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I took one of those balcony snapshots tonight when I noticed that there’s some white matter on the ground. It’s a very very thin layer, but it’s there! I just wanted to update with something… so here’s the whole series of balcony snappies. I’ve taken quite a few it seems :)

Another loooong week is starting tomorrow. First teaching at Eurajoki and than lots of photoshopping (and possibly some shooting too) at Kankaanpää. On Thursday there’s a gig (CMX @ Bar Kino) that I’m really looking forward to. I haven’t yet decided if I should take my camera with me or not. I’d love to take new shots of the band, but when shooting it’s not possible to concentrate 100% on the most important thing which is the live gig experience.. Shooting takes too much attention away from that so I guess I’ll go without my camera and just enjoy the show.

I don’t want to write one of those whiny posts that tell you how incredibly tired I am right now so I’m not going to do that. Or did I already do it?! Oh my.. So lets talk about something else.. except there’s not much else to talk about :D This is going to be a short entry..

The weightlifting shots were taken on 26th. I have some shots of some of the girls/women too but I’m too blaah to do anything for them right now. This was my first time ever at a weight lifting happening so it really was new to me and thus rather interesting.

Whiny part:
It didn’t really help me get good shots that the timetables didn’t work out as planned.. the guy I was meant to shoot was supposedly doing his thing between 14.30 and 15.00 At 14.00 there was a bandy (somehow related to hockey I guess) game that I was supposed to shoot too so I went there first.. and then they called me from the weight lifting thingie at 14.15 that the timetable sucks and that the guy started already! I snapped a few hasty shots from the bandy game, took my gear and ran to my car and drove to the other place and was there in time for the last 3 lifts. 2 of those were good lifts and one didn’t happen so my shooting chances were a bit slim. I had some ideas that I would have liked to try but since instead of 6 lifts I could shoot only 3 of which the second one went badly I tried to get at least some “safe” shots. A bit stressing since everything is so new and happens fast and I would really really really like to take good shots (don’t we all). And the bandy thing.. I don’t even want to start on the bandy thing! It was my first time trying to shoot something like that ever too. A little more time would have helped me get into it (both technically as a photographer and bandy as a game) but I guess it’s not always possible. What an afternoon that was.. And what a whiny entry this is!

Despite all of the above it was a fun day.. all that new stuff was interesting, and I guess that if you never shoot in an extreme hurry than you’ll never learn to shoot in an extreme hurry. That’s how simple it is :)

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I was doing an evening shift at SK on Monday. I did four gigs, this was the last one of the evening. The story was about the new film Aldebara Rising, it’s makers and making etc. As the Magyar Posse’s website says “Aldebaran Rising is a collaborative film project between Magyar Posse and film director Petri Hagner. The movie contains new MP music and will be premiered on the 17th and 18th of October in Palmgren conservatory’s Valimo-Sali in Pori, Finland. The film will be accompanied by Magyar Posse’s live musical presence.”

I saw clips of the movie and heard and saw them play it too when I was there shooting, but it would still have been nice to see the film and gig combination as a whole live too. However time didn’t co-operate with me tonight and I couldn’t go. Still, it was interesting to shoot something like this. I had two gigs at the same time, and I did the other one first since it was a smaller thingie. Of course the first thingie didn’t start in time and I was later at the band’s training room than I had thought that I would be. The writer walked out when I got there and I was left alone to figure something out. He wished me luck when he stepped out of the room.. I felt very small at that moment :D

The room was very small too, and filled with instruments. Very little light, no room to move or do anything. The first (and only) idea I got was to shoot the boys in front of the movie, so that the images are projected on their faces. I hoped that I could capture some moods of the film in the images that way. And I didn’t want to take basic normal boring portraits since the film is rather artistic too.

I chose the first image so that there were just enough light to shoot (ISO 3200, 1/25s f4.0) and so there would be some texture on all the faces but so that it wouldn’t be too strong in contrast. The projected image in the second one (with Petri Hagner alone) was chosen by Petri himself. It was in the cover of Virta on Friday. After getting these two shots the boys suggested that I’d take some when they train and so I did. The funny thing is that the projector gave more light than the room’s normal lights did :D

It was a fun gig. That evening sift as a whole had many of the reasons why I love doing that job. All gigs are so different. I meet interesting people - people that I’d never meet without this job. I get surprised all the time with new challenges (both technical and visual) and I really need to get into all those new situations and people and give something of me to them too to get good pictures. Of course I don’t always succeed, and when I don’t I feel like crap but it’s not the end of the world when that happens (like it seems to be in my other job). I really wish I could do this more *sigh*

On Friday I shot a gig for SK at Kankaanpää. It was a small local karaoke-idols happening. The young wanna-be-singers were so full of enthusiasm and they had such a strong group spirit and so much fun that it was fun for us journalists to be there too.

