Poesy

Just created a new Flickr group Poesy

Had I Known

Had I Known
Originally uploaded by svimes

Had I known what those languid summer days brought back to me.

I would have never required you to do anything else except just to be there.

Déjàvu

Déjàvu
Originally uploaded by svimes

Several times I have been struck by the feeling of promnesia when either capturing an image or being in the process of post-processing one. This feeling that someone has already captured this shot is so strong and prominent that one tends to reminisce whether one has witnessed a marvellous image which has been embedded in the subconscious and upon capturing the new image one is struck by the feeling of precognition. Precognition itself is the alternative, whether in a dream state or something that is foreseen. I personally am in favor of the previous, where I believe our influences stem from what we have seen and popular sights are bound to be recaptured time and again, hence the Déjàvu.

Electra

Electra
Originally uploaded by svimes

I am fond of old bicycles and motorcycles for that matter. They seem to possess the aesthetics that modern appliances lack. Well I guess utility beats aesthetics, since I would not like to take Electra for a ride in the woods. ;)

My HCB Moment

Espresso
Originally uploaded by svimes

I like coffee and apparently so does he. To be honest him walking into the shot made it a photograph. Otherwise it would have been a bland shot down the street taken in the old town of Köln. You cannot plan these shots, you just have to be there with your finger on the trigger I guess. :)

Creative Commons

Streaks
Originally uploaded by svimes

I've started noticing that due to the licensing I have chosen, people have started using my images (with due credits) in various places. For example this photo appeared in http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/the-meaning-of-the-solstice-in-a-finnish-village

Since I'm not trying to make a living out photography I can afford to license my photos in this manner. Even if I were a professional photographer, I think Flickr might be a nice channel to promote once work.

After all, let's face it, if you post something publicly, there is very little control you have on its usage after the fact.

Slowly

Slowly
Originally uploaded by svimes

One of the big topics for this summer was low light photography and in the coming weeks and days, I will post a number of low light shots taken in Germany, France and Sweden. I think this shot benefited from the movement of the barge across the shot. Rendering it with a high contrast also added a nice mood to the shot, don't you think? I used bulb for the exposure, that's why the exposure time is an odd 1.6s.

Pic a Day

Rhein
Originally uploaded by svimes

I have a backlog of images to upload taken on my vacation, but this year I thought I would upload the public photos one per day. This will not be visible in my photostream per se, since the photos are added into the stream the date they were taken. Time travel is possible after all. ;)

... a hole in the sky

... a hole in the sky
Originally uploaded by svimes

We spent this summer's holiday journeying to Normandy through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Holland. All in all we were on the road for 28 days. Two adults, three kids and a big dog may sound like a nightmare to most, but thanks to ipods, Harry Potter and good weather we managed to make the most out of it.

In terms of photography I tried to focus on composition, tones and exposure. In addition I tried to leave room for the second and third impressions covering more angles than I normally do. This shot is an example of the fruits of such an endeavor. It is well into and past the "prime light" of this scene, but the mood the tone and the story told by the shot stand out ( I think ). I am not going to divulge what my impression of the story is rather leave it up to you to interpret.

Lots of backlog to cover, photos to edit and impressions to share. Stay tuned whoever you are. :)

Copyrights, Copylefts and so on...

White
Originally uploaded by svimes

Yay!

As an amateur photographer it warmed my heart when Santiago Alonzo from a South American marketing company http://www.emelatam.com/ contacted me and asked for my permission to use two shots in their publication detailing the history of the automobiles. This warmed my heart for two reasons:

Ego: Of course it is nice to have something deemed worthwhile for a publication.

Copyrights: I'm glad to see that people honor copyrights, since I've used the following license for all of my public photos: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en I feel that this has not diminished my photos in any way, rather than making it easier to actually view my work.

More details will follow as I learn them... :)

Black and White Contest

Ferris Wheel
Originally uploaded by svimes

This shot was nominated a shared #1 one in a peer review style photo contest held in this group. You can see the rest of the contest shots in this thread.

