beauty – Page 6 – Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

Traveling Crete #2

Landscapes, Photography, Traveling Crete

On the mountain roads we on more than one occasion ran into these goats with bells on their necks letting us know they were there. So this post is dedicated to the goats we saw 🙂

A Cretan mountain goats with a bell around its neck standing alone mountainside.

Shepherding is one of the oldest proffesion in Crete. Bells for sheep and goats were used all over Greece and Crete of course.

The bells were the pride of the shepherd and they were used to monitor the sheeps and goats. The quality of each bell as well as their combination was very important so that the flock will sound harmonious.

The Cretan bells are hammered bells with thin sheet metal and consequently have a low weight. In addition, they are plated with bronze and bronze which protects them from seawater.

The sounds of sheep-bells allow sheperds to know whether an animal is grazing, drinking water, or trying to get away from something or even to locate animals that have been lost.

a small sample of the sound of the bells

All traditional hand-made sheep bells sound different. These goats below we saw at Anatolikos Selinos.

This is going to be the one of many posts, so sorry 🙂 beforehand for the nearly same named posts.

Traveling Crete #1

Landscapes, Photography, Traveling Crete

After our trip as well as having back up issues, which are now solved, I got a summer flu. Not happy about it, it certainly has me tired.

I still am now aiming to get some pictures published. I will try to cover as much as I can, in the end I did not take all that many photos as I would usually take, but still I was able to capture some beautiful places and things. The flowers bloomed as it was early summer, the hills and trees were still green. I had not many expectations beforehand so I was nicely surprised of what this island had to offer.

The first picture above is from Mousoura area, at least that is what came as the location in my mobile photos, I took shot with my camera and also with the mobile so I would have the locations to remember. The village in these photos, if I remember correctly, is mountain village Lakkoi surrounded by the beautiful mountains of that area

This is going to be the one of many posts, so sorry 🙂 beforehand for the nearly same named posts.

Abstract – icy

Flowers

“Abstract art is uniquely modern. It is a fundamentally romantic response to modern life – rebellious, individualistic, unconventional, sensitive, irritable.” – Robert Motherwell

“You can`t look at abstract art without thinking.” – Patricia Cole

“The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.” – Lucian Freud

Traveling Crete

Landscapes, Photography, Traveling Crete

I am back from my short vacation in Crete. I have some issues with ma back-up storage. So I have not been able save or even go through all my photos. I was rather good, I only pressed the shutter 701 times during the trip on my camera and some on my mobile 🙂

The week went by fast, we rented a car for three days so we got to see more than the beaches and tourist areas. I am going to post here one shot that I really like. It was on top of a hill in corner of the road leading up to the mountains.

This is going to be the first of many posts, so sorry 🙂 beforehand for the nearly same named posts.

Holiday

Cities, Landscapes, Photography, Travel

I am currently on my vacation here are few shots from my trip, but I will come back to this topic when I get back home. Oh by the way I am in Crete 😊

Abstract – pink tones

Flowers

“Abstract pictures are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can postulate.” – Gerhard Richter

“Even abstract shapes must have a likeness.” – Willem de Kooning

Abstract – yellow tones

Flowers

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” – Pablo Picasso

Abstract – soft

Flowers

May 16th, Sunday

Nature, Photography

It was windy, the sky was gray with the sun coming out only for a moment every now and then. I loved the contrast between the green leaves and branches against the dark sky.

May 15th, Saturday finds

Captures from Finland, Flowers, Nature

As I pointed out in my previous post, it is time to pick up my camera and take it out. I did. Here are some of the captures from the first outing, still need to get in the the groove. I will try to find new ways to capture same wonders that I have photographed every spring, because the same things delight me every time.

We found the nest of common blackbird in our woodpile. I did take few photos, but we left it all alone. Hope the squirrels dot get to it before the hatch.

Summer house season has started

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Nature

Life once again has changed, I have once again time to pursue my hobbies. My fixed term ended after a yea, so I find myself unemployed, and at my age getting new position is not a given. Well now I hopefully will be able to comment and participate more in the wonderful world of blogging 🙂 as I have been rather absent on that regard lately. I do look though and read post but have been rather silent. It might change.

We started our summer house / cottage season later than ever, middle of May. Usually we are there already in April, but this spring has been so cold and we had so much snow that there was no point going there. But last weekend we did go and you could see the green take over the bleakness in your eyes. I am loving it. The light is wonderful. I took these setting sun shot at 23.30 at night. The moon on the other side of the house and the setting sun on the side.

