Landscape – Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

52 Frames: Week 34: Peace!

52 Frames, Captures from Finland, Landscapes

Through the hustle and bustle or the humdrum everyday lives we lead and see around us, we come across small moments in time that make us stop, take a deep breath and slow down. We’d like to see you capture a moment of Peace ☮ this week.

Have a little think about any places or scenes that calm you down or center you – a tranquil lake setting, a walk through a wooded path with a close one or something close to home like your grandpa taking his afternoon siesta. It’s all about the image evoking a feeling of serenity, calm and tranquility.

August Sunset at the countryside, this was my choice this week

The idea doesn’t necessarily need to be minimalistic , all that matters is whether the viewer understands the point of view and story your photo ought to be showing. The lighting and overall color tone of the scene will be important too, so please spare a thought for those aspects too.

There are tons of places, people and scenes that can convey this purest of emotions; so as we usually say, take a few deep breaths, center yourself and take your shot.

I have been at my summer house. One word, that can be said about the place is that it is peaceful. Hardly any neighbors, no traffic sounds. Silence, if you do not take to account the natures sounds. I took shot of this tail of the sunset ( aiming the camera towards northwest) the colors towards west were so vibrant, even if the moment was peaceful the colors would not convey that. So I turned towards the more muted tones. I had several ideas for this week, but did not get anything done towards making them become reality, planning is not enough. I hope this shot still shows peace.

The shots below show the vibrancy of the sunset and even if it was peaceful the colors do somehow tell the story, or what so you think? The blues in the last shot say it better, no ?

52 Frames: Week 33: Water!

52 Frames, Landscapes, Still life

Water – just like us humans, comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes and even colors. It’s universal and something that is absolutely essential to life on this planet. We hope you’re inspired enough to make the most of the topic.

If you have follwes me for a long time, you should know I love the sea, lakes and all water views, I take lots of photos of photos of them. I have also come into a habit of taking shots of water bottles in restaurants and cafes

You could, of course, go with a classic landscape / seascape bringing a sense of majesty to your image or perhaps go with a more down-to-earth shot of kids having a pool party

Maybe a shot showing off your technical chops with water droplet macro photography is more your style. Why not showcase the immense power of water crashing against a shoreline or go entirely the other way and take a serene shot of tranquil and still waters in a long-exposure image?

Don’t feel restricted by needing an external location either – you can get epic water shots inside your home too. Try getting a creative still life shot by using water as a prism. Or use it to enhance a portrait or with food photography.

The possibilities are boundless. 💦

ISO: There’s a lack of light – so remember to adjust your ISO settings appropriately, the higher you go, the more digital noise you will encounter.

Long Exposure: To compensate for the lack of light, long exposures work well for getting sharp images of static subjects like cityscapes and smoothening water ripples. Anything under 1/125 you want to rest your camera on a hard surface or tripod.

Light Shaping: Use lights to shape the exposure – you can isolate your subjects more easily since the background will most likely be darker due to the absence of ambient daylight.

Shoot Manual Mode: Consider shooting in Manual mode to correctly adjust parameters to get your desired exposures.

White Balance: Artificial light in urban areas can add different color casts to your image. See if adjusting the white balance can add more depth to your image.

52 Frames: Week 32: Night Photography!

52 Frames, Landscapes

it’s Night Photography this week.

This was last weeks challenge, but here I am posting about it now. I have several night shots that I like, but not being able to use them. And as I was visiting relatives at this time I was not able to go and take photos during night time. On our drive home I took this shot of the moon, think about it from a moving car, not too bad, slightly painternly look it has, but all and all, I am rather happy with it.

Somewhere in Southern Finland on the road home, this moon lit the way for us

The thing about not having that sun around, is that everything is darker! In order to get more light to your sensor, you’ll want to slap that camera onto a tripod. or rest it on a flat surface, and set your shutter speeds to lower settings, like multiple seconds, and the night scenes in front of you will come alive!

Taking shots, illumination of neon signs or street lights lend a completely different look and feel to the very same location than if it were shot in daylight.

