F r o m 1 0 t o 3 0 0 m m

Purple Sky

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 01:14:30 -0800

Recently I posted the B&W version of a color image which I posted earlier. And this time it’s the other way round. Originally I intended them to be in colour but then changed them to B&W, but still I like the colour version also. I just can’t decide.

And as I have used this image for my recently launched online card over at Flavors.me, I thought I can post it here also.

The light was wonderful the whole night through. It was like this for hours. There was enough time to travel from one location to the other without hurrying and being afraid the conditions might change. What more can one want.

Should you like my work, it would be nice if you could take the time to leave a vote for me over at the Photoblog awards.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

Brand New Pier

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:39:33 -0800

As announced already last week, I break my schedule of posting a new image every two weeks, and post something fresh today.

I know this is a little bit of a cliché image but still I couldn't resist the opportunity when I passed this pier. I spotted this pier already in the early evening, but the actual image I took on our way back to the hotel in the early morning. In the evening there were two fishermen having picnic on it, which would maybe had been fun to have in the picture, but not sure would it have improved the composition ;-)

With the sun rising behind the mountains it wasn't the easiest shot to take, but with the help of my filters it went quite fine still. But the colours that night were crazy. The sun not really set, but only hid just below the below the horizon and lit the sky beautifully for hours. It was just wonderful.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting. Also I would like remind you that the Photoblog awards are open again, and if you like my work and enjoyed your visit, you're more than welcome to vote for me here.

Rekvik Pier Mono

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:51:49 -0800

Time flies and the two weeks since my last post are already over. But that's good. It means spring will come soon. Well, being optimistic about this one.

I have been planning to do a certain image, but somehow, even during now more than two months of winter, the conditions are right always at the wrong time. Guess I have to wait a little longer. Maybe I get my chance.

In a few weeks I'll be hopefully off for a few to Norway if nothing unexpected come up that is.

Todays post is something that I haven't done before. Meaning, posting a different version of an already published image, Rekvik Pier.

I decided to do so for several reasons.. I like it very much and it should find it's place in my portfolio of course. Also it marked the beginning of my venture into B&W conversion, which since then has become an integral part of my imagery. As this was one of my images that I converted into B&W, a major credit to the editing goes to my friend and Kai Tirkkonen, who used this image, to show me how the software works. And additionally, and here comes the shameless self-promotion plug, I have it on sale at the moment in my newly launched "Print Of The Month" series.

On a side note, I'd like to point out that, the Photoblog Awards are opened and you are more than welcome to vote for this blog of mine if should like it, of course.

And on another little note, I would like to point you to my recently launched personal blog over at Wordpress, Too Much Latte.

But that's enough for today. As this is not a "fresh" image, I will post the next one already next Friday. Until then I hope you enjoyed this image and thanks a lot for visiting my site.

Ongoing #1

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:04:09 -0800

I spent the whole the weekend in Lapland due to a work-related trip. Unfortunately the conditions were rather unpleasant, so there's was no chance for some photography, even though I took the camera for a little walk. Since I had no W-Lan available there, I couldn't update this blog as I hoped I could.

On the blog I announced a little project that I started to keep myself a little busy during the not so bright and grey times. This original project is still in a stage of research and development, but it kind of evolved into a little side project, meaning this one.

I have been visiting this location before, but now I decided, to make a little project from it. Originally I thought a "Four Seasons" kind of idea, but that somehow didn't look too inspiring. I chose therefore, to return to this location multiple times and do the same kind of composition. Maybe like once a month, or a little less maybe.

I'm not sure yet, will I have access to the very same spot in spring and summer, as the ice I was standing on will not be there then. At least it shouldn't ;-)

Either way, I'm looking forward to the next results and I hope you like it.

Tide At St.Micheals Mount

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:50:05 -0800

It's about time again, the first image of this year, and a little late happy new year to you all. I had only limited possibilities to go out shooting so far. The light and my work schedule don't agree too much at the moment. Nothing new, but that's the way it is.

I have started a little project which I have announced on the blog a while ago which is still going on, but still needs some more material. I have some shots in the bag for this one already, and it evolved also into another little side-project. The first image of the latter will go live in two weeks. So for today, it's a little older one.

St.Michaels Mount.... What a wonderful and mystic location in Cornwall. It's soon a year ago that I have been visiting there and still I haven't finished processing all the images, not that I took too much images there, I guess I'm just a tad slow ;-)

I took this one on my last day of this trip, when everything came together just nicely and I had the conditions I was looking for the whole week. A little later I got the image I didn't even dare to dream of. A little coverage of my trip you can find here on the blog if you are interested.

Thanks visiting and I hope you like it.

White and Frosty World

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:39:09 -0800

The near now is almost over and I thought it's about time for one last image in this year. It was quite an exciting year and a little and yet unfinished summary of it and a little slideshow you can find on my blog.

Winter has now really kicked in and I have some ideas for some hopefully nice wintery images, but somehow the conditions are not yet quite there yet. Waiting for a little heavier snow storm at the moment, but the forecast doesn't look so promising at the moment.

This image it captured earlier this year after a few nights of heavy frost, covering the branches of the trees in beautiful white.

I hope you like it, thanks for visiting. I wish you a happy new year and see you in 2010.

Between the Falls

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:15:27 -0800

After now quite a few Black&White images I thought it's about time to post a colour image again. I just enjoy the B&W conversion so much, that sometimes my colour images start to look like explosions of colours to me. But well, I guess that's just me.

So here's another one from this summer. We ran into these waterfalls somewhere close to the Norwegian border in Sweden and at this place my photographic ambitions for that trip could have ended. As I wrote earlier on my blog, my sloppy shoes somehow decided that it would be "smoother" to slip down the rocks, instead of climbing them down to the falls. As painful as that was, luckily nothing happened to my gear, besides some scratches on my tripod. I got rewarded with a beautiful and exciting location though.

In terms of post-processing, this image hasn't seen much, besides the obvious cropping and some minor colour adjustments.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Waves Rolling In

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 15:00:32 -0800

This time it's a little unusual (well.. at least for me), slightly dark image. I was running through my archives last night and discovered some long forgotten images which inspired me.

I took this one during my trip to Cornwall in spring, near St.Just.

The wind was strong on that day and I basically only could shoot from the right side of the bay, which was giving some shelter from the heavy wind. I was hiding next to a big rock, which is why I couldn't compose the rocks in the sea more to the middle of the frame, without having my "shelter-rock" also in the frame. But I think in this crop the rocks are actually nicely positioned and add some interest to the background.

I have some other, much more silent and minimal images in the works, and additionally look forward to winter finally breaking out here, so that I can try to get some of the shots that I have planned.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

The Tree and the Rock

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:04:56 -0800

A little more silent picture than the last ones today....

Single trees are hard to find somehow. This one we found during our trip to Norway and there was also a nicely placed rock in front of it along the road at the coast. What more do you want? The reindeers which were there a little earlier didn't dare to pose for my shot though. Well, you can't have everything I guess.

Converted as usual in Silver Efex Pro and finished off with some minor curves adjustments in Photoshop.

On a little side-note I would like to point out that I'm still in the process of restructuring this and my other sites. One adjustment was moving over my Live-Blog to Tumblr (you find the embedded version here on the blog also) and also I'm moving over my highly underused Flickr account, to another one, which has a better address. I thought this was necessary as the new address (...../from10to300mm) somehow is easier to remember than the old and cryptic one ;-) It will take some time to get everything over, and hopefully I get more active there in the future also.

There's still some more stuff to come (I finally have to re-arrange the Galleries and the Portfolio, fix some links and whatnot) So please, to keep up with my recent changes and other news and posts, you're welcome to visit my blog also.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Bay #3

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:21:25 -0800

As announced on the blog, today sees the second anniversary of this blog and with it finally goes live the last image of my "Bay Series".

It was an interesting location. Within a distance of maybe 150 meters were three totally different looking bays, all bathed in the beautiful last light of the evening. It was a wonderful location there, north of the city of Tromsö and we're looking forward already to next summer to return to Norway.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Mussels and Rocks

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:37:28 -0800

Instead of posting the third and last image in my "Bay series" I opted for a different, slightly more dramatic image taken from my first trip to Norway.

I took several images during that one day trip at this beach, with this one being from the late afternoon. With the tide slowly coming in, most of this beach was still easily accessible and the low tide made all those interesting shapes from the rocks, mussels and vegetation visible.

