From his desk he had a view of the street

Sunny 1

Sunny 2

Sunny 3

Sunny 4

It has been somewhat clouded recently, so I selected photographs taken when we had sunny weather, on March 16th and 17th.

(Posting title is from the poem Vandergast and the Girl by Louis Simpson.)

While I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature's close reserve

Grey 1

Grey 2

Grey 3

We got a lot of new snow today. The snow was as wet as it can be without turning into water. I shoveled snow for 40 minutes, and was quite exhausted afterwards.

These photographs were taken on March 23rd, which was a grey day in Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem A Toccata of Galuppi's by Robert Browning.)

What sort of enchantment is this?

Sunny 1

Sunny 2

Sunny 3

Today is the day of the Finnish Easter witches: small children dressed as witches are collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. Last year there was a great amount of candy collected, and I suspect the same this year, at least the preparations have been earnest.

The photographs were taken on March 16th in Helsinki, early in the morning.

(Posting title is from Pallinode, Book 1 by H. D.)

And you shall see the beautiful things

Street 1

Street 2

Tree 1

Tree 2

I did a little bit of walking in the afternoon after it stopped raining. Maybe that was a bit too much, 3 1/2 hours of exercise for today, and 9 1/2 hours so far this week. I tried reading a book, but started nodding off, so I thought to make another posting for today. They say that the blue light from a LED display makes one less sleepy...

The photographs were taken on March 16th and 17th in Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field.)

And see peculiar things as somehow symptomatic?

Snow 1

Snow 2

Snow 3

Snow 4

Snow 5

This morning I walked for 2 h 40 min in Luukki, exploring Ketunkorpi area. I didn't pay much attention to the map, and went much further towards north than usually, so I got a little bit disoriented, but finally I found a path I have been using quite often on the walks. It was wet and foggy, but it didn't start raining until noon.

These photographs were taken at Tremanskärr on March 8th, the weather was much the same as today, but there was more snow on the ground.

(Posting title is from the poem Left the House by Gottfried Benn, translated by Michael Hofmann.)

Something, in the ineffable clips of light

Zero 1

Zero 2

Zero 3

Zero 4

Zero 5

Today I attended a seminar on open science and research which ended with a panel discussion. The discussion was a delight to follow, the best one I have seen and heard in years. The panelists listened to each other and to the questions from audience, thought carefully what they were saying, and seemed to have fun. All were top people in their professions, and even though the questions asked were complex, all were tackled with finesse and clear vision. I wish all work weeks ended like this.

Yesterday I wrote about how the view count of my photographs at Flickr grew by one or two orders of magnitude since getting the Panasonic LX100 camera. This doesn't mean that all my photographs are popular. Almost 10% of them have zero views, which is a bit depressing.

So, here you see somewhat older photographs, all with zero views according to Flickr statistics. These photographs were taken with the Panasonic LX3 between October 4th, 2008, and January 21st, 2009. At that time I hadn't yet grown into square (aka 1:1 aspect ratio).

I commuted by bicycle on four days this week. This year I have so far got 862 km.

(Posting title is from the poem Going to Zero by Peter Balakian.)

The first art we know

Swamp 1

Swamp 2

Swamp 3

Swamp 4

Swamp 5

These photographs were taken on March 8th at Tremanskärr swamp. It was a wet day, and the swamp was flooding.

Every once in a while I check the statistics of my Flickr account. It used to be that there were 100-200 views per day, but when I got the LX100 five months ago, the view count rose by a factor of 100, to 10,000 per day. Since then the count has gone down, but it is still between 1,000-4,000 per day.

It can't be that I'm suddenly a much better photographer, it is just that for some reason people continue to be interested in photographs taken with the LX100. And some photographs which I didn't feel would be especially interesting are getting a lot of views. For example, this night-time photograph has got almost 2,000 views.

(Posting title is from the poem The Visit by Carole Bernstein.)

So much depends

Wet 1

Wet 2

Wet 3

Wet 4

Wet 5

We got 1-2 cm of new snow today. Most of it has already melted away. I commuted by bicycle, but the snow didn't cause any problems despite having slick summer tires in the bicycle.

These photographs were taken in Meiko on March 7th.

(Posting title is from the poem The Red Cadillac by Reginald O'Hare Gibson.)

There is always something natural in pieces

Wet 1

Wet 2

Wet 3

Wet 4

Wet 5

I commuted by bicycle today. There had been a little rain, so the road was less dusty than last week, making the air feel fresh.

The photographs were taken on March 7th in Meiko.

(Posting title is from the poem Miss Peach: The College Years by Catie Rosemurgy.)

I raised my index finger and touched it

Street 1

Street 2

Street 3

Street 4

Today was a clouded, wet and windy day. There was even a little bit of snow, but that melted away almost instantly.

The photographs were taken on March 3rd and 4th.

(Posting title is from the poem A Change of Wind by Katia Kapovich.)

Into the great body of the world

Swamp 1

Swamp 2

Swamp 3

Swamp 4

Swamp 5

Swamp 6

Today I went for a walk in Tremanskärr. The night was cold, so the snow was frozen hard, but in the swamp there were wet and flooded spots so one had to be careful where to put the foot.

The photographs were taken on March 7th in Meiko, between lake Kommelpott and lake Tränuhals.

(Posting title is from the poem The Bodies by Elizabeth Spires.)

Wintah, summah, snow er shine

Street 1

Street 2

Street 3

Street 4

We are having somewhat colder weather, down to -9 °C during the night, and up to -1 °C today afternoon. Yesterday I explored Sipoonkorpi National Park, but I'm not yet sure what to do today. Last week I got 14 hours of exercise, this week so far only 7 1/2 hours. The sky is clouded, which makes it rather different from yesterday when the sun was shining.

The photographs were taken in Helsinki between March 1st and March 6th.

(Posting title is from a song by Paul Laurence Dunbar.)