Ever taken portraits at night of a subject lit by a storefront window? Not all night shots need to be taken outside the house – some very creative shots can be taken inside too. Have a think on that!

Get creative with light painting or try and capture the moon- night time is just magical for photography.

If you live in a part of the world where the 🌞 is still up when most other places are much darker, that’s cool too.

TIPS:

ISO: There’s a lack of light – so remember to adjust your ISO settings appropriately, the higher you go, the more digital noise you will encounter.
Long Exposure: To compensate for the lack of light, long exposures work well for getting sharp images of static subjects like cityscapes and smoothening water ripples. Anything under 1/125 you want to rest your camera on a hard surface or tripod.
Light Shaping: Use lights to shape the exposure – you can isolate your subjects more easily since the background will most likely be darker due to the absence of ambient daylight.
Shoot Manual Mode: Consider shooting in Manual mode to correctly adjust parameters to get your desired exposures.
White Balance: Artificial light in urban areas can add different color casts to your image. See if adjusting the white balance can add more depth to your image.

52 Frames: Week 31: Choose Color!

52 Frames, Landscapes, Still life

Look around and we’ll see something we take for granted – color. Our wonderful world is filled with it, so this week we’re asking you to Choose A Color. Make that color the theme and inspiration behind your image. Colors evoke moods and feelings – how you choose to compose and use them is what will guide the viewer through the image.

Choosing to focus on a single color in particular is both creative and good use of light, contrast and saturation is what can make or break an image. Pick a color and make it the dominant and outstanding and leave no doubt about which color you wanted to make the main point of your shot.

I am having huge problems with my computer, so much that I need to buy a new one, so these are old shots that I have here already used in my previous posts over the years. I am not able to access my computer files, or additional hard drives to add photos or load new ones from the camera disk. I am able to access the internet for now, so I am using these here this week.

Think landscapes of rolling green hills, or food shots of red chilli peppers or the all encompassing golden color at sunset – there’s a noticeable dominant color there and that’s what we’re looking for.

Composition: Compose your shot so there’s no doubt as to which color you’re trying to use. Think about any emotions or moods your photo can evoke and bring that to the forefront. You could use a lot of negative space to direct interest to your subject or go in full-tilt and fill the frame
Lighting: Lighting and shadows add depth to an image and can change an image dramatically. An underlit and underexposed image brings to mind a different mood than a bright, well-lit one.
White Balance: . Using and adjusting white balance while taking your photos will be valuable
Contrast: If there are multiple colors and shades in your image, ensure that there’s one that’s visibly up front and recognizable – it contrasts and stands out from the other shades and tone of the image.
Post-processing: Feel free to go nuts with post-processing and editing to render some cool color effects. But remember, less is more.

Midsummer

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

it is that time of the year again, the amount of light we get, the longest day passed, but we are now celebrating midsummer here in Finland, lot’s of people are driving to countryside to enjoy the this festive season, to be bitten by mosquitos, but some may choose to stay in the cities. Well we came to our summer house to enjoy the light nights and warm summer days that the forecast has promised us for this weekend.

I am still coughing my brains out, tired from lack of sleep as soon as I try to lay my head on the pillow, well in my case at the moment pillows you can say bye bye to sleep. So I haven’t had any energy to post anything. But for midsummer I have to do something to celebrate, I took these at out last visit, it was full moon time, I never got around to posting them, so here is some beauty from one of my favorite places. Beautiful Finnish countryside in the summer.

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 😊

A touch of spring

Captures from Finland, Photography

We are having a beautiful day with temperatures on the plus side and you can hear snow melting, but do we still have lots of it to melt.

My husband was doing his best to give the spring help by making creeks so that snow and ice would melt quicker

Memory lane- Oregon #4

Photography, Travel, Traveling US

At first I will take you to the Oregon coast line, unfortunately I do not recall what beach or location other than coastline, at the time I did not write them down, for me it is enough that they are beautiful locations and loved the views. These are from 2013, might not look the same anymore

This is the second last post from this location, but it was such a great spot so obviously I have tons of photos. You can see the Heceta Head Lighthousee in these

Heceta Head Lighthouse

I would love to travel see new beautiful places, but I cannot due to the pandemic, so I am on a memory lane trip to some of places I have been. Hope you will join me on the scenic tour of lovely places.

