Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

Faces *

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.

Cold day finds

Flowers, Photography

Frosty flowers shimmering beautifully in the February morning light

Taking a close look

Flowers, Photography

Frosty flowers shimmering beautifully in the February morning light

Dreams

About

I wonder where dreams come from… from where from the subconscious the images, come from

This morning I woke from a dream, a color one, where I was with people, lots of subtle conversation around the place all trying to make a bid on a painting. It was a man in the field with a scythe cutting crops of wheat, In my mind I saw the long curved blade at the end of a long pole. Blue sky in the background…autumn landscape from the countryside. In my dream the the words scythe and crop came up often, but the conversation in the back was vague. We could not find a resolution who was going to own this piece of art.

I woke, and called out to my hubby in the next room, he had already started in work day in his office (not a long distance to go to work, as it is located next to our bedroom)

-Do you remember… telling him about the picture in my mind – have we had a poster a LP or something like this…in my mind I had a name – Tom Petty – I did not voice it.

He remembered that we had the Southern Accents LP in our vinyls , it is the sixth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, kid you not, the image I had in my dream was , the cover art for the album Southern Accents.

I love the way he is able to pick up my idea, what I am searching for subtle hints that i randomly tell him and give me my answers to the music questions I have…well this time cover art ..

The thing is, I have not looked at this LP or listened to Tom Petty lately, thought I have often done so in the past, but recently not so much, not at all really.

Where did this memory come from, why, it was so vivid..

So that is my question for today… where to dreams come from, is there a meaning reason for them. Why am I thinking of harvest, art, scythe in the middle of winter.

Brown tones

Flowers, Landscapes

Brown the color that has grown on me over the years, from boring to cosy and warm. Homey( is this a word? )

Frosty rose hips

Flowers, Photography

Touch of red on the few remaining rose hips that the birds have left for our enjoyment in the autumn.

Close up look at winter

Captures from Finland, Flowers, Landscapes

For the first time this winter, I was about to write year, which is also true when I went out to take close ups the day was not a sunny day, cloudy I would say. The color tone of the shots from that day is totally different than the ones I took yesterday, when it was rather nippy (-18C). Yesterday the macro shots of frost, snow and the few pops of color I found more blue toned.

After this long introduction, these photos are from the cloudy day, not macros, but close ups, the last one just showing the tone of the day.

Frosty morning

Captures from Finland, Photography

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.

Fruits

Photography, Still life

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

Knitting

Photography

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

Yawn

Photography

Yawn 🥱, my Veikka cat was a bit tired 😴

Coffee moment

Photography, Still life

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 😋

Still Life – Time

Flowers

Time, clock, lavender are the inspirations for these still life photos.

caught by surprise

Captures from Finland, Photography

February 14

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my fellow bloggers!

I am surprising you just with one photo today. I like how this turned out.

making an effort

Interiors

As all my art studies are on a break due to Covid, well I have been lazy. I have had an idea, intention to do something, but when the push came to shove, nothing happened. Today I made an effort. I am looking for inspiration as it exists if it finds you working. I am rather proud of that fact that I got this far, not so much of the outcome, but they are not so bad, that I would not show them. Feel free to comment 🙂

So today I took my aquarelle colors out, took time to clear the easel from the other works I store one it. Then I started to play with colors, with the warm palette.

February 12

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

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.

Frozen RED berries

Flowers

I found some color amongst the snow.

February 11

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

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.

it’s the that time of the year…

Flowers

…to buy some tulips to brighten the day.

Washing lines

Travel

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.

February 8

Photography, Traveling US

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.

Once again a picture of snow

February 2021 -7

Landscapes

Nothing much to write about, we have snow and winter temperatures, and you can see the increase of the light and every day you can be amazed by it.

We got 10cm more snow during the night, so a fresh coat of snow made everything lovely.

February 2021 -3

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

I have surprised myself be going out now two days a row, since I have had no desire to do so in a long time. I am trying to force myself to be more active. As stated in yesterday’s post, laziness, depression, or just getting tired of all this shit has taken over.

It has been a lovely sunny winter day so far. I went for a walk and this is what I saw…

We got 10cm more snow during the night, so a fresh coat of snow made everything lovely.

To reassure you – I did take a shower 🙂

February 2021

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

We are at the point of winter that the light time is increasing fast, what a blessing, with the snow on the ground the effect is noticeable, in the south of Finland we will gain about 30 minutes of light in a week, 5 minutes a day. North, well a hour of more. The joy…

Today it is snowing again, yesterday was clear, so I made myself go out for a short walk, but did not make it out until later in the afternoon. I did take my camera with me, so I captured few winter shots of my neighbourhoods.

Today I am making effort to do a post, and contemplating if I should take a shower or not…I probably will. Do you have days that you would rather spend the day doing nothing, I’ve had several the past days?