Smile through the pain

Smile through the pain. This is how I've been feeling these last couple of days. While the sky is falling down on me (for absolutely no good reason at all, just to make things even more confusing), I still have to try to be social, polite and smile. Gladly, these days pass eventually, and gladly, I have been blessed with very understanding bunch of friends, so the most harm was really only done for myself.

Yesterday I had the privilege and honor to meet this lovely lady called Sonja. What at first seemed like a cruel joke on Mother Earth's behalf, turned out to be a good thing for the photos - the sucky sucky cold and snowy weather. Just when I'd thought that the model-freezing-days were behind me already. Oh well, Sonja was a trooper and took it like a girl dressed as a clown in the downtown! It's always pure awesomeness to meet people who just don't give a damn about what the surrounding world thinks of them, and then just make the best of it. All glory to Sonja also for coming up with the concept, wardrobe and the make-up!

I think this set is my all-time favorite so far, especially the head-shots. It's nice to be this proud of myself for once, and I think I deserve to be, as I'm usually way too critical of everything concerning me, myself and I.     

In search of colors with Julia

Yesterday we went to the city to shoot some basic portraits of Julia before she runs off to Japan for a month. I have to say, yesterday's shoot was extremely refreshing for me. It was awesome to shoot outdoors again, and we found some cool backgrounds with loads of color. I got to experiment with some new color editing tools in photoshop as well. Julia got to be completely herself with no special themes or anything and the whole shoot was very laid back and fun. Perfect Saturday! 

Remember to click the images to see them all sharp and awesome and stuff! ;)

Black & white landscapes on the ice

It was a warm day (~0C) so I spent a couple of hours wondering around this area on the ice of Näsijärvi. I drive by this place almost every day (whenever I go to the stable or to my parents') and I've always thought I gotta go down there and take my camera with me. I was hoping to see a beautiful sunset, but unfortunately there were hardly any clouds so no colors.

I had a nice day out and I also met two wonderful dogs, an 11-year-old Belgian Sheepdog and the other was a 9-month-old black Labrador and my heart absolutely melted. I have a big soft spot for black labs in my heart. :) 

Anyways, here are a few photos from today. I thought they all looked much better in b&w. Let me know what you think. 

Serenity
I felt at peace when I saw this view; the soft hills of snow and the light coming through the trees,
and beyond everything this amazing horizon somewhere far far away. 

The Trail
I liked how the trail lead the eye to the small island (it's called Lassinlinna = Lassi's castle).
The sky was a little dull color so I thought it would probably look good in black and white. 

Photo Walk vol. 2

I spent a couple of hours today walking around in Pyynikki esker conservation area taking photos. It was incredibly beautiful up there with the sun shining from a clear blue sky. You know I love these kinds of days. Here are some of my favorite photos from today's walk.

I must have looked silly when taking this...*tree hugger*

When you have no one else to model for you, Mr. Buttons comes to help. He hangs from my camera bag. :)
Personally I like this shot a lot. The DOF is pretty much perfect.

And the happy photographer herself. Now I totally get the fuzz about how hard it is to get the eyes sharp and in focus when shooting self-portraits. I had to re-do this shot a gazillion times. So much for spontaneity...

I've been wondering a lot about shooting RAW. I have read from so many photography forums that it is absolute must to shoot RAW, you'll get so much better results is you want to process them on the computer. Now that I have tried it out, I'm having mixed feelings about it, mostly because my whole PP process has to change completely if I want to shoot everything in RAW. 

I know I don't have to shoot absolutely everything in RAW, but then that just makes it even more complicated when some photos can be previewed in Windows Live Photo Gallery and some can't. And that is what I have always done first. After previewing I decide which ones are worth more work in Photoshop. 

I have tried using Adobe Bridge and the program that came along with the camera, Digital Photo Professional, but I just don't feel at home with them, so to speak. And is the quality really that different? I'd like to hear some opinions and advice. Right now I just find the JPG so much more convenient and faster. 

Pretti, the Little Miss Sunshine

I took my camera with me to the stable today. I arrived just before the sunset and the lighting was pretty awesome. Pretti got to be my model :)

From this angle she looks a lot like a mule. :P

I love how the beams of light are visible here.