Memory lane- Oregon #3

Photography, Travel, Traveling US

This is the second last post from this location, but it was such a great spot so obviously I have tons of photos. You can see the Cape Arago Lighthouse in these

This is the second last post from this location, but it was such a great spot so obviously I have tons of photos. this is the

Memory lane- Oregon #2

Photography, Travel, Traveling US

Memory lane- Oregon

Photography, Travel, Traveling US

I am sitting at my desk watching the snow fall and dreaming of sunshine and warm weather.

So, I was going through my archives, again, for photos that I haven’t really edited. So I edited them. I have lot’s of photos that I have not taken that need a closer look. Some need to have the horizon straightened, maybe add little contrast and light. So I have done that. Touch here and there.

I am so restless, I would love to travel see new beautiful places, but I cannot due to the pandemic, so I am on a memory lane trip to some of places I have been. Hope you will join me on the scenic tour of lovely places.

Moment of light

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Autumn in the city

Cities, Landscapes, Photography

I took my husband to the doctor and during his visit I took some autumn color shots from the city. The flu season has started after being almost nonexistent during Covid, my husband had it and now I am sick first time in three years. I had forgotten how it feels. Not nice.

Well anyway, I am giving you an overload of fall photos, bear with me, soon it will be dark and gloomy.

Driving into the mist

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Sunny Sunday 3

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

I have had luck with sunny Sundays, two in a row. I went for a drive searching to find Ruska ( one word in finish language to describe the process of nature turning to the beautiful colors of autumn)

Here few more photos from that day.

I found some lovely spots. I will share some now and some other posts as usual I have lots of shots and I like to share 🙂 Hope you like them.

This colorful time passes so quickly as the leaves fall and sooner than we want to be, we are already surviving November. I have several years been doing that here on my blog with fellow bloggers.

Sunny Sunday 2

Captures from Finland, Landscapes

I have had luck with sunny Sundays, two in a row. I went for a drive searching to find Ruska ( one word in finish language to describe the process of nature turning to the beautiful colors of autumn)

I found some lovely spots. I will share some now and some other posts as usual I have lots of shots and I like to share 🙂 Hope you like them.

This colorful time passes so quickly as the leaves fall and sooner than we want to be, we are already surviving November. I have several years been doing that here on my blog with fellow bloggers.

After the rain

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Foggy skies greeted us first thing in the morning, I took my time before I went outside to take some photos. I had my furry little friend following me. These I took with my mobile, and little bit later I took the camera for a walk.

The wonder s of water lilies

Captures from Finland, Flowers, Photography

I annually visit Mustio castle. I love the beautiful park and the dock that is surrounded by water lilies. I have yet to unload my camera disk, these I took with with my mobile.

Friends

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Friends, the essential part of my life, extended family. Someone to share thoughts and laughs with. Yesterday evening I did just that on a warm evening by the sea

Night sky

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

The night sky was so colorful

Dark clouds

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

Sky is such a wonder to watch, the colors, clouds in constant change. In Finland we sure don’t have blue skies for ever. when we drive I spend most of the time watching clouds, anyone else who does that?

Midsummer

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

The light is lovely, air soft and warm with humidity high, that’s what midsummer has been this year. We usually don’t get long hot spells, this time yes. Last night I went out after midnight and captured mist over the fields with the setting sun giving a beautiful pastel glow to the sky.

Sunday

Landscapes, Photography

We have tried to go home for hours but with no luck, Tinka won’t come in as she senses that we are leaving. So we took a drive to the store and saw this bright rainbow on our way back.

Then we started to watch the world ice hockey final Finland 🇫🇮- Canada 🇨🇦.

Kopparnäs

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

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 🙂

So happy

Captures from Finland, Landscapes, Photography

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.