Saturday was nice, warm and sunny, but the clouds and cold wind greeted us on Sunday, but it was time to head home anyways.

52 Frames: Week 19: Architecture !

Black and White photos, Cities

We’re shooting Architecture this week. Go out to places and shoot structures that we might not pay enough attention to – the sleek glass façade of a modern skyscraper, or maybe something with an art-deco frontage from decades earlier. Architecture isn’t all about the outsides alone, there are many places with magnificent interiors from churches and temples to a modern airport lounge.

Old medieval church and new built modern Library in Kirkkonummi, Finland

The church and Fyyri library (2020) were reconciled with the help of building materials and so that the reading room and café opened towards the church. A large glass wall visually connects the church into the library.
Kirkkonummi’s medieval stone church is located in the center of Kirkkonummi. The exact time of construction is unknown, but work apparently began in the 15th century. Kirkkonummi Church is named after St. Michael the Archangel.

Originally, the Church was 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.

It’s not just all about shots of buildings either – things like bridges and underpasses, tall radio masts, dams, windmills can all be amazing subjects. There’s also a lot of character in structures that are old or run-down: wabi-sabi is a concept that explores beauty in the imperfect and that ties in very well with many different kinds of structures.

Find an archway or opening you can use to frame a shot. Or use the architecture to create leading lines, symmetry, and repetition of shapes. Take your time, scope out your composition – maybe walk around a bit, looking for a nice perspective and shooting angles that work. A little bit of thought will make for some compelling and creative architecture images.

52 Frames: Week 18: Flat Lay !

Still life

Time for a genre that’s rather popular on social media in recent times – Flat Lay photography has simple rules – take a shot of items or objects laid out on a flat surface from immediately above. Basically, a bird’s-eye view of a set of objects that make up a cohesive whole.

I thought that I would share a little bit about myself for those who are new to my blog. I have painted with different mediums since I was a teenager, and still continue with various art hobbies. Acrylic- and oil painting, pastels drawings, oil inks, aquarelles etc. I also do sculpture. As I am not a great cook, or my art is not setting the table beautiful. I took out some of my brushes and color tubes. I even tried do a self portrait, but I did it with an old photo of me.

Think of it like setting up a mood board or if you’re into food photography, setting up a dinner table with dishes, accessories and food. You could show off things that speak to you in your hobby – like a set of gardening tools or knitting yarn and needles. How about a top-down view of your desk – are you a neat freak or a proponent of organized chaos? Go for understated minimalism or bold maximalism – the choice is yours.

Perhaps you could include a bit of portraiture by putting yourself in the shot along with some outfits and hats that you adore and take a self-portrait. Take things a step further with knolling – laying everything out at perpendicular, straight angles to each other. Don’t be restricted to indoor shots either. You can grab some cool shots with organic, natural ground as your flat-lay background.

52 Frames: Week 17: Leading Lines!

Still life

Time for a compositional challenge, this week – it’s Leading Lines.

I was walking in a flea market and came across this old calculator covered with dust, but as I was not able to clean it, it shows old dust, dirt, but he lines leading to the name are clearly to be seen. I took it as a black and white as an a period piece I thought it would be appropriate and well the dirt is less visible this way.

The other choice was an old typewriter, but as you can guess I chose to post the calculator, did I make a right choice?

Leading lines are lines that guide the viewer from the edge of your frame towards your subject, usually coming from a corner (s).

Look for things in your scene that effortlessly takes your viewer’s eye straight to your intended subject. We’re trying to direct the viewer to a part of our image that is most important in the composition. Think staircase railings, paths and roads in a landscape, bridges and jetties leading off into the distance all make for excellent ways to incorporate leading lines in your shot.

Feel free to think out of the box… Remember leading lines don’t need to be straight. Curving streams, rice paddies and long-exposure car taillight streaks can all look very cool in a shot. Patterns and textures can also form leading lines to take your viewer straight to the action. Just be alive to your surroundings and you’re sure to see leading lines for your next epic shot!

Beige

Flowers, Nature

Beige is dependable, conservative, and flexible. The color beige is neutral, calm, and relaxing. The attributes and meanings associated with beige change based on the colors it accompanies.

The color beige offers some of the warmth of the color brown and the some of the crisp and coolness of the color white. While it is a relaxing color, beige is often seen as a dull and boring color.

