Light Scrape

House

Snow

The first of these photographs was taken near the place where they are planning to build a Guggenheim Helsinki museum, or at least some people in Helsinki are.

The plan seems crazy to me, given the high price of the project, including tens of millions of payments to the Guggenheim foundation. And what is most strange is the fact that all the discussion is centered on rather inflated estimates for the amount of visitors - and nobody seems to be interested in the art, or the lack of it, in the project.

The franchising project also endangers what art there is in Helsinki already, replacing the Finnish collections with imported stuff. This is McDonaldization of museums.

But anyway, I managed to go for a long walk today. Good.

When the night climbs slow

2012-01-25T22:38:00.000+02:00

Lamp

Wood

Houses

Pipe

Today was the first day in a while to have time for a long walk, about 1 1/2 hours. It felt good.

And somehow, despite all the hurry and attention getting all too fragmented, this was a day in which there were occasional moments of happiness, being engaged in doing something worthwhile, such as trying to write about a difficult subject, learning about it, approaching it from multiple directions, trying to shape fresh thoughts into being.

All memory resolves itself in gaze

2012-01-25T22:23:00.000+02:00

Windows

Boat

White

Blue

Here are some views from Helsinki, today. White returning from work I tried a different route; even though it is shorter, it took 15 minutes longer to get home.

A single word to bear the weight of this

2012-01-24T22:10:00.000+02:00

Blur

Lake

Red

Line

Door

(Tired.)

And the light thrown over his shoulders

2012-01-23T20:55:00.000+02:00

Church

Shadows 1

Shadows 2

Shadows 3

Snow

Today was a long day; I commuted by bus. But what was good about it was that I could read a book in the bus, and I read it from beginning to end. Driving a car has drawbacks compared to the bus, even though it may be faster.

We are having snow, as you can see in the photographs.

A twitter running down the spine of…

2012-01-22T16:56:00.000+02:00

Hazel

White

Snow

Brown

Birches

Treeline

We have presidential elections today in Finland. To fit the theme of the day, the title of the posting is a quote from a poem by Ana Bozicevic, "God Is President, She’s the Rose of the World". I'm referring of course to Tarja Halonen, who has been the President of the Republic of Finland since the year 2000. Many children, including our three daughters, have never known of any other than a female president.

This time around there are a lot of candidates in the elections, and any of them is a better person than the party they represent, which is probably a good thing. But one of the candidates is clearly better suited to be President than the others, at least I think so...

Here are some winter photographs, night and day. The depth of snow is now 43 cm, good for cross-country skiing, which I engaged in today together with our daughter. Where there were no skiing tracks, we made them.

I claw my way to freedom

2012-01-22T15:33:00.000+02:00

Shop

Colors

Flowers

Yesterday was a busy day, shopping etc., and I didn't like any of the photographs I took. But today I had another look at them, and maybe they weren't so bad. At least there was color in them.

A point that lifts the night

2012-01-21T19:29:00.000+02:00

Path

Twiggy

Road

Pipe

Today was a busy day. I took some photographs, but none of them appealed to me. So, here are four taken yesterday, during a long walk at late in the evening, landscape changed by a thick fresh snow covering on top of trees.

The world is full of mostly invisible things

2012-01-20T21:54:00.000+02:00

Path

Birch

Light

Colors

Tall

My first work week at the Ministry of Education and Culture is finished. Some things were as I expected, and some others quite different. People there are great, but that wasn't a surprise, as every second or third person I met on the first day was someone I already knew at least by sight.

What I was thinking today while walking and taking photographs is the sad situation we have in society, when nothing seems to have an intrinsic value. Human beings are just for profit, and so is nature, and any other thing you care to mention. Everything is measured in terms of how much profit it can make.

I'm a techno-optimist, but still I feel bad about this. And this may also be why I have sometimes got the feeling that humankind is slowly but surely going extinct. Innovation is the word for today, and valuable things like science, education and culture are just fuel for the engine of the industry, geared for rapid profit.

But maybe humankind will find wisdom, learning from failures. If it isn't too late already?

Our faint years fell like snow beyond the valleys

2012-01-19T21:26:00.000+02:00

Cars

Houses

Road

Wall

School

Lamps

We got today almost 20 cm of snow, and the depth of snow is now at 33 cm. It is a real winter. But the snowfall wasn't so good for the traffic in Helsinki, it took a long time to get home from work.

Later I went out with our daughter, who wanted to try cross-country skiing. Quite skilled she is already.

Every day I will give you a color

2012-01-18T20:39:00.000+02:00

Snow

Birch

Colors

Silhouette

We have fresh snow, and it is colorful out there after dark, because the street lights are reflected up to the clouds and back from there. This is a difficult situation for a camera, getting the exposure the same way as the eye sees. On the other hand, the eye sees also differently depending on the situation.

In these photographs the colors seen by the eye and those produced with the LX5 are quite similar. Some were taken in Helsinki, others while going for a walk with our youngest daughter.

Full in the smile of the blue firmament

2012-01-17T22:29:00.000+02:00

Blue

Place

Branches

Snow

Bus

Tram

Car

Here are photographs taken in Helsinki, taken while commuting. There will be more views from Helsinki in the future, as I'll work the next five months at the Ministry, getting involved with research data and research administration. It has been a bit blurry recently, which shows in the photographs.