I was indeed a little slippery there but it surely was worth standing in there. I took a few different compositions there while cleaning up the filters from the spray between the shots and then continued to my next location.

I was rather lucky with the changing weather conditions during that day, as it hasn't been so nice in the morning that same day, when I woke up with snow falling on the car. Something that was a little unexpected as it was already June.

My next post will then be the third and last image from my "Bay" series.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Bay #2

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 00:22:56 -0800

It's about time again to post something new. This is now, as the title suggests, the second image in my little "Bay"-series.

We ran into these, all-together three bays while exploring the coast line around the island of Sommaroy/Norway. It was a very interesting place, as there were three bays within maybe 150m and they all looked different and had their own character. Only the background with it's mountains and the nicely illuminated clouds at the horizon where the same.

I'm still in the process of re-designing this blog, so if you run into some weirdness here and there, it will probably disappear in the near future. Also I would like to draw attention to my little competition on the blog, where the deadline would be on the 15th.

I hope you like this one and thanks for visiting.

Tromvik Boat

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:02:18 -0800

Even though my "Bay"-series has basically just started and it is not yet finished (two more are still to come) I thought it would be nice to post something else in between.

We ran into this boat while exploring the islands and area north of Tromsö, in a little fisher village called Tromvik (I haven't taken any notes about my shootings there and I might be wrong with this location) during the early evening. The lighting situation wasn't bad but still I thought it would be better to return to the location later that evening.

The sun already had "set" a while ago, but since it's only creeping just below the horizon, there was enough light still. Luckily there wasn't any wind and the grass was hardly moving, which ensured me of enough detail there.

This is obviously result of my new passion for B&W imagery. I'm digging more and more into it and just the other day, me and a friend made a wonderful small print of it. Some notes of this you will soon find on my blog.

I hope you like it and thanks a lot for visiting.

Bay #1

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 13:30:03 -0800

As announced earlier today on the blog, here's now the first image in a little series of bays.

Editing colour images somehow was always relatively easy to me, but B&W images felt always impossible. Inspired by and with some help of my friend Kai, I finally managed to produce a few B&W images which I totally liked. I was surprised though, how much more difficult it is, to create a pleasing B&W image. I have had been working on this for quite a while. Every minor adjustment was followed by some serious drooling about the result.

Either I managed to settle, and here it is (which actually doesn't mean, that this is the final version....)

I hope you like this one as much as I do.

Sandvika Bay

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:33:35 -0800

After enjoying the sunset at the island of Sommaroy we drove slowly back to Tromsö, stopping probably every 500m for another photolocation. The sun only hid behind the horizon and lit the sky with the most wonderful colours for a couple of hours.

We found this little bay, and I took multiple beautiful images there, always climbing more down to the level of the sea. It was kind of risky, since I was too lazy to put back the camera after every shot only to climb down a little. It was a little steeper than it actually looked, but luckily I never slipped with the camera mounted to the tripod.

I shot this one with a 3 stop GND soft filter (I think it was this or the 2 stop) diagonal through the image. In terms of post-processing I haven't done much here. Most of the processing in Lightroom with some final, subtle LAB adjustment in Photoshop. Followed by some serious amount of dust-brushing ;-)

I hope you like it and thanks a lot for visiting.

The End of the Night

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:05:27 -0800

This is one of the last images I took during our one week trip to Norway. I wish I could name that location. We were back from an island called Sommarøy to Tromsø. So, somewhere along the road. If I find it out I will add it here. The sky was just wonderful the whole night. Something like from 22 to 3. It was long night and a tough shooting, but it was worth it.

The sun just started to rise above the horizon, and was just slightly over the horizon somewhere behind some of those mountains to the right, lighting the scene just nicely with it's warm light. I will have some other images, from the mountains behind me, which were bathed in the warm morning light.

The scenery was as impressive as it looks. I was crouched to the tripod in the swampy ground and the mountains were rising just in front of me, only disturbed by an occasional moskito bite.

Thanks a lot for all your comments on my previous images. I will as soon as possible reply to your comments, but I have been very busy during the last few weeks as work has started now again. I will give an update with news around this blog in the next few days.

Processing wise this image hasn't seen much. Minor adjustments in Lightroom and a tiny, little, colour adjustment in Photoshop.

I hope you like and thanks for visiting.

Rekvik Pier

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:39:16 -0800

I just came back from an amazingly wonderful 5 day trip to Norway. The first two days, the light wasn't always the best, at least not around sunset/sunrise, but at the remaining days it was just wonderful. Due to the midnight sun, there's was good light from basically around 10 to 4 o'clock in the morning. I haven't had really prepared the locations, and we simply looked at the map or at Google Maps to look for locations nearby.

This pier is shot at sunset in a little fisherplace called Rekvik, around 40km north of Tromsö. The sun setting to the right, lit the scene with it's warm last light of the evening, before slightly hiding below the horzion.

I took quite a few pictures during this trip, and now slowly have to work on the images. There will be coming a few more seascapes, mountains and some panoramas.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

680km To Go

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:35:18 -0800

This one is the last picture I took on my recent trip to Norway, and I will use it as a kind of send-off for the next one. The last weeks were occupied with family events and holidays and my photography had to rest a little. Next week though I will be off again to a trip to Norway. This time I will have more time, and if the weather agrees with it, more chances to do some photography.

I had an image like this in my mind for a long time, but had never found the right location for it. On my way back, shortly before entering to Finland again I was passing this road. It was lightly snowing and the wind was kind of harsh, which didn't make the temperatures more bearable. Slightly underdressed and with freezing hands I leveled the tripod and took this panorama out of 7 images.

Though the lighting conditions are not as I had in mind, I still like the atmosphere of this image.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous images. I hope I'll find the time to reply to your comments soon. Also the video clip is still amiss.....Well, I guess I shouldn't promise anything right now.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

Where's Frodo?

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:27:45 -0800

I shot this one handheld, and without any filters on my trip to Norway, which was supposed to be only a trip to Kilpisjärvi, where I actually took this one. The scene and the lighting conditions had something bizarre and mysterious to it. It felt a little like a scene from Lord Of The Rings, and the appearance of two hobbits following Smeagol wouldn't have really surprised me ;-)

The clouds were very, very low, the lake still frozen at certain places and everything felt just gray. It was interesting though. When I took a nap after driving like 9 hours through a beautiful sunset, and heavy rain storms, it started to snow, which was only partly funny since I already changed to summer tires. Not much further to the north, in Norway, the scenery was lot different as you can see on my previous images.

I will return to this place sooner or later, as I couldn't get the image which I actually came here for.

Post-processing wise I worked in Lightroom and some finishing touches in Photoshop using my usual LAB routine.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

PS: My greatest and warmest thanks to all of my commenters on my previous images. I haven't had the time yet to reply to your comments, but I will try to do my best in the next few days.

Rocky View

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:35:28 -0800

Another one from my last, well actually also first, trip to Norway. I'm quite happy how this one turned out. The weather conditions were changing frequently during that day but luckily they changed at right time around sunset (actually the sun didn't really set anymore) giving me some good lighting conditions.

Post-processing-wise this image has seen my usual routine in Lightroom and PS. If you are interested in that, you can see a little screencast on my blog.

The promised video from this trip is still not up, but maybe later today.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Clear Water

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:46:49 -0800

Okay, it is my fault. I promised you an image and a little video clip, and all you get is this picture. Shame on me ;-) But the clip will follow anyway. Someday. Maybe soon....

I know.... Sven ....shut up.

This one is from my recent, and very spontaneous trip to Norway. I wish I could tell you what's the name of this mountain or river. I went there without any kind of maps, and had absolutely now idea where I was or I was going to. I was somewhere between Kilpisjärvi in Finland, and Tromsø in Norway. Obviously I found my way back, but that's about it.

I had to wait a while, before I could take this image, as it was consistently raining at only that spot, and I had to do some serious raindrop-bracketing here, as I had to dry the lens after every image, and only a few came out "dry". You can see that rain-cloud also in here.

I will post some more from this short trip next week and hopefully then with the video. But that's no promise...

Either way, I thank you for visiting and hope you like it.

As a Landscape Photographer We Wait With Style....

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 02:50:54 -0800

Today's post is not only early, it's also just a little fun teaser. Waiting for some better light and the light rain to stop, I chose to make a little image from the view of my office/car.

