You smile, invincibly obscured

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The photographs were taken on January 2nd.

(Posting title is from the poem Inmate of Happiness by Elizabeth Metzger.)

To the eye behind the one always

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The photograph was taken on December 1st.

(Posting title is from the poem Just Another Paradigm Shift by Paul Grant.)

I watch them as they pick

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The photographs were taken on December 31st, 2017.

We got some new snow today, making the roads slippery because there is ice under the snow. When riding the bicycle one has to take care because the ice bumps and ridges are not visible through the snow.

I have been rather happy with the footwear: Specialized Elite TR shoes and GripGrab RaceThermo overshoes. The shoes which I bought last summer are size 48, one size larger than my old shoes, and when I let the straps a bit loose I can wear two layers of socks. The overshoe is made of 2 mm neoprene, which provides a nice amount of insulation. In addition, I used some duck tape inside the shoe to give a bit of extra insulation to the bottom of the shoe.

(Posting title is from the poem Out of Water by Marie Ponsot.)

Fate is strong, but Love is stronger

Snow 1

Snow 2

The photographs were taken on January 21st.

The weather is warming up. In the morning we had -1 °C and in the afternoon 4 °C. The ice is melting away from the road.

I wonder what Orange Agent and his minions have done recently. Do I dare look at the news?

(Posting title is from the poem The Two Children by Emily Brontë.)

Outside, the world swarmed with sorcerers

Halo 1

Halo 2

Halo 3

The photographs of ice crystal halos were taken on December 11th, in the morning when the sun was low on the horizon and there was no wind. Thus, sundogs were to be seen.

Recently I have explored forest areas where I haven't gone for a walk ever before. The web service Excursionmap.fi has been rather useful in spotting such possibilities. When you start walking before sunrise it is quiet even in places where there are a lot of houses nearby.

(Posting title is from the poem Chanting at the Crystal Sea by Susan Howe.)

Eyes stop

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Lake 4

The photographs were taken at lake Suolikas on December 19th.

This morning I walked for 2 hours 45 minutes at Meiko, exploring Grenomossen swamp, which was frozen and easy to walk across. When returning I visited lake Lappträsk and lake Meiko. On lake Meiko there were people ice fishing and skating.

In the posting for yesterday I wrote that I didn't see anyone at Vaakkoi, not even a dog. Late in the evening I realized that in fact I saw something and wondered why I had forgotten it. Near lake Iso Lehmälampi there was a dog who started barking when I was at 50 meters distance.

To make the dog silent, the owner shouted a Finnish swear word - "Perkele!" - and it was really something extraordinary. The shouter was a smallish elderly lady, but her voice was extremely loud and quite deep, perhaps the voice of a smoker and a drinker, and the way she shouted, it was as if all the mistakes and disappointments in a life had been included in that one word: "Perkele!".

(Sidenote: the Finnish language is lush with swear words for all possible occasions.)

I didn't hear any sounds from the dog after the swear word, so it was quite effective.

(Posting title is from the poem Dope by Amiri Baraka.)

Whose picture was hanging on the wall

Street 1

Street 2

Street 3

The photographs were taken on November 6th in Helsinki.

This morning the temperature was at +1 °C, and dropped below 0 °C during the day. The road surface was mostly dry, but there was some ice, and the studded winter tires were good to have in the bicycle.

(Posting title is from the poem The Building of the Ship by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.)

And felt my heart quivering there

Cranes

Sunrise

I'm not feeling terribly good, having some flu symptoms, but to compensate here are two sunny photographs taken in Helsinki on March 6th.

(Posting title is from the poem Science Fiction by Ariana Reines.)

Of later sustenance and renewal

Red

Harbor

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling tired, but towards evening I started to feel better, and my feet got restless, so I went to Tremanskärr and walked for 1 1/2 hours in the forests and swamps. Half of the snow we got melted away, but still there was enough to cover the ground. In some places the melting snow had flooded ditches and corners of swamps, but mostly it was surprisingly dry; I guess the ground absorbed some of the water.

These photographs were taken on February 24th in Helsinki, while commuting to work in the morning.

(Posting title is from the poem A Pot of Red Lentils by Peter Pereira.)

