Handheld with LX3 - blur and sharp

Busy, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I haven't done much photography in a city - although technically Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa are all cities - so here is an exception from Helsinki. Not really a great photo, but it demonstrates some of the LX3 capabilities.

The photo was taken handheld at 1/15 s exposure (aperture priority mode, f/2, ISO 200). As you can see from the city lights on the horizon, the camera was steady, but the 1/15 s exposure allowed to catch the motion blur of the cars. (Well, there was a slight movement, but too little to see on this scale.)

I'm still using manual focusing, so there is no lag when taking photos like this, and with the LX3 you can keep on pressing the trigger to catch the right moment, it will go on taking the photos.

Here actually it might been better to use the shutter priority mode to go to 1/8 s or even 1/4 s, but that I thought only after the photography was done.

Reality the way you want to have it

Tinted, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Eolake pointed out the art of Diane Varner. (I commented on this at Eolake's blog.)

I had never heard of her. Her technical skills are indeed impressive, but somehow the result is a bit like Disney art - polished, manufactured, shipped to millions.

Indeed I feel that there is a way for the meaning to disappear because of too much polishing.

The world is, after all, imperfect.

I also see a kind of theater in the photos. There are photographers who go to even greater extremes in post-processing, and some also approach photography as a kind of performance/theater art, using costumers, fancy cars, etc. as the building blocks.

This is reality the way you want to have it.

The photo here was taken yesterday. I feel it is somehow similar to the Diane Varner photos, although I did not do any post-processing to the camera jpeg. But at least it is not perfect.

No new photos today (so far)

Meilahti hospital, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

The clouds of yesterday indicated a change in weather, and today we have had cloud cover and slight rain for most of the day. I haven't managed to do photography so far, so here is a photo from yesterday, a view of the Meilahti hospital in Helsinki, taken from the sea shore.

I have been thinking about the meaning of a photograph, from where it arises. I feel that a photo is a way of finding meaning from within ourselves. This claim about the nature of a photo can be formulated also this way: photography is not based on an external source from where wisdom springs forth - instead, the meaning arises from our directed consciousness. (The same has been noted about poetry, for example.)

But are all photographs meaningful? A few days ago the finalists of the "nature photograph of the year competition" were announced here in Finland. (The competition is organized by The Finnish Nature Photographers' Association.)

I was disappointed. (As also was Rane Olsen - posting is in Finnish.)

Perhaps I have been spoiled by the originality and quality of Finnish nature photography, but some of these photos didn't really offer a great deal of meaning for me. (Well, perhaps I'm just empty inside.)

As a contrast, I wrote earlier that Finnish photographers dominate wildlife photography. Those winning photos were great in terms of meaning and artistry.