Last Tuesday I decided to spontaneously take a little ride to the city of Kilpisjärvi, which is in the most North/West of Finland, at the Norwegian border.

While I left in beautiful sunshine, the weather during the trip turned to the worse. Lot's of heavy rain, and cloudy all over the place. Hoping that the weather forecast is going to be right, the conditions should change during the next day.

When I arrived it Kilpisjärvi, I was confronted with a surreal scenery, of very low hanging clouds, and a grey and monotone light. After a little sleep in a little snowstorm, I decided to have a look how it looks like in Norway, since I have never been there before in my life.

Well what can I say...the conditions changed after a minutes. The mountains got so much bigger, the trees green. Just beautiful.

Since I hadn't a map of that area, or GPS I could not explore it so much without fearing to get totally lost (something that occasionally happens to me), but I found some nice spots which will be up during the next few weeks.

I will have a little, not so serious, behind the scene's post coming up on the blog, together with the first real image. In July I will be back there, better prepared this time, and hope for some nice conditions.

Hope you like and thanks for visiting and see you again in a few days....

Summer Nights

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 01:24:42 -0800

For the longest time I had visualized an image like this. Even though these buildings are everywhere, it is surprisingly difficult to find some on a little hill with no forest behind them. Someone was also so kind to arrange the buildings like this and the put the moon up there ;-)

I took this last Monday on a little trip to some waterfalls in the Kuusamo area on my way home and I was lucky to find these conditions. To me this kind of image is what finnish summer is about: a late setting sun warming up the scene. So far we had a very nice beginning of summer, and I hope it stays like this. If the conditions are right, we have the golden hours roughly from 10 in the night to 4 o'clock in the morning. Good for photography, bad for sleeping ;-)

Processing wise this image hasn't seen a lot. Some colour adjustments in LR and Photoshop, and some serious dust brushing (really should clean my sensor soon).

I have some more shots in the bag, and looking forward to get some more during this week. If I don't answer to your comments, it just means that I'm somewhere trying to get some nice new images.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed it.

Into the Sun

Thu, 28 May 2009 21:50:11 -0800

These had been a very busy two weeks recently. Always before holidays start, my work schedule seems to explode. Combined with this, the weather was just great and I tried to take as much advantage as possible out of this. With sunset around 12 o'clock and sunrise around 3 o'clock there's not much time to sleep at the moment. And then work during the day again.... Talking about sleepwalking.....

On this nice summer evening photographer friend Kai Tirkkonen took me to one his favorite places at the coast. We had a nice fire and at sunset there was a chance to take some nice pictures. This is a beautiful place, and I have the feeling to return here more frequently as it also is a nice location to some panoramas in the forests.

Instead of posting another panoramic image, I chose a single frame for the change. I have been recently experimenting a lot with panoramic images and start to get better results, so there will come a few still.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

PS: The black thingy under the sun in the water, was a huge block of ice. Was very surprised to see that there's still some left. Also on the right side of this bay, there was still some ice blocks on the beach. Amazing that they don't melt away so fast.

PPS: Don't expect too many updates on my blog in the near future. Finally it's becoming summer and I'll be out as much as possible to take pictures. Being inside and writing I can do in winter time ;-)

Scenes from a Dream

Wed, 20 May 2009 08:08:41 -0800

I have decided to post a little earlier than usual today.

After two years of car-less living I finally got a new old car and it starts to become one of my most important photographic gear as I can finally get to more interesting locations, and am not limited anymore to my bike.

I found this waterfall called Hepököngas through Google Earth already in winter and since I had some free time recently I took a little trip to this location. It's a very beautiful place, a little difficult though to get a good frame and to get a decent exposure.

Originally I tried to turn this into a panorama, as this image is the result of seven individual ones, but I couldn't get as much space to the left as I hoped it would be possible. The sun came already from a rather low angle and made a decent exposure there very difficult. Therefore I had to crop a little to get a decent composition.

After editing a color version, I opted for a B&W here, which I definitely preferred. When it's black and white it's art, isn't it? ;-)

I have a long list of beautiful locations here, and hope to find the time and the right conditions during this summer, to get some decent frames.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Last Light

Fri, 15 May 2009 13:22:30 -0800

It feels like ages that I have had time and chance to post something here. This had been a long two weeks. As the school year comes to an end, I had a lot of work and not really time to take care of this blog of mine.

Luckily the sun sets and rises nowadays so late or early that it's easy to get some frames either before or after work (got insanely tired at one point, but who cares).

Either way, the snow and ice has now finally melted away and also the weather agreed and I took the chance to go out to do some photography. I tried to explore some new locations, but this is from a familiar one.

I took this one in the last light of the day, and the sun really warmed up the scene. A few days later I returned at 4 in the morning for sunset to do the same frame again.

This is a pano stitched in Photoshop. I recently discovered the 12x6 crop ratio and applied it to this.

Besides the stitching in Photoshop this one hasn't seen much adjustments. Some minor color adjustments.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

High Cliffs

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:16:23 -0800

It had been now two weeks since my last post and finally spring is about to spring around here. I hope for some nice conditions during the next week so that I can come up with something fresh. In the meanwhile a shot from the archive will do.

I have been long thinking which image I should post next, and somehow I always came back to this one, taken at Lands End. I like this one as it is more of a silent, not immediately eye-catching image. The sky doesn't have much drama and the sea is maybe a little too calm also. But somehow I enjoy looking at it, still being amazed how high these cliffs actually are and enjoying the details found in the cliffs and rocks.

Inspired by a Charlie Waite DVD that I watched recently I decided to try a 1x1 crop on this image. I like how this crop reveals so much more details in this size.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

Tide's Coming In

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:35:37 -0800

Another one from Cornwall. I would have liked to post something fresh from around here, but spring has yet to spring. After yesterdays new snow attack (which luckily melted away during the night) weather has cleared now and I will be off taking a ride along the coast hoping to find a non-frozen and nice place. Let's see.

I took this photography at Trenow Cove just like this one, just a little later. The tide was coming in quickly and the spray from the waves got significantly stronger. I had to clean the filters after almost every image. Also the rocks got more slippery. Which didn't make it any easier to climb over them. Additionally I learned here, that you can drop your brand new remote shutter release into the salt water and it works just fine after drying ;-)

As I usually say, I did the processing in Lightroom and some finishing touches in Photoshop in LAB mode. I will post a little article/screencast on this tomorrow on my blog. It's nothing spectacular, but if you are interested feel free to drop by tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

Little Cudden

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 21:24:35 -0800

Usually, when doing my landscape photography I tend to shoot only during the happy hour in the morning or evening, so this image is a rarity in my library. Also from last trip to Cornwall, I took this in the middle of the day when taking a rest after hiking a couple of hours to Cudden Point. And a nice place to rest it is!

I used the chance to take a little video clip (stupid enough in time lapse, but that's a totally different story) and this panorama.

Later that evening I went to the spot that I scouted out, but all these nice clouds had disappeared by that time already. Either way I kind of like this summer feeling in this image, even though it looks like a postcard.

As for the processing I have done some minor adjustments in Lightroom and naturally merged the images in Photoshop with some final and subtle tweaking in LAB mode. For those interested in what and how I do things like this I would like to point you to a tutorial that I have made in German language as a guest blogger on Fotoholiker here, or feel free to visit my blog during the next week where I will post the same screencast in English.

I hope that the next image that I can post is something new and fresh from here. I have scouted out some new and hopefully nice locations and spring seems to be around the corner now. Hopefully all the snow will melt away pretty soon. Well... I can hope can I?

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

Just A Little Bridge

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:01:43 -0800

Another one from my trip to Cornwall.

I took this at Porth Nanven at St.Just. The wind was very strong on that day and the weather was changing constantly, often to the worse though.

I'm quiet happy with this one. The light on that afternoon/evening wasn't very nice, but just about the right time a little gap in the clouds showed appeared to give me some more interesting sky and at the same time the sun was "softboxed" by another cloud. This happened a few times which gave me the possibility to try out three different compositions along this river from which this is best one as the composition is the strongest and just enough of a slow shutter speed to capture the movement in the water. Standing with one leg in the river, I was able to get the boldest composition.

A little more info and some more images from that day you can find on in this little article on my blog.

I'm sending this one off to the lab today and look forward to see this framed on my wall.

