Outside was all noon and the burning blue

Sky 1

Sky 2

The photographs were taken at Kytäjä-Usmi outdoor area on May 13th.

I have been rather busy today, and haven't had time to follow what is happening in the world. Is Trump still president?

(Posting title is from the poem A Death in the Desert by Robert Browning.)

To a rhythm you can’t hear, but you can see it

Blue 1

Blue 2

Blue 3

The photographs were taken at Kytäjä-Usmi outdoor area in Hyvinkää on May 13th.

Today the temperature rose to 22 °C in the afternoon. There was 8 m/s backwind when commuting by bicycle. Sometimes it is just too easy.

(Posting title is from the poem Democracy by Dorianne Laux.)

They walked out together, in all sorts of weather

Sky

The photograph was taken on June 30th.

I'm traveling, currently in Kuopio. I'm doing some walking and looking at the scenery.

(Posting title is from the poem There was an Old Person of Nice by Edward Lear.)

I saw the sky in the windshield of another city

Sky

I'm traveling tomorrow, which generates additional pressure to a busy week, but so it goes. However, there is only three work days until the vacation starts. I'm looking forward to it: lots of walking, maybe visiting museums and art galleries, and other stuff which the children might be interested in.

The snow situation isn't yet decided one way or another. We got 2-3 cm of new snow last night, but in all there is only 8-10 cm of snow, which isn't quite enough for skiing except in places where snow has been gathered to make ski tracks.

(Posting title is from the poem February Sky by Bruce Smith.)

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.)

Star-gazing

Lifting, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Up, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Jupiter, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Sky, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Well, I went ahead and bought the tripod I mentioned earlier, Berlebach 3042. It isn't lightweight (and definitely not cheap), weighting 4.5 kg with the Manfrotto video head, but it works just as a tripod for star-gazing should. Stable, easy to set up, and relatively easy to adapt to shorter and taller people (such as children and adults). I got mine from the Ursa astronomical association (info in Finnish here), where I got some expert instruction as well.

After moonrise we went out with the children to have a look at the sky. It was -24 °C outside, so we couldn't stay out long. Despite the light pollution and some thin clouds we managed to catch a good look at the Moon, and at Jupiter as well. I think I saw one of the Jupiter moons as well, but maybe I was mistaken. And a wooden tripod really is good when it is so cold, awful to think about operating something made of metal, makes one shudder.

Cold

Signs, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Stripes, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Lamps and Moon, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Jupiter and Moon, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today we didn't get more snow, but it was cold due to a biting wind. After sunset it was very dark because there were no clouds reflecting the city lights. On the sky was a crescent Moon and Jupiter, both to be seen in the last photograph. I'm still using ISO 400, and getting used to the results.

Views of Helsinki

Helsinki, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Helsinki sea view, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

View, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Nest, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Here are a couple of familiar yet perhaps a bit untypical views of Helsinki. And yet another change of vehicle, if you want to keep track of such things. This time we have a boat. And as you can see, we had quite a variety of weather today.

Bright blue winter sky

Roof, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Red barn, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Oak, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today we had a cold and sunny winter day, good for walking outside with the family. (Though not too long to avoid frostbite.) Here are three photographs taken today during the walk.

Winter postcard

Red, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

For this photograph I did quite a drastic post-processing step. I'm not sure whether I like the result, but the images does capture the gray shades of the winter day, even though it brings up the red in a rather unrealistic manner. Perhaps I'll start to learn to like it...

Warm spring, summer almost here

Cloud formations, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Just a short note: I'm still (occasionally) taking photographs, but not so often. Here is from yesterday a photo which my wife liked (so did I also). I post-processed the original image in LightZone to show the colors better. It is difficult to adapt to the spring/summer light, there is so much of it and it demands a different style of photography than during autumn or winter.

Colors of the night sky

Winter plants, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Tower, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Paths, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today I went once again for a walk well after sunset. They cloud cover was think all day. At night the city lights were reflected from the clouds above giving the landscape a surreal feeling. Here is a sequence of three photos showing how the colors changed when looking in different directions (and also at a bit different times of course).

I really like doing these long exposure photos with the LX3 and a mini-tripod. There are still some clumps of snow and ice remaining, and they provide convenient places where I can put the camera. Sometimes people passing by direct wondering looks to me, but so far no-one has asked questions about my photography.

Update: In the previous posting I discussed post-processing techniques, but here I didn't do much at all - a little bit of cropping, and slight perspective correction in the last one. Sometimes the photo straight out of the camera is the best one.