52 Frames: Week 16: Lamp!

Still life

While we like to focus on the lighting used in photos, we want to include a lamp this week! That means including a lamp IN your photo, not just the suggestion through lighting.

This simple little device has so many forms – Perhaps you could share a story of your own little reading nook where you enjoy some solitude or showcase a scene where the lamp is the hero of the image.

I had an idea, but in the end I was too lazy to do it. I have done nothing this week, well related to photography that is, I did manage to do this.

I took an easy route, I took a photo of one of the lamps in my entrance, did not even dust of the lamp before the shot, well it does a tell a story of the owner for one. To be honest, I think it has a story in it, a story of a girl sitting and reading under a lamp. That is why my art statue, is placed there and I am rather happy with this one.

Some of the suggestions to guide me were: Maybe you could do your own take on some classic art with chiaroscuro lighting. You could even try to use wabi-sabi concepts to bring out the beauty of a much used object, go for a low-key style with lots of shadow in the shot, or take an HDR shot with multiple exposures to illuminate your composition thoroughly. Don’t just take a snapshot, take a photograph that tells a story.

Was mine just a snapshot?

52 Frames: Week 15: Extreme Closeup!

Flowers, Nature

this week I have been taking close-up shots. Time to get up close and personal with an Extreme Closeup. If you are thinking this is the MACRO challenge, it is NOT. If you go to the dictionary, you’ll find a closeup is 1. a photograph, movie, or video taken at close range and showing the subject on a large scale. “a closeup of her face” or 2. an intimate and detailed description or study.

I did the winter worn hydrangea again, as the date on the picture has to be same as the weeks challenge. I took shots of the dry flower I had in in bouquet I had couple weeks back. I also have shots of my cat Tinka, but I have to look them thought and edit.

What can you tell your viewer by pushing in close?
What do you want to bring attention to?
Try to find an interesting detail or feature – heck, the most mundane of objects can have something striking if you look closely enough. That’s what this challenge is all about – take a moment to look closer and see those details that are often overlooked.

so simply put, move in and fill your frame with your subject. The idea is to get right into a subject, and have that subject fill the entire frame. You can zoom in with any lens you have, and your feet also make an excellent zoom feature, just walk close to your subject!

PS. This week like last has been hoping and praying that the snow would melt, but it is happening so SLOW!!!! The southern facing slops are free of snow, but our backyard, come on this has 0-40 cm snow. So not much to spot of the spring wonders that delights me every year…

April Saturday

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

I am so waiting for spring and summer that I drove to this small shop in the countryside that this lady keeps in her barn and home to buy linen clothing which is so nice to wear. Natural fabric and bright colors are the items she brings from Italy to her shop. I did not need anything but I did end up buying a green linen dress, a fuchsia linen tunic, necklace, and scarf to match the colors of the tops I brought. I cannot wait to wear them.

That what I wrote above is why I took these photos on our way there, I mean come on, April and the day was as wintery as it could be, it snowed several times during the day. Well, new snow is the death of the old snow as a Finnish saying goes.

snow covered field in April under grey skies

Same, continues

Flowers, Photography

I have not done much, so only thing I’ve really taken photos of is my flowers. They are beautiful so why not. Tinka enjoyed them too.

weekend bouquet

Flowers

I found this beautiful bouquet when looking for flowers to bring to a friend I was to visit. I ended up buying two bouquets, one for me and the other to take to her. Here are some detail shot of it, it is has so many beautiful details that I just have to share the joy I get from it.

Fluffy hay

Flowers

Details from my weekend flower bouquet.

Sunrise

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

“We need to be reminded sometimes that a sunrise last but a few minutes. But its beauty can burn in our hearts eternally.” – R. A. Salvatore

Mist morning

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

still posting photos that have a small painterly feel to them.

Winter road

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

This photo turned out a little bit like a painting

I am posting this photo as it looks slightly like a painting, muted tones, not so crisp and I like it for some reason.

A feeling of…

Flowers

I am stressed and anxious. So I really got into playing with my images making them into rounded shape, Mandala’s. My thoughts are going around, I an surrounded by emotions that do around again and again. Me, trying to escape.

Fun, fun and fun

Flowers

I am stressed and anxious. So I really got into playing with my images making them into rounded shape, Mandala’s. I tried the style with flowers, my art, people, city scape’s. Here are two from a bunch of tulips. Colorful, bright, and fun. Stress relief.