The summer weather can be unpredictable, we are now under low pressure and have had sunshine and rain showers. We have spent this week at the country side. So my photos are this time naturally from here.
Summer days
Tag: outdoors
2nd of July
It has been a tiring three weeks, but I finally think I have beaten the flu. There seems to be lots of it going around. Maybe I can now get back to certain flow to get may Grete photos posted. But here is just a small summer greeting from my summer place.
Lakeside blues and cool water topped with ice-cream, can you top that? Summer!
Sweet strawberries, the season first for me and they were so tasty and sweet, one of my favorite treats of summer, fresh strawberries and new potatoes.
Droplets
As I stated in my 52 Frames post, that I would post a separate post about droplets. Here it is.
I love photographing them, most of them are not worth the digital space they take and sometimes I am lucky and I am happy with them and share them. As you have guessed, I am happy how these turned out. Minimalist, simple and green.
“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener.” – Henry David Thoreau
52 Frames: Week 24: Shoot From Above!
Time to look at things from a new perspective – this week, we’re going to Shoot From Above. Most images are taken at eye level or with the camera parallel to the horizon. With a high angle shot, we’re trying to get photos from an unusual angle, taken from above the subject and looking down towards what you’re shooting. Why ? Well, the short and sweet answer is – you get some cool shots this way.
I submitted the one of the table, but I wanted to post some of the droplets I captured this morning, yes, I shot them from above, but you cannot tell that from the photos. So I did not use them. I am going to do an other post just with them, but here are some of my choices of including some flowers also, naturally 🙂 My entry was not the most unusual, or original, but due to not being able to venture outside my yard due to summer flu my choices are rather limited.
You can shoot some cool portraiture by getting up higher than your subject. Food and product shots are also well-suited to being shot from above (just pay attention to your lighting and shadows). Oh, and let’s not forget flat-lays – you can go minimalistic or mega creative with your ideas here.
And of course, the evergreen favorite: landscape shots – whether natural or urban. Just position yourself somewhere high (and safe) and shoot scenes of what’s happening below -. Go a bit abstract and look down the mirrored facade of an office building.
- Depth Of Field: Your DoF will help a lot here – do yo want to isolate your subject?; Go for a wider aperture like f/1.8 +. Want lots of detail in focus for that cityscape? Maybe f/8 or f/16 would be more suitable.
- Composition: Look for lines and objects around that help create a strong composition, especially if your subject is isolated and at a distance.
- Go High: If you can’t get to a height, try and make your camera do so – hold it up higher above your head and if you’re lucky to have a flip-out screen, that’s exactly the scenario that it’s there for! You could also mount your camera on a monopod, set a timer and hoist it up high to get a cool shot.
- Selfie Stick: It was all the rage a few years ago, and the humble selfie stick can easily help out in this challenge.
52 Frames: Week 23: Triangular!
Three’s company or a crowd… 🤷🏻♀️ – but in photography, we can use 3 “lines” to make a Triangular Composition – three lines in an image to create either an “actual” triangle shape, like a harsh shadow on the street, or hands raised above ones head, or a “perceived” triangle shape like posing a group of people in your frame, or cutting your frame in half with some diagonal shape (your subject’s limbs placed diagonally in your frame can make great perceived triangles in your frame’s composition). Other ways perceived triangles can be utilized in your composition could include the way a lamp casts light onto your subject, or a leading line taking you into the frame.
This challenge is NOT a request to find a triangle toy, or a triangular OBJECT and take a photo of it. This is a compositional challenge, as its name implies: Triangular COMPOSITION. Just like for the Rule of Thirds challenge, for example, wasn’t a request to go out and find tic-tac-toe boards!
Triangular composition is one of those “guidelines” in photography composition, that can enhance interest in your frame, if or when you can incorporate it. The purpose of this challenge is to first train yourself to SEE it. Once you understand where triangles take form in composition, you can then craft your own frame utilizing one of these techniques.
you can achieve triangular composition in many ways: by placing your subject’s hand on their ear, by catching the harsh mid-day shadow on a street, by capturing a long, straight road, that disappears in the distance.
This challenge is not (necessarily) referring to the “golden triangle”, the focus is more on these scenarios where you can identify regular ol’ triangles in your composition.
Be creative : let’s not be obtuse 
in looking for the right 📐angle. We’re all equilaterally🔺capable of acutely 🚩 good photos.
Holiday
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 😊
May 16th, Sunday
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
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
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.
Easter Sunday
Let the photos show our Easter 🐣 activities. It was sunny but rather cool, but we had coffee
at Löyly outdoor deck enjoying the ✨ sea.
We enjoyed Late lunch at Sea Horse , a restaurant serving traditional food since 1932
April Saturday
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.
Day trip to Porvoo
Visiting old town Porvoo is always a treat, it is such a picturesque place to visit.
Sunset
“There’s
a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they'reabsolutely free. Don`t miss so many of them.” – Jo Walton
Shipyard
This shipyard in Helsinki is on standstill due to the Russian war attack going on in Ukraine. We went for lunch to a restaurant in front of it and obviously I took some photos, it is not the prettiest sight but it is a nice photo opportunity even though the window and the plex glass windshield outside.
There were these two boat restaurants waiting for the summer season to open their doors in the foreground.
I’m walking
I’m walking, I’m walking, walking in sunshine.
Helsinki seaside on a sunny day with the mist rising in the back and taking over the sunny sidewalks soon after these photos were taken.
Mist morning
still posting photos that have a small painterly feel to them.
Winter road
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 touch of spring
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
Green fruits of Maple
I am posting this for no other reason that I came across it when looking at my archives of photos. well I liked it.
Acer platanoides, Forest Maple it’s called in Finland or just maple, is a deciduous tree, growing to 20–30 m (65–100 ft) tall with a trunk up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter, and a broad, rounded crown. The bark is grey-brown and shallowly grooved. Unlike many other maples, mature trees do not tend to develop a shaggy bark. The shoots are green at first, soon becoming pale brown.
Cable Factory
It has been a busy week at work, spring is arriving with speed as light time is about 40 min longer every week. It was such a joy to wake up today and the sun was already lighting the woods at the back of our house.
The situation in the world is unfortunately causing anxiety, as we share a long border with Russia. So much information, so many variables and really how much can you take in. I tend to work my daily thoughts in dreams and at the moment, it feels like I am combining what I watch on tv, even as light television shows about home fix shows, to war, and my daily life. So I can say lots of things are happening in my head.
So not to be too messed up, here are very structural photos 🙂 of buildings and interiors from Kaapelitehdas (cable factory) in Helsinki.
Even nicer weather
What a difference a day makes added with sunshine, the snow covered trees look so nice.
I still haven’t ventured beyond my backyard to take photos, but I am happy to have this as my view.
Nice weather
it snowed yesterday, a lot! We got so much snow in our backyard, well in the front too 🙂 I took these first three this morning during the blue moment. The others a little bit later, you can see how it effected the colors.
Playtime
I have been watching these to dog friends play if not daily, then weekly. Looking at them from my office window. They are big, but still puppies and enjoying themselves playing in the snow. This time I decided I will take photos of them. Cute, aren’t they?
Snow, snow and snow
52 Frames, Week 5: Depth Of Field
It has snowed a lot lately, today there was a moment of sunshine and went out with an intention to capture Depth Of Field – a super important concept in photography that often separates those photos that look “amateur” from those that look “professional” or as I like to call it, “profesh”.
I also took some inside – still life shot, but that is an other post.
Here are some of them, give me once again your valuable input as I try to improve my photo skills.
Memory lane- Oregon #4
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.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 