Yay! :)

Flickr Super Six

Splash
Originally uploaded by svimes

Long time no blog. I have been extremely busy, but for the past couple nights I've tried to showcase some of my shots to other Flickerites. One way to make your photos seen is to post them in different groups. One such set of groups is the Flick super six of:

1. Flickr Bronze Award
2. Flickr Silver Award
3. Flickr Gold Award
4. Your Art Has Touched The World
5. Universal Elite
6. Andromeda "50"

It's quite a "pyramid scheme" in a benevolent way, where you post a photo in the Bronze Award group and hope it will get promoted to a higher level. :) The idea is that you post a shot and award 5. If your photo gets 10 awards, you can post it in the next group.

At the moment this shot has been promoted to Flickr Silver Award. Let's see how far it will travel. :)

Second Place :)

Ride on! Ride on!
Originally uploaded by svimes

One of my photos was selected eligible to enter a photo contest for nature photos. This particular contest involved water shots selected from the group Nature's POT-of-Gold. The particular contest was called #14 Water Den {Round 35}.

The contest works as follows:
1. Eligible photos are entered into the contest.
2. All the participant must vote for three of their favorite shots in the contest (excluding their own).
3. The votes are tallied and three photos are nominated as winners.

My photo "Ride on! Ride on!" was placed second in this contest, yay! :)

Simple joys of life, eh? ;)

Mental Note

Underground
Originally uploaded by Johanna Blankenstein [+JoJo+]

Stumbled upon Johanna Blankestein's wonderful shot of the underground canals. If I ever have the chance to visit 's-Hertogenbosch "Den Bosch", I'll sure take a peek in the underground canals. Apparantly, you can take a boat ride through those canals. "Bosche Bollen" is a keyword for finding this place on Google Maps for example. :) Apparently it is some kind of local chocolaty delicacy.

http://www.meat.recipes.ubr.com/meat-recipes/bosche-bollen-recipe.aspx

Beats Per Minute

Beats Per Minute
Originally uploaded by svimes

While rummaging through old film material I stumbled upon this shot, which had been used as a background for a party flyer. Shot originally on Ilford Delta 400 with ASA/ISO 200 and underdeveloped, which yielded a very "tight" grain.

100 Views

Ride on! Ride on!
Originally uploaded by svimes

Statistics. One of the devious tricks Flickr does is provides you statistics on the number of times each photo has been viewed by other flickerites. This photo is my first to reach 100. I know it is not much, but I like the fact that ~100 people have taken time to view this shot amongst the gazillions shots out there. Yay! :)

On Sets

Furniture
Originally uploaded by svimes

I've always believed that through photography you should be able to tell your story with just one shot. A series of photographs rarely shed more light on the subject. On the other hand, I have secretly admired people who are able to create meaningful sets of photographs, which accomplish this task. I decided to try this out and created a series of five photos, which in my opinion tell a story of everyday life in Kallio, Helsinki. You must view the photos in large size, since they contain more than meets the eye at first. Please let me know what your impression on the series is. How well have I managed to tell a story and what is the story in your opinioin?

Helsinki

Ympyrätalo
Originally uploaded by svimes

Yesterday, I started a new photo project which I have been meaning to commence for a looong time, namely to document the urban surroundings of my home town Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki will reveal itself to you in two formats, namely B&W and in color. I started out with Kallio, which has transformed itself into a very vibrant part of the city, with a lot of small retaurants, clubs and young people in general.

My attempt is to portray the ordinary every day views of the city and its life in photojournalistic manner. Let's see if I can accomplish this task and if it will bring you new insights into places, which you may have overlooked or not even known existed. :)

R2D2

R2D2
Originally uploaded by ilmojensankari

Having read one of my friend's travel blog Let's Japan. This must be what their experiences looked like. ;)

800

Freezing
Originally uploaded by svimes

This photo, abandoned in my photo collection marked my 800th photo uploaded to Flickr. :)