When to be wise means mostly not to wish for what you love

Sunrise 1

Sunrise 2

Sunrise 3

Net

Pond 1

Pond 2

Pond 3

On December 29 I went for a walk at the time of the sunrise, walking around the golf course at Katinkulta. The field was still mostly covered by snow, which was melting away. I didn't see the sun, but nevertheless there were some sunrise colors to be seen between the clouds.

(Posting title is from the poem The Ice Storm by Christian Wiman.)

Looked from their hunger-deep eyes

Bicycle

Boat

Today was a dark, wet day, and I commuted by car. I could have commuted by bicycle, but I felt too tired in the morning.

(Posting title is from the poem The Harbor by Carl Sandburg.)

To chart my growth without pictures

Sunrise

Sunset

Today is independence day in Finland, and we have 1 cm of snow on the ground. It seems that the snow will remain for a while, as the weather forecast promises below 0 °C temperatures.

It was good to sleep late, but there are all kinds of things to do. Maybe I have time to go through the remaining photographs, there are about 700 of them waiting on the computer. The two photographs shown here were taken on November 25th, just before sunrise and just after sunset. Length of day is now 6 h 7 min.

I have been shopping on the net recently, buying clothes for commuting by bicycle during winter. I bought waist-high unpadded tights, and neoprene overshoes, both of which should be warm enough for winter conditions. My old bicycle clothes are starting to come apart, and the fabric has worn in some places thin enough to see through. And my bicycle overshoes have big holes in them, ripped at the seams.

The most important thing I bought already, warm lobster-style bicycle gloves, which have proved to be very warm at -7 °C. It remains to be seen how well they cope at -15 °C, which I have usually kept as the lowest temperature for commuting by bicycle. I really loathe hands getting cold when riding the bicycle.

(Posting title is from the poem Gloves by Jose Angel Araguz.)

So every seven years your substance is new

Sunrise 1

Sunrise 2

Sunrise 3

Today I went just before sunset for a walk at Tremanskärr swamp. I had rubber boots, and so I was able to explore the swamp which was partly frozen but not yet carried a person. It started snowing after sunset, but that didn't last long, and what snow there was started melting away. The temperature rose to +2 °C from -8 °C which we had during the night.

These photographs were taken in Helsinki on November 15th just before sunrise.

(Posting title is from the poem City Elegies by Robert Pinsky.)

But from the sea into the ship we turn

Sky 1

Sky 2

Sky 2

Sky 2

Here are photographs taken just before sunrise in Helsinki, while commuting by car.

(Posting title is from the poem The Calm by John Donne.)

Squares from a car

Sunrise

Houses

Street

Gray

We had some discussion about the look of the photographs, and about using the square format, at Mark Hobson's blog. I quote myself (slightly edited):

I followed Mark's blog for some time until I grow into appreciation of the square format. He is definitely my inspiration.

But it wasn't until the Panasonic LX3 got the ability to take square photographs (and see them on the LCD) when I started to experiment with it.

Slowly I realized that the square fits my way of looking at the world. Maybe I always have been a bit squarish.

My mother had a 6x6/120 film camera, and was quite skilled with it. It may be that I learned to appreciate square photographs when looking at the family photographs when I was young.

The LX5 is even better than the LX3 as it has the 1:1 setting on the aspect ratio switch, no need for menus.

Also, I quote myself on the topic of a "recipe" for photographs:

I don't know of any particular recipe. I shoot straight jpegs (no RAW) and usually I don't do post-processing. I often underexpose a bit, but that is the way I see the world.

Maybe using the word underexposure is wrong, as for me it is the right exposure. And I try to get it right in the camera.

As to the topic of taking photographs from a car, here also Mark has been my inspiration. But I haven't gone to such extremes as Mark, who can take photographs in "a snow storm that made the driving interesting [...] with 1 hand while driving with the other hand".

Unreasonable colors

Crossing

Roadside

Lamp

Night

Recently we have had unreasonably colorful sunrises. And, to balance this, excessively gray days. And at night, there are the unnatural artificial streetlights tinting everything green or orange. Here are four illustrations of the various aspects of a day.

From morning...

Impression, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Morning, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Rising, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Stripes, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I'm making two postings today. First, some photographs from this morning, when we had a glorious sunrise, which however lasted only a couple of minutes. In the second posting, you will see the day from the other end.