In terms of processing this image hasn't seen much. Some small adjustment in Lightroom with some finishing touches in PS. I do so little in PS sometimes, that I actually wonder if I could achieve the same result with some effort in LR.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Where The Rainbows Are At Home

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:40:51 -0800

Today I'm happy to publish this image, as it happens to be best one I did so far in my opinion. It has almost everything. A castle, the sea, rocks, clouds, a boat, a sunrise,two rainbows, a causeway and so on.

The story to the image you can read in more detail on my blog if you want to.

I shot this with a 3 Stop Grad Hard filter and tried to align the tripod as level as possible. To get a better angle I had to pull out the tripod in the middle to the max. I usually try to avoid this as it makes the camera less steady. It was rather windy on that location and two of the 11 images are a little blurry due to camera shake. I'm not sure whether the shake was introduced from the heavy wind or due to the rotation and I have not waited long enough on those two images for the camera to get steady again. Luckily one of those images could be left out since I had enough overlap with the images before and after. The other one causes only a little bit of blur, which you can see at 100% only.

For the final image I then used 9 images from those 11 and did some basic level, curves adjustments in Photoshop. Nothing really spectacular.

And yes...before anyone asks in the comment... I did NOT paint them in ;-)

Also I would like to draw attention to the little competition I have going on here. Look for the details in this post.

I hope you like and thanks for visiting.

Trenow Cove Rocks

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:32:53 -0800

Another one from my trip to Cornwall.

I really don't know why I post this, from all the possible images that I have available. I'm not really happy with the composition but somehow something makes me return to this image over and over again. I guess it's something about the hidden detail in the front under the incoming wave and how the movement of the water corresponds with the structures in the sky. I don't know... Maybe I'm getting nuts.

If you are interested into more details of this and some more images, I'd like invite you over to my blog where I have posted so far one little article if you will of my trip, with a second one following during this night or at the latest tomorrow. Also I would like to point out that later today I will post a little bit of a give-away or competition.

As far as the post-processing goes, I have adjusted the white balance and some vibrancy/clarity in Lightroom with then followed by some minor color adjustments in LAB mode using Photoshop. Nothing exciting really.

I hope you like it also (I mean this with this one more than ever) and thanks for visiting.

Update: Now I actually uploaded the "dust-brushed" version....

St.Michael's Mount

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 23:57:44 -0800

As some of you might now I have been to Cornwall during the last week and being back now I try to keep up with my post-processing work. And now I'm proud to present the first image.

It was a difficult choice which image to post first and I went this one.

The whole trip to Cornwall has been quite an experience. Gorgeous landscapes all over the place. I felt like a kid in a toystore. Surprisingly the sheer amount of beautiful scenery didn't make it any easier though for me to decide to what and how shoot. I thought I prepared rather well, but being there I realized I should have been much more precise with that. Lesson learned and next time I will do better.

A more detailed review of my findings will go live on my blog at some point during this week for those interested.

I took this image on my last day in Cornwall. I was staying in a little apartment near St.Michael's Mount in Marazion and an image like this was on my "to-do" list once the conditions are right. Luckily on my last day things came together just fine.

Processing done as usual in Lightroom followed by some adjustments in Photoshop.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Update: I just realized that something happened with the file while uploading since it looks a little unsharp. I will investigate the issue.

Update 2: The issue got now resolved and the image now looks as it should.

Tied Tight

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:53:35 -0800

Instead of posting another winter image, I decided to post an image that I wanted to post a long time ago already. In fact, it's a little different version from an older image. Normally I don't like to post similar images too much, but somehow this is one of my favorite images from last year, and it does look very nice on my wall ;-)

I have done the processing in Lightroom with some finishing touches in Photoshop. I did the processing sometime last year, and can't remember to well anymore what I did to it. Either way, you find the imported and unprocessed version by clicking on the link below.

I hope that the next image that will go live here will be something totally different and new. You're welcome to look for some updates on my blog in a few hours.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

PS: Thanks a lot to all my commenters on my previous image. I'm little short of time at the moment and hadn't any chance to reply yet, but I hope I will be able to do so soon.

Pearl Month

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:44:58 -0800

In the Finnish language February is called "Helmikuu" which means "Pearl Month" and this was one of these days where the you get the idea why it's called like this. It is usually in February when the weather changes from mostly grey to more sunlight but it also means that it gets very cold. It happens during this time of the year that the air is filled with little bits of snow, reflecting like little pearls in the sunlight.

This day was one of those....

The trees had become white from all the frost on them and the temperature was somewhere around minus 22 degrees. I have an interesting a shot at a specific location in mind, but it's too far away. The thought of spending 3 hrs on a bike to get to that spot and back didn't look too inviting. This was one of those moments I decided to get a car.

Anyway, I decide to get the most of the situation and take a little ride to the beach to take another panorama there. The scene is a little surreal. Everything is white. The snow on the ground, the trees, the air is filled with these little flakes of snow, or frozen humidity, which seem to come out of nowhere and some thin, almost invisible clouds muting the colours in the sky.

I take the two images that I wanted, "warm" myself a little in a castle made of snow which was nearby and return home. When I arrive home, I quickly import the images and head out to work, knowing I have captured a nice moment.

I have done some adjustments in Lightroom and then merged the images to a panorama in Photoshop. In Photoshop I have done some more adjustments in LAB colormode. Back in Lightroom I did some major dust-brushing. It really takes some time on an image as large as this.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Winter Forest

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:09:57 -0800

The days are getting longer faster now and getting up for a shooting at sunrise gets earlier and earlier. I had not planned to go shooting but for some reason I woke up in the middle of the night and looking out of the window I could see the moon. Something, that hasn't happened in a while, as it has been gray most of the time. Only a few clouds were in the sky, covering up only a few stars.

I decided to go to one of my favourite locations and left early enought to be in place at sunrise. It had been snowing the day before and while most of the roads already had been cleared, the last few kilometers weren't and driving on the bike through a thick layer of snow, was kind of challenging.

And then I kind of ran out of luck. I arrive at my desired location and thick clouds show up at the exact wrong place and the road gets cleared behind me. Okay, no can do.

I stayed around a while and did this panorama because I could keep out the gray sky. It's maybe no spectacular image, more a simple and silent one. But somehow I like it. I like how there's a little bit of green in there.

I used a 0.9 GND filter here, to balance the exposure between the bright snow in the foreground and the much darker treetops. In Lightroom some colour adjustment and merge to panorama in Photoshop.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

A Splash Of Green

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 14:03:51 -0800

It feels like forever that I had a chance to go out shooting. It's a month now. Weather conditions and work schedule tend to collide, and if they don't, I forget to take essential stuff on my bookshelf. So I decided to post one from the archives...

I took this one at the exact same location like the last one, just six months earlier during summer. It's amazing how different things can look.

The sun was just setting to the right and lighted the whole beach in a warm light. The sun actually only hides behind the horizon in this time of year and I spent the whole night on the island exploring the place and also trying to get to the other side of it to catch the ferry home.

Processing-wise I have done my usual adjustments in Lightroom and some final color adjustments in Photoshop using LAB mode. I got a few questions on how I do this and I hope I will be able to get a post or a screencast up on my text-blog. I will give no ETA though. I know myself and things like this will take a while.

Talking about words.... For those who have not noticed this on my text-blog or on Twitter, I got interviewed by Brett from Blog on Photoblogs and if you are interested feel free to go over the article and check it out.

I hope you like this image and thanks for visiting.

On Ice

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:58:01 -0800

The second day in a row with nice weather, and I have the chance to go out shooting.

With this post, I would like to introduce a new series on my blog, "The Shooting Diary". For a full "story" I would like to send you over to this article on my blog.

As for the processing this image hasn't seen much. The usual adjustments in Lightroom and some final finish in LAB mode in PS. The longest time I spent dust brushing the image ;-)

Talking about processing...Those who are interested to know a little on the use of GND filters, and also speak Deutsch, I would like to invite you to have a look at my first two guest articles on the famous German photography blog Kwerfeldein.de. Also you might have a look at the english version on my blog.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

The Flow

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 09:24:38 -0800

Before writing anything about this image, I would like to wish all my visitors a Happy New Year and thank everyone a lot for voting for my blog for the Photoblogawards, due to which, this little blog of mine made it into the finals in the category of Landscapes! This is highly appreciated. I hope my upcoming work will keep up with this.

