Abstract – soft
Tag: valokuvaus
feverfew
I post these feverfew shots just because they are pretty, and they kind of say spring , summer. No other than that.
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.
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.
St. Michael’s Church
Yesterday while in last minute I was looking for a architecture find to post for 52 frames I also very quickly took photos of the church, I was planning to post shot of the library alone but ended up using a shot of both. I only had 20 minutes to take photos so I did not have awful lot of time to think about angels. Well I did capture the early spring green on the trees and as the leaves are still so small you can actually see the church too.
Kirkkonummi’s medieval stone church is located in the center of Kirkkonummi. The exact time when the church was built is not known, but the work apparently began in the 15th century. A wooden church must have previously stood on the site. Kirkkonummi’s church is named after St. Michael’s Church, after the archangel Michael.
Originally, Kyrkslätt’s church was very small. In addition to stone, brick was used as a material. In the 18th century, the church began to be expanded, and in the middle of the 19th century it was rebuilt into a cruciform church, the shape the church still has. The church’s belfry was built in 1824.
After the Continuation War, the Soviet Union claimed the Porkala area as a base, and Kyrkslätt’s church stood on the lease area. During the Porkala parenthesis 1944–56, the church was used i.a. as an officers’ club and warehouse. After the Soviet era, the church was in poor condition.
Immediately after the area was returned to Finland, the church began to be repaired under the leadership of Olof Hansson. Then the interior of the church was completely renewed in the 1950s style.
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52 Frames: Week 19: Architecture !
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.
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.
Spring
It is finally here 😊spring! The beautiful new green is pushing through. The birch trees look lovely with light green leaves the grass is fresh green, small flowers are emerging from the soil. I feel myself coming alive. Today is sunny and warm, i am embracing this yearly miracle. T cleaned the dust from the camera, I am ready once again to capture the beauty of this season.
My hands are itching to get started
52 Frames: Week 18: Flat Lay !
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.
Moss, the evergreen
“Moss grows where nothing else can grow. It grows on bricks. It grows on tree bark and roofing slate. It grows in the Arctic Circle and in the balmiest tropics; it also grows on the fur of sloths, on the backs of snails, on decaying human bones. It is a resurrection engine. A single clump of mosses can lie dormant and dry for forty years at a stretch, and then vault back again into life with a mere soaking of water.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
52 Frames: Week 17: Leading Lines!
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
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!
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?
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
52 Frames: Week 15: Extreme Closeup!
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
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.
52 Frames, Week 14: Nature! #2
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Details from nature is my other option, the ball hydrangea has weathered the winter well, and I love how the structure and texture has begun to show. I know I have taken similar shots before, on many occasions, but honestly near home there is not much that inspires me at the moment. So, any opinions as what to post as my entry for week 14 ?
Nature shots aren’t restricted to wildlife out in the middle of nowhere. Nature Photography is here to make us feel connected with our home, this pale blue dot 🌍 we call earth. Go out and capture the beauty that surrounds us all.
52 Frames, Week 14: Nature!
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Nature shots aren’t restricted to wildlife out in the middle of nowhere. How about a starry night shot with a long shutter? Or the waves of the ocean with a high shutter speed to freeze motion? Not possible for me, we have snow, rain an slush… still!!!
Nature Photography is here to make us feel connected with our home, this pale blue dot 🌍 we call earth. Go out and capture the beauty that surrounds us all. I took these of the hill that is just behind our backyard. Capturing weather, snow.. and the the trees on the fill.
Nature in detail was my option, the ball hydrangea has weathered the winter well, and I love how the structure and texture begin to show. I know I have taken similar shots before, but honestly near home is not much that inspires me at the moment. So any opinions as what to post as my entry for week 14 ?
52 Frames, Week 13: Emotion
This week, in search for emotion and someone to photograph, I think I have over used my model, so I gave him a week off 🙂 I am full of emotions, I took some selfies as I had no one to else available had a busy week at work and did not getting anything done. No grandkids live near any more, because their expressive faces would have been so easy to capture true emotion.
On to a “creative-led” challenge this week! Really the core of what photography is about, the core of EVERY story – Emotion. Strong photos should tell a clear story and evoke feelings in those who see our shots.
What could emotion look like? Perhaps the happiness reflected in the eyes of a child, the look of love shared between a couple, the joy of a team celebrating their latest win on the football field or even the pride of a baker showcasing their latest creation. Human emotions run deep and are varied – we can be pensive, or be battling our inner demons – introspective portraits can tell compelling stories.
Or just happy ….
Day trip to Porvoo
Visiting old town Porvoo is always a treat, it is such a picturesque place to visit.
Same, continues
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
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
Details from my weekend flower bouquet.
Sunset
“There’s
a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they'reabsolutely free. Don`t miss so many of them.” – Jo Walton
Sunrise
“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
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.
52 Frames, Week 11: An Activity!
I have been recovering from an oculoplastic surgery, I look like an owl. I have since Thursday been doing cold treatment, eye drops and antiseptic cream in eyes several times a day. So trying to get a shot of any sort of activity has been a challenge.
But we did go out for lunch yesterday so I took some shot then. I actually sat in the restaurant with my sunglasses on the entire time, felt a bit silly, but no way could ruin other peoples appetite by showing my eyes.
This week, in search for An Activity
At any given point of time, we’re all doing something, so let’s capture that this week and shoot An Activity. This week’s challenge is deliberately open-ended and is there for you to make the most of your creative juices. Basically, think of a verb, something ending in -ing.
Capture a moment in time that depicts someone doing something. Set the tone of the image to add more depth and emotion to your shot. Think about why you want to capture this particular scene and how you can best convey that to your viewer. How ? Make good choices with your lens, composition, lighting and of course, how you edit your image in the end.
Color or black and white.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 