I don’t really like blue color, but the december evenings in Oulu are so blue they just ask to be photographed. I’ve been walking around quite a lot with a camera while living here, and now that I’m moving south again, I thought it would be nice to take some evening shots just less than one kilometer away from my home. Like a diary in the case I never come back again.

Posted by Tatu

It’s singer Suvi Teräsniska from Oulu. This was an easy assignment. It’s always nice photograph people who are already used to cameras but still let themselves go without using the same manners over and over again. I like this because it’s very different from the images I took when I met Suvi Teräsniska last spring.

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I spent a lot of money to buy an overpriced LED-lightpanel :-/ It’s powerful, compact and all, but now I feel I should have made an effort trying to find out what kind of solution works best for me. So, after downloading a flashlight app for the iPhone, I just HAD to try if it was powerful enough to act as the only light source for shooting video in a pitch black room. Canon 5D Mark 2, ISO 800, shutter at 1/60 and a 35mm f/1.4 lens wide open. I had a reflector to balance the light a little, but the iPhone LED lamp was the only source of light in the room. Thanks to Musti once again for being an actor. Well, at least I know I can make a night time video interview even if I only have my camera and my mobile phone (with maybe a microphone attachment for better sound) with me :-) That’s something I’ll try next.

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Let’s just say some work environments have more intense atmosphere than others. I got a chance to visit Allseas Solitaire, the biggest pipe lay vessel in the world when it was laying a gas pipe to the Baltic sea between Finland and Estonia. It was crazy. A huge, working factory inside a customized ex-tanker, over 20 nationalities, a basketball field, a gym, endless rooms with strange lighting and countless opportunities to lose your life if you don’t follow the safety instructions. This is just a tip of the iceberg (no pun intended), and some more images were published in Helsingin Sanomat last week.

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My friends Jani & Beisa got married, and I have to say this time being a photographer in the wedding felt almost like a vacation. I’m not very experienced wedding shooter, and to tell the truth, I’m not planning to become one. Still, I have to admit it feels nice to start browsing through the memory cards when there are only smiling, clearly happy people in every single frame.

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Yo-potretti, 50-millisellä prime-linssillä, aukko 1.4, kaislikko, ilta-aurinko ja Lightroom 3:ssa värit sekaisin ja vähän lisää kontrastia. Muuten suoraan kamerasta. Kivaa, etteivät kaikki tahdo valmistujaiskuviaan otettavan studiossa (koska mulla ei ole studiota).

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Singer Suvi Teräsniska for Iltalehti, photographed in a smoking room with the available spotlights and a Lastolite reflector. The small lamps needed some adjusting. My first summer job as a press photographer was with Aamulehti newspaper in 2008, and everywhere I went, I used to carry a backpack full of zoom lenses, radio transmitters and flashes. I started to feel trapped with all the available equipment, and every time I came back from an assignment I felt like I had concentrated too much on the technical issues and forgot what I was photographing. In 2009 I spent the summer in Zambia and Malawi and only had one lens, the 24-70mm 2.8, and I was surprised how much I was able to do with it. About a year ago I decided to try if I could shoot all my assignments with one or two prime lenses and a reflector. I’m not saying I wouldn’t been able to take as good (or better) photos with flashes and versatile zoom lenses, but I wanted to learn one thing at a time. What I’m saying is that I definitely started to pay more attention to light and the situation at hand.

Posted by Tatu

It’s been while since I last posted something here. I’ve been working around my master’s thesis and have barely touched the camera since winter. Anyway, now that I’m moving to Helsinki and to who knows where after that, one thing seems quite clear: I have to leave the most beautiful apartment I’ve ever seen. Sigh. Jurvelius is an old wooden building just by the sea in the Oulu city center. It’s one of the oldest buildings in the city. Every evening (if it’s clear) the setting sun paints the apartment. These are not very journalistic, I know, but since I shot them to remember, it’s probably ok to post them here too. I’ll update the post with some portraits afterwards.

Posted by Tatu

UPDATE: Folks! We are so emotionally overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and excitement created this co-op spring challenge that we decided to give it more time. The new deadline for submissions is Sunday April 24th. So, if you think that you’re too busy to participate, think again. There is plenty of time. And as you can see, time can be made out of thin air!

PÄIVITYS: Huomio valokuvaajat. Olemme siinä määrin otettuja keväthaasteemme saamasta vastaanotosta, että päätimme siirtää sen päättymistä viikolla. Toivomme siis saavamme kuvia sunnuntaihin 24.4. mennessä. Eli jos olet uskotellut itsellesi, ettei aikaa tehtävän tekemiseen ole, asia on oikeastaan täysin päinvastoin. Aikaa on.

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Attention all photographers and Parta & Linssit likers! Elections are right around the corner and the Arab Spring is blossoming, so we thought it’s a perfect time for a challenge. This one is not a competition, but a co-operation:

- Take a series of THREE portraits with your own, personal style. We’d like to see photographers submitting coherent series, but still, the style is free. You don’t have to be a professional!

- Then, ask each person a timeless question: “If you had the power to do so, what (one thing) would you change in the world to make it a better place?”

- Send the photos, names of the people and their short answers to partakuva@gmail.com (jpeg format, less than 2 MB per image file).

- Deadline for submissions is Sunday April 17th.

We really hope to see as many people sending their photos as possible so we can build a huge gallery! Thank you!

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Huomio valokuvaajat ja kaikki Parta & Linssistä tykkäävät! Vaalit ovat tulossa ja Arabikevääksi kutsutut kansannousut kukoistavat naapurissa. Nyt jos koskaan on loistava aika järjestää haaste. Tällä kertaa kyse ei kuitenkaan ole kilpailusta, vaan yhteistyöstä:

- Ota KOLMEN henkilökuvan sarja omalla, henkilökohtaisella tyylilläsi. Kuvaajan kädenjälki saa mieluusti näkyä ja sarja olla yhtenäinen, mutta tyyli on silti vapaa. Ammattikuvaaja ei tarvitse olla!

- Kysy jokaiselta kuvattavalta ajaton kysymys: “Jos voisit, minkä asian muuttaisit maailmassa tehdäksesi siitä paremman paikan?”

- Lähetä kuvat, henkilöiden nimet ja lyhyet vastaukset osoitteeseen partakuva@gmail.com (jpeg-muotoisia kuvia, alle 2 megatavua per kuvatiedosto)

- Lähetä kuvat sunnuntaihin 17.4. mennessä.

Toivomme että mahdollisimman moni lähettää kuviaan jotta saamme kasaan kookkaan gallerian! Kiitos!

Posted by Tatu

Back to ice and shades of blue. I know this is not very photojournalistic, but somehow I’ve been very interested in shapes, landscapes and patterns lately. I’ll get back to people someday.

Tatu

I was on an assignment today at Hämeenkyrö, some 40 kilometers off Tampere. After the job I was driving back home, as suddenly this vast and empty field with untouched snow just opened up in the forrest besides the snow. I kept driving, kilometer, another, third maybe. Then suddenly I just had to push the brakes and drive back to photograph that minimalistic scenery.

Konsta

Mysterious lady playing with plates. Kind of stealing from Francesca Woodman. This image just sat into my lap while goofing around. It was taken with ancient Canon Powershot because I forgot my own camera at home while visiting Helsinki. As you can see, I’m going for the more minimalistic color scale because I’ve noticed that using less color takes less bytes. So that means we can have cheaper home site for Partakuva and spend the rest of our cash flow on other luxuries in life.

Jarkko

Posted by Tatu