After two months of desperately bad weather it finally changed and I had the chance to go out shooting again. What a relief! I had the chance to go out already the day before christmas, but that shooting ended abruptly due to the fact that I cracked into the ice and got myself some very wet feet, which is not really what I like at something like minus 10 degrees. Luckily today it turned out better.

It came all together quiet nicely. We had good light, the moon was just rising and me and a friend drove out to Koitelinkoski again to get some images. There were quiet many photographers out there at the current temperature of minus 17 degrees and at the end we had a nice coffee at the fire. Wouldn't it be nice, if it could be like this every day?!

This is a panorama stitched together out of six different shots, processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. Photoshop is doing a fantastic job with stitching these images together. Almost like magic. I actually cropped a little out of it, to get a panoramic format of 1:3. I totally dig this format, and will experiment more with it in the future.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Winter Birch Trees

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:23:32 -0800

I decided to escape the frustration of being unable to do some winter landscapes, due to the current uninviting weather conditions, and at least play around a little with the panning technique in the forest. By excluding the sky and blurring the image I tried to at least create something nice, in this otherwise not so nice current conditions. I tried to find the trees from this image again, but unfortunately couldn't.

As for the processing, this has only seen Lightroom and some final level adjustments in PS.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

I'll Remember April

Sat, 6 Dec 2008 16:12:54 -0800

Skies like this seem to be a rarity up here and at the moment seeing the sun setting like this brings up nice memories. I did a trip on my bike to the other side of the bay and had just luck with the light. I got some other nice images out there, like "What A Colorful World it can be" and "The Arrow".

I have returned to that location a couple of times afterwards, but the light wasn't right and so I returned home.

I'm hoping that I will have the chance to go out shooting soon and hopefully capture a sky like this again.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoy my work.

Simply kelp

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:48:41 -0800

Before writing anything about this image, I would like to announce that my Blog "17mm", thanks to the great support here at Pixyblog, has now moved to this domain, and so did the RSS-Feed. If you have bookmarked or subscribed to the feed I would like to ask to update the bookmark or feed.

Here are the new links:

Textblog: http://from10to300mm.pixyblog.com/blog/17mm

Feed: feed://from10to300mm.pixyblog.com/blog/17mm/feed/entries/atom

So now to the image:

Another week has passed and again I had no chance to go out shooting. It's horrible, but at least from this point on it can just get better. So another one from the archives.

I got a little earlier off work, and used the chance to head out to the close beach before the last sunlight disappeared completely. The water was unusually low and some rocks and seagrass showed up.

Post processing wise this image has seen some adjustments in Lightroom and my usual final touch in PS using some color adjustments in LAB mode.

Green, Wide World

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:42:10 -0800

Those of you who are following me on Twitter, will already have noticed my continious weather rants (I'm considering a separate account only for my weather rants). It's has been not very photographic recently, or when it is, I'm at work. But no can do, unless someone comes up with a law which enables people to take off work once the conditions are right. But I really don't see that happening.

So here's one from the archives. I took this in Koitelinkoski in July this year. This is really a great place to shoot. I've been there twice this year, and look forward to return there once we have some more snow and before it's totally frozen. Let's hope for the best.

As the the filters were not strong enough to compensate entirely for the dynamic difference between sky and foreground, the original shot is a little underexposed. I did almost all adjustments in Lightroom and some final adjustments in Photoshop using my favorite LAB color adjustments and a minor Level adjustment.

There were some requests to publish a little tutorial on how I processed the last image, which I hopefully have up in the near future.

On a side note I got me a bright new shiny Mac and did the processing on that one, meaning I hope the colors come out right.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my blog.

UPDATE: I know have finally set a new monitor, and while I'm still not 100% sure about the calibration, I noticed the first post to be way too much saturated. I know have uploaded a new version and continue now, to figure out, how to calibrate my second monitor.

UPDATE 2: It's unbelievable. I again uploaded the wrong version of the file. I did manage now to calibrate my monitor and edited this version.

Calm Water

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:22:56 -0800

I ran into this location late summer and this one taken a little earlier in the same area than my image "Where The Grass Grows Green". I liked the colors in the rocks/stones and the wooden blocks here. It was a very calm evening and we also had some nice clouds.

As for the processing, it hasn't seen so much. Basic adjustments in Lightroom and some finishing color adjustments in Photoshop.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

The Misty Gate

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 20:00:41 -0800

Another one from my last shooting in Germany. I'm standing at dawn in the middle of the field, the horses have left and all there's left is me and the gate almost lost in the mist.

I liked the scene with the details in the high grass, the tree, and the gate. The real star of this image is the strong fog of course. Without it the scene would be rather unpleasing.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Horses in the Autumn Mist

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:20:14 -0800

Before I write something about this image I would like to that everyone of you for stopping by and everyone who has bookmarked my site on Photoblogs.org, and voted for me on the Photoblogs Awards and on VFXY. I was very surprised and of course happy to see this blog of mine in the top 10. This makes me very proud.

But now to the image....

I have had a family trip to Germany and knew I will not have so much time to shoot there, but I knew about this little field just around the corner and the three horses which are usually on it. Also I knew that it can be very foggy at this time of the year and I pre-visualized an image like this already before I left to Germany. So the only thing I had to do was wait... and that I did. The whole time, every morning, no fog, but on the very last day of my little holiday the conditions were right and I quickly headed out, and it surely was fun.

But I can tell you, I'm really not that much of a wildlife-shooter (I know this really doesn't qualify as wildlife, but it's not a pure landscape either). They move! All the time! I didn't wanted to bump up the ISO too much, but I think I should haved raised it at least one stop more, but that's too late now. Even though they were calmly eating all the time they were also calmly changing places all the time. Since I usually shoot landscapes I'm used to take my time framing an image. It felt that every time I had the framing I wanted, one, two or all the horses already left my framing. At one point they came around to me and my tripod just to leave the frame completely and say to "Hallo".

Either way, I'm rather happy with the result and I got a series of decent images from that shoot. On this image I would have liked the horse to be slightly more to the right or left, but he just strolled where to where he wanted to be. I was hoping that he would look up to me, and he was so friendly to do that.

As for the post-processing, I haven't done too much with it, since I wanted to preserve the foggy feeling and muted colours. Just some adjustments in Lightroom followed by some minor levels and curves in LAB mode in Photoshop. You can see a copy of the un-processed RAW image following the link below this text.

I hope you like the image also and thanks for visiting.

Took A Walk

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:34:47 -0800

Isn't this a nice place to take a walk at sunrise? The mist had not completely disappeared and the air was cool and fresh.

I took this one at a little lake/pond which is called Mustalampi, excatly in between my last two images, since there are three in that forest. I kind of like the simplicity here, even though there is a lot small detail in the grass, the wood etc. but still I hope it evokes this fresh morning mood.

Placing the tripod here was difficult since it was very swampy (does a word like this exist?) around there. My tripods legs were sinking into the mud and with the added weight of the camera it didn't get so much sturdier. Also stepping, or walking, everywhere else other than the path can positively be considered as a stupid idea. Note to self: shoes are not as waterproof as advertised, and when sinking-in deeper than the ankles they don't let the water out either.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

UPDATE: I, again, successfully managed to upload the wrong version of the image which should be now corrected.

The Last Mist

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:47:16 -0800

Time flies so fast. It feels like just yesterday that I posted my last image but it's again already a week.

Here's another one from my shooting at the lake. I took this one just a few meters away from "On A Little Island". The sun was just rising behind those trees and I used two filter with a total of 5 stops to preserve some at least detail in the shadows here.

I like how the mist rises from the water here, and diffuses the trees. It surely was a nice moment out there.

I noticed the dead tree hanging into the lake already last winter, and visualized an image similar to this. I would have liked to get a little closer, but my lens wasn't long, and getting closer wasn't possible.

As for the processing I did process two versions of this image in Lightroom, one for the shadows and one for the sky and then merged them Photoshop. After that some "Auto Levels" which revealed the blue in the sky again (this was pure luck, I rarely press on the "Auto Levels" button) and after that a little color processing in LAB mode.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my work.

Sixty Seconds at Sunrise

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 03:17:39 -0800

Before I write something about this image, I would like to take the chance to thank all the visitors for taking your time, leaving comments, voting for my blog on the Photoblog Awards and bookmarking me on Photoblogs.org and on VFXY. Thank you all so much, it is very motivating to get such a feedback.

But now to the image. It's a 60 seconds exposure taken at almost the same location as my last image, only two lakes to the north, which should be around 500m. For those interested, the name of that lake is: Valkiäsjärvi.

