One of the things I participate in is a monthly FB group photography challenge, this is my second entry to theme.
This month the theme is Lemon, yellow…I bought lemon, lime, sparkling water and set up my project.I took so, so many shots, way too many. once again I faced a dilemma what to post. Here I am not so limited I might even do several post on this. Trying to figure out the framing, this is in my humble opinion one of the main things, how you frame your topic. I does not matter if it a still life or landscape. Exposure, the light and shadow play, What area do you want to focus on, and how sharp the image is and where to place the focus. Decisions, decisions 🙂
No way getting over it, it is still winter. It looks lovely no denying that either. Lots of folks I know are really enjoying this. So lets be happy for them 🙂 The singing of the birds carries the notes of spring. All good. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
This is a sign that we are glad to see, not spring, but a hope of it. Areas of open water in places where there is a nice current in the water. The first one is from the end of rapids, as the water enters the lake. The second is from a river.
One of the things I participate in is a monthly FB group photography challenge, the same group has been active for a long time, now we are on going strong in the 6th year.. The amount of participants slightly differ yearly, but there has been small group of photographers, mostly women, from the beginning.
My contribution this month
Sometimes it is a challenge, when new arrivals come to figure out what you can say about the photos they post. The idea is to give feedback on the photos other than; Nice, lovely etc. As all photos are not that, they need constructive feedback. I include myself in the group that, we all can benefit from other peoples views on our photos. Well, the ones who have been together, you know that you can give feedback, suggestions without offending them – they know it is one opinion, you might agree or or not, learn from it. Or just ignore it. Some are so opposed to criticism that you either say nothing or give some platitudes, so you have commented on the photo. It takes time to figure out what someone is willing to hear.
As I said, I have been in this group since the beginning. It is run by a friend of mine. This same friend is who got me into blogging in the first place back in 2011, then I posted photos mainly to challenges either photography or art challenges.
One thing that came from it, is my digital art interest and desire to create it and learn more of it, to create my own style. My contemporary art and this blog has kept me on a learning curve. The photos I took way back and was happy about make me slightly gringe and that is certainly the case with my digital art, at the beginning they were just double exposures 🙂
So to sum up this long post, constant learning and opinions have certainly been helpful to me. Thanks Irma for your encouragement and our willingness to keep the challenge going. For me, most of the challenges have been a learning experience, that I would not have tried if not for that challenge.
This month the theme is Lemon, yellow…Here is my take on it. The first image is the one i submitted, other are different takes on it. I always have difficulty when trying to pick one image.
As we don’t get to see our friends, acquaintances during this odd time, some people have been actively on the phone or making video calls. I’m not one of those, as nothing really happens, there isn’t much to say, repeat what we spoke about the last time as the days seem to repeat themselves day after day.
You know; breakfast, shower ( maybe) time at the computer, looking at the same news, lunch, tv, sleep. Repeat, repeat with ever so slight variables to the routine.
Breakfast
Today, I spoke to friend that has stayed with me from one of my jobs, from several years back. It is funny how we pick, get friends, who stay with us. I think I have kept about one friend from each one of my many jobs. They may not be someone I communicate with daily or even monthly, but when you speak you are at the same wavelength that you where when you saw daily at work. Remember, when we went to our workplace daily? They are part of your history from that part of your life.
Yes, back to the topic, I spoke to a friend who has been living in another country for past three years and now has returned home. We exchanged messages on messenger or whatsapp or both occasionally during this time, so I was slightly aware of her life situation. We spoke for over a hour of topics ranging from big to small, life, health, work, family, home interiors, cultural differences, age, growing old you name it. Say what you want about aging, it’s still the only way to have old friends said Robert Brault, I have to agree.
Friends
It was fun. Thanks so much for the call, it made my day slightly different from yesterday. One of these days, when the days warm up, we will meet and chat face to face, nothing beats the human contact.
