unikuva.net blog

It’s crazy! CRAZY! To play football outside during winter in Finland. It was only -2°C, but still. Some players didn’t even have long pants, they played with bare knees. I get that they move a lot so they won’t feel too cold, but still, knees bare in that weather? I’m pretty certain that playing in an outfit like that during winter won’t help with knee issues football players have so often.

I was totally freezed just standing in there watching and shooting. Luckily I couldn’t stay too long :D Sometimes having too little time can be a good thing! I have stood outside shooting bandy games in about -20°C this winter a couple of times, but I was prepared for the merciless weather those days. This time -2° felt colder than -20°. It’s all about being prepared. -20° makes one prepare really well!

Anyway, the wintry scenery gives an unusually nice background for a football game. Last summer when I shot a young guy testing this new fake grass football field I couldn’t even imagine to shoot a game in there next winter! I don’t even want to know how much it costs to keep it warm enough for the snow and ice to melt. But hey, playing ball OUTSIDE during winter is more important than all other stuff money is needed for, right?! Ok, I shut up now :D

One more thing.. remember to check out the gallery for 2010! I’m updating it after every workday! And work gallery for 2009 is now ready.

Or icehockey in plain english :P I’m not much into icehockey, or shooting sports, but at SK we all shoot everything. In the first games where I shot there weren’t any clear plexiglasses (or whatever the see-through-walls are called) in the whole ice hall. Shooting from the stairs, a lot higher than the players and far away from the goals was boring. Now that there are some a bit less scratchy and a little bit more clean plexiglasses on the ring side it’s more interesting. If one happens to be at the right place at the right time that is..

Or horse sports or something. Ravit in finnish! These were shot on October 24th. I was a bit nervous about this gig because I’ve never ever been to a horse race and I have been heavily allergic to horses for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I didn’t even have to touch a horse to get my eyes swollen shut. All that was needed was standing close to a horse – and that was outside, not in a stable or anything.

Luckily my allergies have gotten somewhat less disturbing during the last ten years so I wasn’t too worried because harness racing is done outdoors. My eyes didn’t react to the horses, but I did some heavy sneezing and my nose started running and my throat itched quite a lot. But the good thing is that once I got out of the racetrack area my body quickly returned back to normal.

All in all it was a nice gig. I really didn’t know where I should go to shoot and what would happen but it got pretty clear pretty fast. And there were some really nice photographers that chatted with me during the periods when nothing happened.