Toni, Iceland: Shoot first

The last week I have been working at the RÚV in the graphics department. My main task has been taking (and editing) photos for the newsroom i.e. to build up an image database to be used for internet news. So I walked around the city and took photos of cemetery, police department, goverment offices, court, people doing things (working with a computer, talking to a phone, buying groceries, etc), fishermen, tourists. Lunch is free (really?) and good, other people working in the department nice so without writing a thousand words...

R.I.P

Investigating journalism - the REAL origin of the financial crisis in Iceland

Goverment offices

The biggest competitor (of RÚV)

National theater

Public transport

Private transport

Shoot first ask later. This is a picture of Japanese couple which are not posing.

A penny for your thoughts

Matching colors

My apartment - but it was cheap

Full moon and Grótta

Tourist shot

ePostcard

Shades of Black

Golden Hour. I was suppose to take pictures of the fishermen - waves were too big at the Atlantic.

A little windy (10 m/s) and cold (-5 deg. C) but otherwise nice day for a picnic

Hallgrímskirkja - the tallest building in Iceland.

Marika, Norway: First week, at last!

Due to my unbelievable busy schedule, the first post has been delayed a bit – I’ve actually been here in Oslo for over two weeks now, and even though my intention was to write the first post a week ago, somehow I’ve found no time for that. But for now, let’s throw hurry and rush aside, and focus on this post now; here it comes, my first week in Oslo!

Sunrise from the aeroplane

I arrived to Oslo on the 31^st of January early in the morning. I had chosen the day to be Friday (cheaper flights!), so that I could have the whole weekend to adjust to the new place, and maybe stroll around the city a bit. Of course my plans were ruined by my body, which decided that it’d be cooler to feel a bit under the weather than getting to know the city – so my first weekend went cuddling with my pillow and blanket. How cool is that?

Photo from the study

On Monday morning I was supposed to start my on-the-job-training, and I was sent straight to the “battlefield” – I had to find my way from my apartment at Holmenkollen to the address I was given on Friday, when we had a short meeting with Anne, who is part of Lent’s staff. She also had drawn a map of Oslo for me in case my phone’s Internet connection wouldn’t work (I had some problems with it when I arrived). I was also told to “be ready for anything” (which later confirmed to be taking photos of a study) - in the end I actually surprised myself by getting straight to the right place, and even on time (actually almost half an hour early..), and the first task was completed successfully!

First task - completed!

Photo from the study

After the first task we went to Lent’s office, and had a “Monday meeting” which they have every week. All the people were so nice, and I got the chance to meet those people who weren’t present on Friday when I arrived. We also discussed with Eivind about my upcoming schedule, which looked great – interesting cases, different situations and places, and lots to do. And I could get even more tasks if these aren’t enough. I’m so going to enjoy my stay here!

Rest of the week is partly blurry in my memories because I had so much to do and so many places to be. At the same time I was really trying to get to know the city, so that I wouldn’t get lost and had to resort to Google Maps in every street corner - and as I came to notice, even Google Maps can misguide you. I was totally lost for 1,5h on Wednesday evening, when I was supposed to be having dinner at Eivind’s!

On Tuesday I was editing photos at the office, and I had the first glimpse of the awesome lunch buffet they’re having here every day – thanks to my research I wasn’t surprised that the lunch was served cold, but the deliciousness of the food still strikes me every day. I always eat with my eyes, and end up being so full for the rest of the day.

Absolutely amazing lunch buffet at Lent's office

Wednesday and Friday went with filming stop animations on white boards for Lent’s educational platform project. I was teamed up with Daniel who did the drawings and I was in charge of filming and afterwards editing – actually my first thought was that I’d suck at it, but in the end it went kind of smoothly, and I had lots of fun!

Filming stop animations

Close-up

On Thursday I was taking photos at the Oslo Kongressenter, where Lent was hired to facilitate Helsedirektoratet’s (The Norwegian Directorate of Health) event where they discussed about how to engage senior citizens better in society. I had lots to do with documenting all the groups and speakers!

Lent's idea development method "Open space" in action

To summarize, the first week was kind of hectic to me, but absolutely rewarding. I was (and still am) amazed how great English everybody is speaking here (including those elderly people in Kongressenter!), and how helpful people are. I’ve also surprised myself by getting along not only with English but also with Swedish too – and if you’d check out my notes, there’d be even a bit of Norwegian and German too to be found! It’s so weird that I can speak some sort of mixed English and Swedish (Swenglish?), and still everybody gets me.

Such an idyllic metro station (T-Bane) at Besserud

Second week, coming right up!

(Those of you who are interested more up-to-date information about my trip, why don't you check out my Twitter account here!)

Toni, Iceland: Out of the Darkness

The last week at iMynd with Guðmundur. Spend most of that time in the darkroom developing the films I shot during the weekend. Learnt a lot about chemistry, processing, dodging and burning + some other things - like why it is good to have a female assistant (20 min. in the darkness and nothing to do). Best are those who can sing - according to Guðmundur.

For the weekend I rented a car (the cheapest I could find) and made two trips - one along the ring road 1 to the south and another to the north. Visited the normal tourist traps i.e. Selfoss and Skógarfoss waterfalls + the black sand beach just opposite of the Vestmannaeyjar island. Although it's not the tourist high season there is hardly any solitude which is how Iceland is advertised - but thank god we have photoshop and multiple exposures.