The thingie was held on a sport arena of some kind, and it was really really dark since they turned all the normal lights down. There were some spots on the stage but still it was extremely dark. Somewhat darker than on most bars where bands play. I shot iso 1600 with full aperture and slow shutter speeds and I still got somewhat underexposed shots. All things taken into considerations I’m pretty happy with the shots I got. Three of these were in today’s paper too :)

Last night I did my first sports gig for SK. It was a game of floor ball. First division game between the local team SBS Pori and Westend Indians from Espoo. The game is really fast and it was rather hard to keep up with it. I haven’t done any sports shooting.. umm.. well.. ever :D It was fun even though I felt like I shot a lot but still got nothing :D

After getting back to office and going through the shots I found some that are ok, or so I think. I could have done better, yes, but I could have done a lot worse too. The image that was chosen for the paper wasn’t my fav, and what made it look worse than it really is was the crop they made. Oh well.. you win some and lose some, right? Still, I have to say that I like winning a lot more :P I wonder if they’ll give me any sports gigs after this one..

I had a really long day yesterday, with two jobs (Eurajoki and SK) and all. And today felt really long too. I’m doing a lot of shoots at Kankaanpää now, because my boss is still on sick leave. Three shoots today. Tomorrow I promised to do a shooting gig for SK after Kankaanpää. The gig is at Kankaanpää and the writer is a friend so it should be fun. I just hope it all goes well and doesn’t take the whole night because I’ve got a shoot next morning. I’m so waiting for Sunday!

I can’t believe how full of work my calendar is. I suck at saying no. Mostly it’s because I’m interested in doing all those things but I should still sometimes try saying no.. Part of the reason for not being able to say no is probably the fact that it wasn’t so long ago when all the work I could find was cleaning gigs.. now that I’m being offered photography related jobs or gigs from different directions I still find it very hard to say no even though I’ve already got my hands full of the good stuff. It’s so strange how everything happens at the same time. First I got absolutely nothing at all and than all of a sudden I have more jobs than I can handle. Weird world.

Next week I have only one free day and that’s Sunday. I was stupid enough to promise to teach another course (a short one) at Eurajoki. It eats up some of my free Mondays and that sucks.. But those are short days and it’s good experience and I like teaching and blaablaablaa.. I’m good at explaining things to myself when I fail to say no :D

Wow, that was a lot of text. Too much me thinks. Time to go to bed and get some rest. Two more days to go..

I bought a macro lense today, yay :) Nice to finally get something from all the hard work I’ve been doing lately. I would have liked to shoot fall stuff outside but it was soooo windy and the light was boring so I came inside instead. Now I should get back to work.. I’ve been avoiding work today quite successfully. But can’t help it now, stuff needs to get done *sigh*

The above (and below ) shots are tests thingies with the new macro lense. The wooden ring was a real find from my recent “day at Tukholma” cruise. I hope I don’t break it too soon, the wood is rather soft and it has some marks already. And I already once lost it but luckily found it soon after :D

The tortoise thingie is from Tallinna, love it too. Reminds me of Mona :)
I had a nice day today. I even got to go to yoga. I haven’t been able to go in weeks. It felt so good to practice today. I wish I can go again this week, but I’m afraid it’s impossible because of all the work stuff that’s piling up again. And speaking of work.. I need to start now or I’ll never get to bed :D

Poor little Nestori died on Wednesday. We buried him at Sami’s backyard under a big fir tree on Friday. It broke my heart.

FINALLY it happened! We got more light to our kitchen. I love it. Thank you Miikka for doing it! It’s nice to read the paper in the morning when one can actually see something. And it’s pretty! At least I like it. The carpets are newish too. And there’s stuff that’s going to be added/changed when we get the time to do it, but the lamp was the most important thing, that’s for sure. When I came home the next day (after Miikka put the lamp up there) I had to put it on just to see it on and believe that it’s really there even though I didn’t need the light at that moment :D *silly*