This guy is not Pretti. I was zooming out to the last horse to get just one horse in with the sunset.

Christmas photography

Home sweet home! I missed my own laptop sooooo much! I hope everyone's Christmas went well. I'm probably going to do a Christmas gift post sometime soon, but for now, here's some photos I took over the Christmas.

View large

On 26th it was my birthday and we had a horrible snow storm here. Thankfully I got my sister to go with me to the stable. I would have never made it there and back again with my car. She also took some photos of me and Pretti. :)

P.S. This is what is looks in the Tampere downtown at the moment. It's totally nuts out there with the huge piles of snow and the crazy people chasing bargains in the after-Christmas sales.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Ok, I posted this elsewhere a moment ago and I just had to make this into a blog post.
A person posted a video with their snowy yard and the video was titled "It's grim up north". Nothing bad about that, don't get me wrong, but it just got me thinking of all the people who complain about the winter. Everyone are entitled to their opinions - of course - but I can't help but to feel a little alone with mine.

I personally am the happiest person alive when the first snow comes to town every year. I hate autumn and the snow takes it all away and makes everything beautiful again. I especially love the days when it's cold, snowy and the sun shines. Those are a rarity and I can't stop smiling on days like that.

I seriously can't understand how anyone can call a snowy scenery 'grim'! The autumn is much much MUCH grimmer a season than the winter, at least if there is snow.
I think everything is so beautiful when it snows and when it's snowy outside. The cold (well, reasonable cold. As my dad said, when the Celsius figures begin to start with the number -3 (thirty-something) it's not so great anymore) and the snow is much better than the +30 C weather that we had this summer.

Ok, there are some things I don't like about winter. For example, driving in the small country roads when going to visit my parents and when going to the stables. Ever since I drove my first car out of the road and crashed it two years ago I've been very paranoid about whether my car is sliding in the turns or not.

And I don't like the daily gamble on whether my car is going to start or not after spending 15 min trying to get the door to open and then spending 15 min scraping the ice off the windows and then spending another 15 min trying to get the door to stay closed again. No, I'm not a huge fan of those ;)

It's been colder November so far than ever before in here. However it hasn't been that cold at all. That statement makes it sound like it's -40C here or something. It's been around -10C to -20C. They have predicted that it's going to be a record breaking cold winter this year.

Here's a classic for you to sum it all up. :)

Frank Sinatra - Let It Snow! 

Bon Jovi here we come again!

So I got a call from my brother tonight asking if we'd go see Bon Jovi
as they are coming to Helsinki next summer.
We went just the two of us in 2008 and it was a great experience.
Now his wife will come too and I'm stoked. :)

Here's my favorite Bon Jovi song.
I performed my own version of it in my brother's wedding
(a lousy pre-wedding audio recording can be found in the left sidebar of this blog).

Unfortunately they don't perform in that kind of outfits anymore...(no, I'm serious about the 'unfortunately'!)

I also love:

Blame It On The Love Of Rock & Roll

(it's a bummer they don't ever perform this live)

Woman In Love

Little Bit Of Soul

And many many more. I think Keep The Faith is their best album.

 P.S. I came home around 6 pm tonight. It had just started to snow a little bit then.
I looked out of the window when my brother called around 8 pm and this is what I saw.
Well this is the view from my balcony and I looked out from my kitchen window but whatever. :)
Beautiful.

Snow!!

The first snow is always the best. ♥ Even though it melts away almost instantly.

I was at the stable when the snow started to fall. Beautiful...

This guy is Hans. Labs (especially the black ones) are my weakness. I have learned to act reasonably and calmly in the presence of dogs (in general and with the energetic ones) after watching a LOT of The Dog Whisperer. But black labs....and especially the males. They just remind me of my family's late dog, Kessu (see picture below), and I lose all my sensibility and just play like a crazy person with them. 

Oh god, I want a puppy......

Rest in peace, my love. ♥

The photos from the stable were taken with my mobile phone so the quality is  ♥  :)