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Lux Helsinki 2014

 A four day event of bringing light into the darkness with light art in several locations of Helsinki. This year we had no snow and it was pretty warm for the time of year. I wasn't really inspired to go but my daughter in law got me going and so we went. I was most interested in the fire show but not enough to carry the big gear around the whole evening. I settled for the EOS-m with a 18-55 EF-s lens and a lighter tripod.  We got to the spot a little late as there was already a compact circle of people around the stage waiting. Luckily my light tripod gets high enough and found a spot of short enough people in front, so I could shoot over their heads. The challenge with the EOS-M is that it has a really hard time focusing in dark evern if I have updated the firm ware. IT was to take a few sample shots and set the focus right then leave it on manual and hope for the best. This time I did'nt really get what I wanted but a few ok pics anyway. 

 For the rest of Lux Helsinki there wasn't much I felt like shooting, the view over Töölön lahti was more interesting to my eye. Since I had the tripod I gave it a go using slow shutter speeds to get calm images with good reflections. 

 Of the light art the following three caught my interest, the jelly fish shaped blue lanterns gave a nice coloring using auto white balance as the blue confused the automatic white balance metering. I like the result though the white balance really is way out of reality.   

And last, a little combined light art and view.

A nice start to the photography year 2014

2013 in review

The year 2013 was not the most productive year for me due to many reasons combined, but mostly bad luck with weather on my days of except for one area of photography namely biking where I did good.

The biking photography season started with Naisten Etappiajot 2014 Helsinki in May. This is my favorite shot from that event. Gear used: EOS Mark II and EF 70-200L f4.

Early in the summer it happened I sort of fell more and more into taking pictures of bike events as the FAT bike riders got the idea of riding FAT bikes on the local BMX track. A really good opportunity for me to practice different settings angels and gear as the area is small and the bikers move fast up and down the track. It looked so fun so I had to try it myself and fell totally in love with FAT bikes and the great positive spirit the guys spread around.

 One of my favorite challenges on the track was to get FAT bikes in the air.

 Ever time the number of FAT's seemed to increase as the word spread around

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 To take pictures of road bike happenings is far more challenging. You need to know the route and and the pace the riders will have so you can make plans on where to be at what time and how much time you need to get to the next post without missing out on the top.

A shot from Satasen kuntoajo 2013

 I favor uphill spots as that is where you can get the faces of riders pushing themselves.

Tour de Helsinki

 As the summer passed I got better att capturing what I wanted

 In late November I got my own FAT bike, a Kona Wo and went for my first ride on the Global FAT day in Helsinki. I packed the little EOS-M and tried to get in some picture taking while riding myself, but mostly just enjoyed the ride along with 38 other FATs

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I experimented much with B&W through out the year.

The nature shots this year didnät get much space on my computer, a few nice shots in the spring

 Some lanscape sunsets while I visited Savonlinna around midsummer. ( hope to get tehre again)

Then there was horses and a couple of dog shoots

Stills with Reflection

I got a new living room table a few weeks ago, a quite large one with glass surface. I thought it could make a nice studio effect with reflections. And so last night I got myself as far as trying out ideas. I found a couple o smooth white stones I've picked on a beach ages ago, two pieces of spectrolite stone, fethers, coloring pens and onions to start with. Equipments I used: EOS 5D Mark 2, EF 100 f2,8 Macro, a tripod, remote control, a reflector and a flash light. I had one light towards the sealing in the corner, otherwise the room was dark. To play with light, I used the silver surface of the refelctor to cool of the yellowish flashlight light. Using an f-stop between 9 and 14, I got time to play with directing the light from different angles. The exposure times are between 20" to 30".

The biggest problem is dust and a cat in the house. First the cat thought I was being really good to her, placing the stones to play with. Just when I was about to shoot, she jumped up on the table and my setup was gone. And the dust, no matter how I wiped and cleaned there it was. Luckily Lightroom 5 has an easy spot removal tool to solve the problem.

Playing with Post-Crop Vingetting

Sometimes I find it just fun to play with post editing. When the pictures I've got are nice but somehow lacking the "wow" element for different reasons but still holding a potential for something more. Yesterday morning was kind of gray, the night had been cold enough for frost crystals form but the light was not dramatic enough to bring out the beauty. We had about an hour and a half to spend on photography and so we did, regardless the uninspiring light. At first when I looked at the pictures on my computer, I felt like tossing them all in the bin but today, after a second look in Lightroom...and using post-crop vingetting to bring out the drama...some turned out pretty cool.

More Fall in B&W

I love fall, the smell and the silent drama of endings. To me it somehow feels so rich, like if there was gratitude for all that was. Life in a slow withdrawal, full of promises of a sweet return. Today I had the EOS M with the 22mm M lens with me, it is really convenient to carry around just in case.

Fall in B&W

Colors of Fall are interesting to shoot in B&W as the color of the leaves can vary from green to yellow and red in between and each comes out a little different in B&W

 

 Here we have mostly dark orange leaves and some still green, doesn't make much of a difference to how summer green leaves comes out in B&W. 

In these two pictures the trees are mostly bright yellow as the sun falls on them and the water and stones are in the shadow with a shade of blue. If the leaves were deep green as in summer time, they wouldn't come out this light.

Guess what colors we have here?