On Sunday left before the sun rised to catch the first light at Brautarholt where there is an old church beside the sea. The christian church must have had a tough job turning pagans cause there are churches everywhere and most of them made out of wood which was a scarce resource back then. From Brautarholt I went to see the lighthouses at Akraness. Luckily the new lighthouse was open. There were four other people at the top of the lighthouse - three men and a finnish woman who was married with one of the icelandic guys. Small world. Took some pictures and enjoyed the view. Ended my day with a hike to Glymur which is the highest waterfall in Iceland - 200m vertical drop. Didn't manage to get to the top but the sceneries were magnificient anyway.

This week started to work for the goverment i.e the national broadcasting service (Ríkisútvarpið RÚV). My first task is to photograph buildings and people at the city to build up a database (which they don't have yet).

Made in Finland

More darkroom practise

And more...

But colors do have a meaning

What landslide?

Skógafoss

Skógafoss

Alone

Monster Tracks

Stone Collector

Vestmannaeyjar

Brautarholt church

Waterpost

Rainbow dash with friends

The old lighthouse at Akraness

Back from Glymur

Aleksanteri, Fuengirola: Grave Adventures and Flashy Facts

Simple HDR picture with improvised stand

Sometimes I get this urge to go around and just start taking photos of different places. Sometimes these adventures don't end up being such safe trips but as long as you use your brains everything should be OK. I have played around a bit with HDR pics, but since I didn't have a stand it was quite an adventure trying to figure a improvised stand out your surroundings. During daytime its of course more easy since improvised stands aren't as stable as you would like and longer shutter time also means longer bracketing time on your camera.

Also using HDR for newspaper print might seem a waste but actually I tried this out with good results. We had a special number in Fuengirola.fi newspaper. It concentrated on death in the land of the sun and sea and how it should be handled if it happens to concern you or your relatives. That way I got a task to take photos out of this local graveyard.

A HDR picture where I tested different perspective and approach.

This time we went together with my workmate to this graveyard. Normally we do our separate gigs on our own but he was quite interested to see this graveyard on his own eyes as well. I have to admit that having him around substantially improved the quality of pictures I took of the place. There was really no hurry so I decided to test some techniques he used.


There's a great deal that can be said about the beauty of these local graves in comparison to our simple gravestones back in Finland. Even the entrance was so magnificent, I thought for a half a heartbeat that we were on accident in front of some luxury hotel. My workmate said as much as that.

Mikko Rasila in his newly opened Bar Mask

As much as I like to make HDR pictures, it is not always possible to do so. It is almost impossible to create one out facial expressions. Faces have way too many muscles and twitches to stay same during the bracketing time. I remember that I have tried it before, but even if I could get it to work, it would require a good model or an actor of sorts.

Speaking of actors we were interviewing Mikko Rasila in his newly opened Bar Mask, here in Fuengirola. It was a perfect time testing out stuff I've learned about using flash and changing perspective when photoshooting. I noticed that mister Rasila had these still moments on his most of the time so I managed to take this picture with following settings.
F5.0
1/15
iso100

Normally I would never risk taking a photo with so slow shutter time, but this man was an exception in many graceful manner. The original picture is really sharp as well even it can't be seen from this internet version.

Of course it took me few mishaps to realize basic facts about flash. Simple things like effect of aperture to flash power was something I've never really thought of before. Only when I tried to get a sharp mountain to the background with small aperture, it became painfully clear that flash had near to no effect when I tried to add some light his face on the following picture.

Psychologist P. Sveins treks on mountains on his spare time.

Of course I could add a lot of pictures, what I've taken so far in here but I prefer telling about my progress as well with the pictures I've taken so far. If a teacher of mine contacts me and tells me to do so, of course I am obliged to do as told.

Toni, Iceland:The Land of Ice and Ice

Almost a week in Iceland. I got my first cultural shock in the very first morning - hot water really smells like rotten eggs due to the fact that it's been geothermally heated and contains a small amount of hydrogen sulfide. Makes me wonder what Rexona shower fresh contains in Iceland.

For the first two weeks I'm suppose to work with Guðmundur Ingólfsson. He has over 40 years experience in photography and owns dozens of cameras which he has used during that period. So he gave his medium format Pentax and film to practice B&W photography which I'm suppose to process this week i.e. gonna spend some time in the darkroom. The maestro has also infinite number of stories and quite a lot tacit knowledge which cannot be found in any books or in the Internet. So during the days I followed him and carried his equipment and tried to learn as much as I could - and during the weekend filled those B&W films he gave me.

Iceland or at least Reykjavik is not made for pedestrians - the sidewalks are covered with ice having only small spots of sand. Probably that's where the name comes from (glaciers have nothing to do with it). Also my reaction time has improved a lot since traffic lights for pedestrians only lasts for a fraction of a second i.e so far haven't been able to cross a road before the light turns red again.

Here are some pictures from the first week (no medium format yet).

Maestro himself

 Pentax 67II

Setup for a food recipe shoot

Reykjavik at dawn

Mt. Esla

If you get lost in the forest stand up - old Icelandic saying

Drive-in cemetery

Waiting for the summer

Ice

Even the foot steps are frozen