can admire the colorful wooden houses and stroll the winding cobbled streets – as if in a children’s story book.

Ekenäs Old Town

Cities, Travel

I have been lazy and on holiday, we have done few trips to town near us.

The grey stone church was built in the 1680s

Ekenäs Old Town with its wooden houses spreads out to the seashore. The street names tell the story of the life of the townspeople and how they got along hundreds of years ago. Here, the streets have stayed the same since the 16th century. Street names such as the Hatter’s Street , Linen Weaver’s Street , Cloth Weaver’s Street , Smith’s Street and Tanner’s Street reveal that Barcken’s peninsula in Ekenäs once was populated by skillful craftsmen.

The grey stone church was built in the 1680s on the initiative of Count Gustaf Adolf Leijonhufvud. The church was badly damaged in a fire and owes its present appearance to the reconstruction in the mid-1800s. The latest restoration was made in 1989-1990. There are several valuable items in the church, including a pulpit from the 1600s.

Most of the buildings in the Old Town date from the late 18^th and the 19^th century, but the area grew out of a 16^th century fishing village that the Swedish king Gustav Vasa granted a town charter in 1546 – a few years before Helsinki.

In the summer, you can peep over the fences to the enclosed courtyards. The small signs with names of fish, as given to the blocks in the 19^th century, and the cast-iron lamp posts give the face of the Old Town that little extra. The small street mirrors or “gossip mirrors” in the windows, elegantly crafted garden gates and the intricately decorated window frames are all details worth spending time looking at.

A day walk in Seurasaari

Cities, Landscapes, Photography, Travel

Here are some photos from our day walk on a Beautiful summer Sunday in Seurasaari Island, Helsinki. Hope you have the time to go through all the pictures of this lovely place.

The island provides a lovely setting for outdoor recreation, sun worshippers and walkers. The tame ducks, swans and geese swarming around the white wooden bridge welcome everybody. Notice the baby swans next to the rock

Having crossed a visitors can see buildings from all over Finland that have been relocated to Seurasaari island. The buildings represent various aspects of living in Finland from the 17th century to the 20th century. There are currently 87 buildings in the museum.

The nature is strongly present in the Seurasaari Island, wild flowers, trees , small wood areas. The paths make it easy to walk around without disturbing the nature.

Summer day in Helsinki

Cities, Photography, Travel

Summer day in Helsinki, sitting in the park people watching and enjoying tasty ice cream, having lunch at a restaurant. What a beautiful capital we have.

CB&W ~ Stairs

Black and White photos, Cities, Photography

the CB&W topic is outdoor-ways-to-move-up-or-down -my take on it is mainly stairs. Here is my input for this week . These are new edits from my visit to France.

Scanning project

Cities

Today I created a new folder for my Travel photos. I created a folder for the countries I have visited and moved all the ones I could find to the right places. This is the beginning of my scanning project as there are several places I’ve visited before photos began to be in digital form. These two are from my first stay in NY.

New York 1983 no editing done to this image yet.

Rainy day joys

Cities, Photography

Waiting

Cities, Photography

Waiting in the car and killing time taking pictures

CB&W – Signs

Black and White photos, Cities, Traveling US

Signs are every where, mostly I do not take too much notice of them. These go in the theme what I’ve been posting on the blog lately. My trip to Las Vegas and California. I had to add one from the sign capital, Hong Kong. I have never seen so many signs on a street before.

CB&W – transportation

Cities, Photography

Editing Black and White images is fun, I have a limited amount of photos of public transportation’s but I did find few for CB&W theme this week.

Trams seem to be my favorite public transportation to photograph. So there are trams from Helsinki, San Francisco, Melbourne. Buses and metro from Hong Kong. Ferry from Sydney and Hong Kong. Last but not least a train from Melbourne. I did actually find several as I started to look through my archives. Happy travels in public transportation.

Train at Flinders Street station in Melbourne

Colorful tunnel

Cities, Photography

The tunnel to the railway station was always dirty, full of graffiti, dark and dingy. Nowadays it is colorful, bright and no one has yet done any graffiti art or scribble there which is a nice surprise

Breakfast at Joe’s

Cities, Traveling US

Before we left towards our drive to Big Sur we had a nice american breakfast at Joe’s Place in Paso Robles. The owner is a patriot, by the look of the memorabilia and photos on the walls.. Also lot of old movie stars pictures- Ladies room had pictures of old leading men. I did not visit the men’s room, but I heard lovely ladies covered the walls. We do not have these kind of diners/ breakfast places in Finland so this was a rare opportunity to do this kind of breakfast. I was going to skip this part, but my husband let me understand that this should be in the “diary” of our trip.

on the road #3

Cities, Travel, Traveling US

Still on the road. What you see when you travel and stay awake..

Hoover Dam

Cities, Photography, Travel, Traveling US

It was sad to see how the water level had gone down. It for sure is not a promising sign to Nevada’s water supplies. You’ll see a visual reminder of the area’s changing water levels in the high-water mark apparent on every rocky surface. Jokingly called a “bathtub ring,” the revealed stone is lighter in color, with undulating lines marking water heights through the years

Bootleg Canyon

Cities, Photography, Travel, Traveling US

We ended up at the Bootleg Canyon as one of our friends started to talk to a local at a small local Mexican place. Told us that you can see to both sides to town and hoover Dam from there. So we drove the gravel road up to the top and took some photos in the afternoon and returned at nighttime to see the valley light up. Those photos did not turn up well as I did not have a tripod with me.

The images above are from the afternoon.

So much light, with a better lens and tripod I think I could have had some great shots from this place 🙂

The not so glamorous side

Cities, Travel, Traveling US

it has been years since my prior visit, but I have to say that the sadness and poverty in so much more prominent today on the streets of Las Vegas. Also the ways various people are trying to make a living. I am posting these just to remind me and us that there is always the other side to glamour. I am not so used to seeing it. so it made me very sad.