I got up at four that morning and drove around 15km through the dark with my bike to this lake, and when I arrived there I got the reward for my effort. A beautiful sunrise. The mist on the water made the trees on the other side of the lake soft and dreamy and some clouds did their best to reflect in the water.

Some notes on the processing: I used GND filters here with together 5 Stops over the sky. The original file was quite well exposed, and I did only apply some color correction in Lightroom and finally some (really not much) adjustments in LAB color mode PS.

On A Little Island

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 11:08:38 -0800

Okay, now off to the next 100.

Last Tuesday I got off very early before work and took a ride to this lake, hoping to capture a nice sunrise. And I had luck. I took quite a few nice captures there and from all those, this is one of the last ones.

There are three lakes in this forest, and it's a very silent place with only a little wind, so the water surface was just like a mirror. The mist was rising on the water and it was a very idyllic moment. This is surely a great way to start the day, though I got up so early, that I was tired for the next two days, but it was worth it.

As for the post-processing I did some color-adjustments in Lightroom and additionally in LAB mode in Photoshop. Also I did some minor level-adjustment on the trees.

Richard from Pixyblog enabled the possibility for us, to be able to show also an alternate version of a image. So you'll find here also the link to the unprocessed image, "zeroed" in LR.

I hope you like and thank for visiting my site.

Autumn Rocks

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:36:07 -0800

Whoa, time flies. It feels like yesterday that I posted my 99th image and now it's already no. 100!

I thought for a while which image I should post and decided for this one, because it's from this week and it shows how beautiful autumn can be here.

This image is also a little unusual for me, because I usually go shooting around the golden hours, but my current work schedule allows this only occasionally. So I took this in the late morning when I had little break from work, and quickly went to this location which I spotted a few weeks ago.

As for the processing: I didn't do much to this image. I shot it with a GND filter vertical through the image, and did some minor color adjustments in LR and some color adjustments in LAB mode in PS. One bigger adjustment though is, that I again made a chimney from the industry at the horizon disappear.

If you are interested to learn about GND filters, I would like to point you to a little series of blog posts which I have started on my blog.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

Update: It has become a recent habit of mine to post the wrong version of the image first ;-) So this is the right one.

Where The Grass Grows Green

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:40:45 -0800

To my own surprise, I just realized that this is already my 99th image here on my blog!

I took this in an old, vanished industry location near the city of Pateniemi. There are no buildings left there, just the decaying shore line. It's a nice location to explore but unfortunately I was late and didn't had too much time there. I will go back there though, once the conditions are right.

What is interesting here, that I spotted this location, by using the "Birds View" feature on Live Maps. So I had some idea what to expect before I arrived there without me leaving the apartment. This made location scouting a lot faster, though it takes the sport out of it.

Notes on the processing: Some color adjustments in Lightroom followed by some level adjustments in Photoshop to bring back detail in the rocks and the wood.

Thanks for visiting my site and I hope you like my images.

Floating Jetty

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:06:35 -0800

After my last two experiments with panning still objects, I felt it was about time to post something slightly sharper.

I'm rather happy how this turned out, since it was actually a rather windy evening as you can see in the trees, and the jetty was constantly moving. Not much, but at least a little, and I feared it would turn out, very unsharp. To my own surprise it's not too obvious.

Concerning the processing:

Since I used GND-filters, I basically only did some minor color corrections/adjustments in Lightroom and minor level/curves adjustments in LAB mode in Photoshop. Those visitors familiar with this place though, might realize that something is amiss. You're right... there used to be two pipes of the industry and a little bridge which was hardly visible in the trees, visible on the horizon. Well, they kind of disappeared.

Thanks for visiting my site and I hope you like it.

UPDATE: I recently become increasingly better in posting the wrong version of the image. Updated to the correct one now.

Birch Trees

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 16:16:53 -0800

Here's another try at using the panning technique on still objects. I went out during the weekend, and took benefit of the overcast morning to experiment a little more with this and I have released a little "how-to" on the panning technique that I used here. You're welcome to have a look at it on my blog here.

Birches are all around the place the here, but still I had to search a while to find this frame nearby the beach. I wanted to render the white trees with a green background which was not so easy to find.

While the effect is achieved completely in-camera, I have done some white-balance adjustments, color (clarity, vibrance) and curves in Lightroom and some final color adjustments in LAB mode using Photoshop.

I hope you like my work and thanks for visiting my site.

Forest in Pastels

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:28:01 -0800

I was recently reading an article about the impressionistic work of photographer Ted Leeming. The showcased images were very interesting and fresh even though the article didn't mention how he produces those images, it mentioned that he is doing everything in-camera. After looking at those images I got a vague idea on how he produced the images.

This morning I had a little time off, and went to the forest in the neighborhood and experimented a little with this technique. And I can tell you... I had a blast! I was there only very short time, since I only wanted to try this technique a little, but when I looked at the images back home at the computer I was amazed on the outcome and wished I would have stayed a little longer. I decided to quickly post this one, even though I'm not 100% happy with the composition here. It is really very inspiring to work like this.

From the processing point, I have done nothing else than some color/white balance adjustments and cropping in Lightroom and some minor color adjustments and levels in Photoshop.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

Being There

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:52:15 -0800

Today I have a little announcement to do, before I write a little bit about this image.

I tried to implement a little blog to this photoblog on my own, when Richard from Pixyblog offered me to integrate one hosted here on Pixyblog, and the result is just great. You see a link in the header "17mm Blog" and it leads you there. Alternatively you can go directly to http://17mm.pixyblog.com/. I will post some news, links, info etc. there from time to time so feel free to subscribe to the feed if you want to.

But now the image. As I wrote on my blog, me and a friend took a little trip to the city of Ii, but we left too late and arrived just a few minutes before sunset. Luckily, we quickly found a nice, little bay at the river, where I/we had the chance to take some images. The light was really great, and we were at the right at the right place.

Problematic were the moskitos though. I didn't expect so many of them there anymore, but it was an average of 4 moskito bites per image.

Thanks a lot for visiting my site and I hope you enjoy it.

Wet Feet?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:17:34 -0800

Okay, I admit... I didn't get weet feet here. I was standing very close to the water and shooting at 17mm but still I was rather safe and dry on a rock. I wasn't really sure though whether or not to trust the stability of my tripod, when I had to head over to my camera bag to pick up another filter.

This is also taken in the place called Koitelinkoski. Since I still have quiete a few, decent images from there I hope you like it.

Thanks you so much for visiting my site and I hope you enjoyed it.

Got Stuck?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:15:17 -0800

I got myself a bright and shiny new lens yesterday, and of course I had to take it for a little walk just before it started to rain. I felt myself a little stuck in the landscape theme, and had the feeling that I always more or less did take the same image, just with another view in front of it. So I thought it's time for some new input.

I went to the race track to test the lens on some horses (maybe I post something from there later) and after that I went to a nearby forest to do some close-ups. It was very nice to do something totally different, though I have to learn a lot more about how to see and frame with that lens, but it feels very inspiring. It's a totally different world.

I like the colour and texture of the tree and the way this one leaf kind of got stuck in there.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

PS: This image will look better with the dark theme.

The End Of A Cloudy Day

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:40:52 -0800

It had been another very busy week, and again I had almost no possibility to go out, looking for some nice shots. On this particular day, the sky had been gray and dull all day long, but in the evening just about an hour before sunset it lightened up and I quickly ran out. While the sky was a lot more spectacular when I left, a lot of it's magic allready was gone when I arrived at my destination, where I hoped to find a good image.

I stumbled on this meadow and I liked the flowers, even though most of them were already past their height, as the end of summer is coming quickly closer.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

Just before Sunset

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 05:03:37 -0800

I had been very busy during the last two weeks and did not had the chance to go out shooting or to post anything new here, but before that I went to the port in the hope to find some nice scenery there.

Even though it's a beautiful place out there, nothing really caught my eye until I spotted this view, which I thought would give a nice and colourful image.

I have been experimenting with different crops recently, and started to like this one, for portrait kind of images.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

Update: I managed to upload the wrong version twice in a row. This should be right one.

In the Middle Of The Stream

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:10:03 -0800

Another image from my little shooting in Koitelinkoski.

The whole evening while I was there, the sky had only a few clouds. But just around/after sunset some more clouds showed up the sky went totally crazy. It didn't last too long, but long enough to get a few shots from there. The dynamic range was rather big, which didn't make it any easier. I think I used two filters with together 5stops here.