To find the place of souls that I desire

2012-01-16T22:43:00.000+02:00

Långvik

Shore

Snow

Lighted

Silhouette

I attended today a seminar at Långvik, which is a conference center in Kirkkonummi, west of Helsinki. This was my first time there, a nice place, but maybe best when there is light to see the surroundings when going for a walk. Anyway, I made a short walk outside after sunset, during a break in the program, and took some photographs in the dark.

A forest with no paths

2012-01-15T20:20:00.000+02:00

Flow

Forest

Brown

Rock

Shiny

Icicles

Ice

Today I went for a walk in Luukki, in a forest where there weren't any previous footprints left by others in the snow. Animals had been there, hares expecially, but no humans. It was as if I were the first to set my feet into the forest.

It was nice walking. In some places there were deeper snowdrifts, but mostly the snow wasn't that deep, and in some places the snow was hard enough to carry a person, almost like ice.

No other way but to stand firm on ice

2012-01-14T21:10:00.001+02:00

Rock

Icicles

Ice

Another thing that is is to be found in hilly forests is ice, as the water is still seeping on the ground, under the snow, on top of rock.

Against a sure winter

2012-01-14T21:05:00.000+02:00

Fir forest

Fallen

Trunk

Forest

Curve

The snow we got yesterday and during the night put a nice snow coating on trees, making forest look fresh and untouched. And the trees that were fallen in the storm after Christmas are slowly disappearing under the snow.

Snow and sunshine

2012-01-14T20:57:00.000+02:00

Sun

Stream

Eood

A bright winter day, today. I went for a walk to Luukki to get a big dose of sun.

The dust of snow

2012-01-13T21:10:00.000+02:00

Red

House

Pine

Lighted

The temperature is again well below 0°C, and we are getting more snow, right now the snow depth is 13 cm. It feels good to have a real winter landscape. And it helps also that the days are getting longer, now at 6 h 29 min.

The circling clockwork train of ours

2012-01-12T19:30:00.001+02:00

Lisbon

Uphill

Selling

Stuff

Sleep

Lisbon

I visited Lisbon, and now I'm back in Finland. And speaking of Lisbon, the posting title refers to a poem by Pessoa. His work I haven't much read by probably should.

I didn't have much time or stamina for photography, but nevertheless here are some views from the trip.

When I left Finland we had a nice -5 °C winter weather with fresh snow; now it is raining and very, very dark. In Lisbon the weather was excellent, but there wasn't any time to go and explore the city.

Weaknesses of the Canon G1 X

2012-01-09T19:29:00.001+02:00

Path

Lake

Fence

Rose

Shadows

The new Canon G1 X is tempting, and the best cure would be to find a weakness which would make it unsuitable for my purposes. I read the previews at Dpreview and Imaging Resource, and fortunately there are some obvious problems.

First of all, the lens range starts at 28 mm, not at 24 mm, which is a rather serious drawback for me. And the biggest aperture is f/2.8, which gives the camera 1-2 stop handicap compared to the LX5. The much bigger sensor helps here, but probably by 1-2 stops only, and thus it is a draw for low-light photography.

So, it seems that I can relax and stop thinking about the G1 X. Anyway, there are some other handicaps as well: size and weight and poor battery life. Also, even though the camera seems to have a macro mode, there is no mention of how close it can focus. This might be another handicap.

We are having a bit warmer weather now, but the temperature is still some degrees below 0 °C although it is getting warmer.

And yes, there will be a break in the postings here, while the weather is warming up.

Update: It seems that I was right about the macro mode of the G1 X. The closest focusing distance is 20 cm, which isn't so good for closeup photographs, as written by PhotoReview.

Practicing forest walk in Nuuksio

2012-01-08T22:06:00.000+02:00

Boards

Flow

Ice

Lake

Rock

Snow

Sunny

I walked today for two hours in Nuuksio forests, starting from Siikajärvi side. I was cold, -13 °C when I started out and -11 °C when I returned. Well, coldness is relative, it really was quite nice weather for walking, but one isn't yet used to the cold.

It was also sunny, and that was a pleasure, to be out, in the sunshine, and fresh snow made the landscape look like it would have been created yesterday.

Imploring winter wrens

2012-01-07T17:05:00.000+02:00

Fallen

Rock

Flooded

Reflect

Lake

We got some snow during the night, and a little bit also during the day. Now it is starting to look like the snow will remain and not melt away, it has been cold enough during the last few days.

I went to Luukki for a walk after breakfast, expecting that there wouldn't be many people out. But there had been, which was easy to see from the tracks in the snow. And plenty of dogs as well.

Earth’s picture book

2012-01-06T19:20:00.000+02:00

Mustlampi

Step

Rock

Rock

Reflect

Halkolampi

Fallen

I went with our eldest daughter to see three lakes in Luukki: Väärälampi, Mustlampi and Halkolampi. It was clouded, but the temperature was nice, -1 °C, and there was still some snow on the ground. Not a bad day to go out for a walk.

The wavering limbs of a birch fashion

2012-01-05T20:20:00.000+02:00

Reeds

Oak

School