We went and visited Helsinki this afternoon, it was a bright, warm, very spring like day with temperature of +9C , but even with that taken to consideration, there were not many people walking about. We just had to get out of the house. We even had the restaurant all to ourselves, we spent lots of time looking at the cityscape opening to us behind the window. I do feel for the businesses. it is not easy to survive wit all the restrictions in place.
Frank, from Beach walk reflections approached me if I wanted to collaborate with him and provide photos for one of his posts. He asked what kind photos I have, he had a list of topics to choose from. I could have provided photos to many of the topics, in the end and he chose to write about Faces* and after few discussions later he suggested photo collages, which worked out well for me.
Have a look at his post to see what he wrote about faces and the collages he chose to go with it. This was fun, maybe will do this again 🙂 You can visit his blog also from here* and see the rest of the images.
We have had several cold days this week, but the weather should be warming up a bit. This cold certainly brings us nice and sunshiny days and the clear starry nights. The amount of clothing you have to wear to keep warm. Layered clothing is the thing or just stay inside, which is the option i use the most.
We have been seeing news about Texas and other areas that are not used to winter conditions and the problems they are having…so sad.
At breakfast this morning I started to play with my mobile phone, I took photos of the fruit 🍎 I had on the table 🍊🥭, so why not share some colorful and healthy fruit shots
It has been a big trend , knitting that is. I decided to be part of it. I went out and bought some yarn 🧶 and knitted myself a beanie and a warm Elizabethan collar. The technique has something to desire, but I am rather happy with the result
I asked my husband to get something tasty to go with coffee. This is what I got, laskiaispulla. A bun with whipped cream and strawberry jam. Aah , so tasty 😋
Repeat from yesterday, all this is still valid, today we have the bluest skies, so lovely! The minus side is that it is so COLD! -15C /5 F but with the wind factor it feels like -20C /-2F .
Wednesday, I went for a walk and a drive to few lovely seaside places. Here are few pictures from my next stop, the Marina in Soukka. I stopped to see if there were any ice hole swimmers about this morning, nope, not today. What I ended up trying to capture was the quickly changing sky, the play of the clouds and sun behind it, playing hide and seek. Clear blue higher up, cloudy near the ground.
Today we have the bluest skies, so lovely! The minus side is that it is so COLD! -15C /5 F but with the wind factor it feels like -20C /-2F .
Sunrise today was at 8:09. Sunset today is at 17:00. Length of day 8 h 51 min. Spring is coming 🙂
Yesterday I went for a walk, despite the cold. My fingers did not thank me for taking photos 🙂
I visited the Suinonsalmi inlet, when I was a kid I came here often. I was not the only one out there, I saw people walking, cross country skiing even though it was rather cold. This was my first stop.
I was commenting to Sue about her post Monday Washing Lines and mentioned I had few photos of wash hanging on lines in odd places. So here is my finds on this topic, what I recalled having easily available. I loved the image with the washing seen between the bell tower of the church in Ravello.
Today I finally got some stuff done. I took my spectacles to the optometrist to get them fixed, one of the lenses had a not so small scratch on it. Went to the pharmacy to get eye drops my eyes are so dry, as is my skin, winter…
I also took an artwork of mine to be printed, I sold one, I am rather happy about that. Hopefully it will come out nicely as it is largest I’ve had done so far.
No travel in sight, so I am going to post photos of lovely places I have visited. I will keep it simple, lots of posts, less words is the theme in these posts.
Visit to a small Kothduwa Temple a Buddhist temple located in Kothduwa island in Madu ganga in Sri lanka has left me with fond memories. On the way we say birds, and local girl showing a little monkey and there we saw the grizzled giant squirrel.
View from the monastery door
I love the sea, beaches, forests, mountains, countryside and lovely cities and the people in them. Colors; blue, green, red, white, yellows and what ever you can find around you. I love beauty and these photos remind me of beauty I have seen.
Welcome to my travels, some of them you might seen before…well, that’s life! Let’s go with the flow…
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 