I hope you like and thanks for visiting my site.

Update: I just updated this image with a slightly different edit.

Trunks

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:45:00 -0800

I arrived early on my destination at the island of Hailuoto (basically because I took me and my bike to a bus ;-) ) and therefore had the chance to explore the area a little. I spotted this place already from the window of the bus and immediately had the idea for some kind of panoramic image, so I drove back and waited for the sunlight to become less harsh.

I processed this image from three images in Photoshop and Lightroom and I'm rather satisfied with it. I kind of always came back to it in my library. Bigger it's better though.

I hope you like and thanks for visiting.

Gone Fishing

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 11:50:33 -0800

I break my self-made rule of posting one image per week with this one, because I wanted to share this image with you.

I'm myself surprised how it turned out, because I made so many mistakes here. Just before this shot, I took another one, and when I turned around I noticed this scene. I quickly set up and attached a 2 stop GND filter. I was a little in a hurry because I had a feeling the fisher will not stay long there and I was right. This shot turned out to be underexposed and the focus is off (I was practicing manual focus and failed). While still checking which other filter to apply he left this spot and the scene was gone. I did another shot of this fisher on the rocks, which still was not exposed correctly. I should have just bracketed my exposures and merged them later. So lesson learned.

I was still able to recover some things in Lightroom and am little surprised about the outcome. I kind of like the "painterly" look of the image, though it would likely not work out as a big print.

What do you think?

I hope you like it anyway and thanks for visiting.

UPDATE: Richard just enabled to upload larger images and I uploaded a slightly edited and bigger version.

No Shelter From The Storm

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:01:57 -0800

I had been a little absent from this site the last few weeks due to a little holiday trip, and when I came back the motherboard of my computer decided to not work anymore. So I had no chance to post something fresh lately.

I had a very eventful shooting the other night. I went to the island of Hailuoto, which is a gorgeous place to shoot. Unfortunately it was very windy that evening, so I didn't do a lot of shots that I would have liked to do. There are beautiful scenes with flowers out there right now, but they were moving so much in the wind that getting a sharp image was impossible. So I decided to take the best out of that situation, and experiment with some more blurry frames.

I hope the weather will change soon, so that I have a chance to go back there.

I took quiet a few frames at the coast, which I will post later. I got attacked twice by some vicious birds and they also took the opportunity to s**t on my tripod!

But this one I captured already on my way back to the ferry. I liked the colours of the scene and the movement of the grass.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

UPDATE: I replaced the original image with a slightly different edit. I got some suggestions over at the forum which I applied to this one.

Number 21

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:40:08 -0800

I didn't had the possibilty to shoot here so much but I had the chance today to take my new polarizer for a little walk (actually more a ride) to the Bürgerpark in Bremen where I spotted this location a few days ago. These boats are actually for rent and it's a nice place to spend some time.

Last week I figured out that the evening light will light this place nice and I came back today and hoped for the right conditions.

Again I'm not working on my own computer and I'm not 100% sure about the colours here. So I might replace the image with another version later.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Flow at Sunrise

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:33:17 -0800

I did not have so much photo-oportunities during the last two weeks, so here's one from last month. It's also from Koitelinkoski but a little bit up the river of this one and shot also a little later if I remember correctly, just before sunrise. The sun is already rising behind the trees in the back.

It was very calm out there, but a little bit of wind made the tree a little bit blurry. I'm not so happy about that, but no can do.

It's really a gorgeous location. I'm looking forward to return to there, when there are some more clouds in the sky.

I have now exclusively posted landscapes in the past few months. I like landscapes very much, but I look forward to try to capture something else also. Let's see what happens.

I would also like to thank everyone who commented on my images.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

(And again, I haven't been processing this one, on my own computer, so I'm little unsure about the colours etc. Maybe I will replace this later with another version)

Calm

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:36:28 -0800

Another image from my little trip to this bird-reservoir (still lacking of a better term) somewhere at the coast of Limminka. It's a very calm place out there.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

UPDATE: I re-posted the same image again in a little smaller size and in a little different processing. I haven't been working on my own computer and the colours were a little off.

UPDATE 2: Liked it bigger better ;-)

The Arrow

Sat, 7 Jun 2008 23:24:10 -0800

Another colourful image from my last time in Varjakka. I was almost leaving from there when I saw this a little down the beach and I'm quite pleased with the shots from there.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Where Only The Birds Sing

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 00:24:40 -0800

The other day I was out exploring this location near Limminka. I think it's some sort of bird watching location. Not sure though. I spend some time and enjoyed the silence of that place. The only thing to hear there were the birds singing.

It's not really a spectacular place, but I enjoyed the simplicity and openess at this location and the beautiful colours at sunset.

I hope you enjoy my work and thanks a lot for visiting.

On a side note, I noticed that the moskito season has started ;-)

What A Colourful World It Can Be

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:02:26 -0800

We had finally nice weather, and it seems now it finally starts to get spring (I know, I said that a few weeks ago, it turned out I was wrong then) and I took the chance for a little ride to the other side of the bay. I visited that place already during wintertime and decided to go back now in spring.

Very nice place and I kept strolling around that place for a while before I found some nice spots to get some images. It was rather windy during the day, but in the evening it calmed down and it was very peaceful out there.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

And yeah, I'm unsure about the ID of those flowers. If anyone would happen to know, I would appreciate the help.

I recommend to use the dark theme for this image.

The Wildest Place

Wed, 21 May 2008 23:12:14 -0800

well.... it's not the wildest place ever, but at least the wildest that I found (kudos Markus) so far. I took this on my last shooting like the last two posts. I'm afraid I'm going to bore you with some more images from that place in the future.

Also I would like to thank you all for the kind comments on my last posts. I'm very happy about your motivating comments.

I hope you like it, and thanks for viewing.

Tranquility

Sun, 18 May 2008 06:18:41 -0800

As promised on my last post here's the shot I was trying to get.

The week before, we had almost similar lightning conditions but I somehow the image didn't turn out as expected. I'm rather pleased with this one. This is a beautiful and calm place that I discovered during the winter, and I have the feeling I will return to that place a lot more often.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Floating

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:04:57 -0800

I took a trip with my bike to a beautiful lake where I wanted to repeat a shot which I screwed up the week before (coming soon). Since I was already on the way I decided to continue shooting on a place a friend of mine told me of. According to the map I was not so far away from that place.... Unfortunately it just looked like that and the trip was a lot longer than expected and I arrived long after sunset at that place. Because it was a long trip and the sun was about to set in only a few hours I decided to wait there.

I learned some valuable lessons for the future during the wait. First it get's colder in the night as you acutually think, always have more than one podcast with you (it's boring to hear the same one around 3 times), don't go without food and drink, check if spare batteries are actually also charged, get a tent/sleeping bag, get a spirit level.

Besides those valuable lessons, I got a few decent images there and I'm looking forward to visit the same place again during summer and autumn when all trees have leaves. A little better prepared though.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

The Silence of a Sunrise

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:30:06 -0800

One from the same location as my last post "Clear Morning". It was a peaceful moment there, the only thing you could hear, were the birds singing.

I hope you like it and thanks for taking your time and visiting my site.

Clear Morning

Thu, 8 May 2008 12:14:17 -0800

The sun rises earlier and earlier now. Soon it will be up all the time, or at least almost. I shot this one only a few hours after my last post "Chained" at sunrise on a different location though. I can tell you that I was really tired the next day, but it sure was worth it.

With this post I will also start a little project idea I had. I will come back to certain locations over the year to cover the different seasons. This will be one of those places, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed my work and thanks for visiting.

Chained

Tue, 6 May 2008 09:43:53 -0800

After a few weeks, I finally had the time to go out shooting again. The weather on that day was crazy. In the morning we had a snowstorm again, and in the evening we had this. It was a great, calm and silent atmosphere out there.

I spotted this place in the middle of winter and now finally the ice has disappeared, and what a inspiring place this is. I will go there more often. Here I like also the little island with the house in the middle of the lake. Such a beautiful place.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy my work.

Cold Sunset

Sat, 3 May 2008 22:24:51 -0800

Spring has now sprung like crazy, but unfortunately I had no time at the so far to take advantage of that, so I choose to publish one from the archives. A panorama shot, stitched together from 3 different shots. I had some newer shots though, but I'm not so sure if I'm happy with the results or not.

If everything works out fine, I will have a lot new material during the next week. But let's see.

On a site note I would like to thank photographer and blogger Martin Gommel from Kwerfeldein.de for the nice testimonial he wrote about me. You find it in the about page.

As usual I hope you like my work and thanks for taking your time and visiting my site.

And so it Begins

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:59:47 -0800

My original plan was to publish one of my images from last week, but since had to change my computer I had no chance to color-calibrate my monitor, and I have somehow the feeling that the colors a little in the off. So I post something which I had processed a while ago.

I took this one a few minutes before shot this series of images.

On a side note, I would like to thank Richard and Kit for choosing my blog to be featured here on Pixyblog. Big thanks from here.

Thank you visiting and thanks to everyone who commented on my last images. I hope you like it.

Almost Spring

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:16:19 -0800

I wanted to post something new the other day already, but the hard-drive in my computer decided to pass on and I had to fix the whole system with a new computer. Luckily I have everything important spread out on a couple of external hard-drives and therefore I had no serious loss but this way I had some unexpected "spring-cleaning" to do.

But anyway....

We had the most beautiful weather during the last two weeks and spring is now really coming. Some snow here and there but of course the sea is still frozen. But soon it will be green outside.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

Reflections in Blue

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:18:45 -0800

Before writing something about this shot, I would like to take the chance to thank my visitors for leaving comments and also voting for me. I'm very flattered by the huge amount of comments which came in during the last few days. Thanks folks!

Another thank also to the folks at Coolphotoblogs for approving my blog and sending over so much traffic to my little site.

But now....

Spring is about to start and we had some beautiful days now, and most of the snow is now gone. I took the long awaited chance to go out shooting. I had some other location in mind when I passed this place, but the light was not the way, I envisioned the image... So I waited about an hour and got the shots I wanted with the blue of the sky reflecting in the water.

I hope you like it and thanks for visting.

Might look better with the dark theme.

Mysterious Sign-Post

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 06:40:14 -0800

I hope this is going to be one of the last shots from the archive. The weather is now finally getting better, and with any luck, and the right conditions I might have the chance to get the images I want next week. Let's see.

This one, is a few weeks old.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

Ride To Fish

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:38:43 -0800

I hadn't been posting much in during the past few weeks. The bad weather and a vicious virus kept me away from this a little. Since I had no chance to get something new, here's one from the archives. A little variation of this shot.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Nose

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 20:20:31 -0800

Todays post is a little different image than usual, but it comes with a little story.....

It started with me wanting to take out my new camera for a first walk, but the weather conditions had been not very nice for landscapes during the last two weeks. So I thought that I will go over to the race track and try to capture some horses. Being there, I realized how challenging it is, to get a decent framing with a horse as subject. Usually shooting landscapes, I'm not used for my subject moving out of the frame. I had a fun time there anyway, and at least got a few interesting frames, most of them were actually unwillingly funny though.

But anyway.... looking forward for spring to spring.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Last Light

Tue, 1 Apr 2008 19:37:10 -0800

I was about to post another one from last week, but I had no real time to do the processing, so here's another from the lighthouse.

It was a very quiet place out there. And I have spend a couple of hourse there and waited for the sun to set. I was still very chilly then, but luckily that has now changed, since spring is just around the corner.

As you might have noticed, I changed the theme of this blog today. I'm not entirely done yet, but only some minor adjustments are missing.

I hope you like my post and thanks for visiting.

And yes.... the lighthouse is leaning to the left. It's not the compostion or the lens, it just isn't straight.

Joy

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:21:30 -0800

After having no real chance to go out shooting during the last few weeks, the weather finally changed and I had a few hours off at the same time. I then stumbled on this rock, which speaks for itself.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Rock'n Ice

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:38:42 -0800

I took this one last year a few days before christmas. I always like to go that place. It looks a little different there every time. I was there today, and it started to snow. grrrrrrrr (If I'm not mistaken the official beginning of spring was a couple of days ago.)

I hope you like it and thanks for taking your time.

And I hope you view this on a colour managed browser. The colours are a little off otherwise.

Almost forgot.... Happy easter.

Autumn Colours

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:01:33 -0800

Unfortutnalely I had no real chance to go out shooting during the last two weeks. So here's one from the archives...

I took this one during a short stint to Lappland at the beginning of the Ruska season. There weren't so many autumn colours then but at least some.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

Five Minutes Later

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:24:01 -0800

I had no chance to go out and therefore chose an older image of mine for today, before posting another of my lighthouse images. I have posted some other shots from there before.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

At the Lighthouse

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:35:59 -0800

Here's another one from my recent trip to the lighthouse. I was waiting out there for a couple of hours for the sun to set, and I think it was worth it.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my work.

Wintersleep

Sat, 8 Mar 2008 17:50:03 -0800

I took a long ride yesterday and accidently found this little lighthouse. Obviously, it's of no use at the moment. I took quiet a lot pictures at this place, so there's coming some more. I waited there a couple of hours until the sun started to set.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

Blue

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 21:38:32 -0800

Since I had no time to go out shooting during the past few weeks, I took the chance to update the layout/colour scheme of my site a little, and I'm rather happy with the result now. I will have to do some minor tweaks still, but nothing big.

To celebrate this, I chose an image from last summer which I took with my then new, and now finally fixed (it broke three weeks ago) and favourite 10-20mm lens.

I hope the weather agree with me, so that I can come up with some new shots.

Thanks for visiting my site and I hope you like it.

It's A Long Trip To The Moon

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 20:40:10 -0800

Okay, the green didn't last so long. So....more winter.

I took this one on the first beautiful morning this year in January. The full moon was just setting (the small dot over the horizon) and the light was just amazing that morning.

I hope you like and thank for viewing and feel free to leave a comment or rate my site.

Last Reflections #3

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:54:45 -0800

Don't get me wrong, I love the winter, but somehow I needed something to remember me how grass looks like. So.... here's another one from last year. Actually taken on the last sunset of 2007, hence the title.

I hope you like it and thanks for viewing.

Out There On The Ice

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:16:53 -0800

Another one from my last shooting and another ice-fisher. There were three people out there on the ice that morning, the two ice-fishers (the other one here) and me. I enjoy the emptiness and wideness of that place, I go there every once in a while.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you like it.

If you enjoyed this site of mine, feel free to leave a comment or to rate my blog on any of the below mentioned sites.

The Loneliness Of The Ice-Fisher

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:52:12 -0800

I went out this morning and took another trip to the beach. I saw this ice-fisher sitting there on the frozen sea in front of the harbour area, and I wanted to capture the loneliness of the fisher and the wideness of that place.

Since my UWA is in repair at the moment I went for a panorama shot here. This shot is stitched together from 16 different images.

Bigger version here.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Things I Did Last Summer

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:07:33 -0800

I thought I need to publish something else here and after so much winterscapes.

I took this one last summer and I wanted to have it as a silhouette and it, well..... didn't really turned out like one. I was a little bored last night and I then added a cross-processing technique in PS to add a little more impact.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Red Sheds

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:26:15 -0800

Finally...today was one of the first nice days days during this month and I took the chance to head out in the morning and did a long trip on the bike to this place. It's a little harbour on the other side of the bay. It's going to be a beautiful place to shoot in summer also.

Besides a not so nice thing (will post that later) I managed to get some nice shots there. This is one of my first panoramas. Stitched from 8 different images.

I hope you like it, and thanks a lot for visiting my site. Feel free to leave a comment or to rate my site on any of the below listed sites.

Three Rocks

Sat, 9 Feb 2008 21:23:59 -0800

Here's a little different view of an older shot from last year. This one is from a little different perspective and the post-processing is a little different. I think I like this one a little better.

It will look better with the dark theme.

Thank you for visiting my site and I hope you like it.

There's A Path

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 22:58:53 -0800

After posting so much winterscapes (learned this word a while ago, don't know if it really exists) I thought some green would be nice for a change.

Took this one at the end of last year on a holiday trip with my 10-20mm and a 2 stop GND.

Hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

Foggy Morning

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:01:46 -0800

It was very foggy this morning and I had a little time to go out. Found this tree. It was almost hidden in the mist.

I tried something new here and did some LAB colour adjustments here to add a little more interest. I have never done such a strong post-processing to a shot. Kind of experiment.

I hope you like it and thanks for visiting my site.

(This one will look better with the dark theme)