Author Archives: Mikael

New galleries: ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2011

Team Croatia - Zagreb Snowflakes

Team Croatia / Link to Gallery

Like I wrote on last Sunday, I photographed the free program in ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2011 on last Saturday.

I have photographed synchronized skating earlier, but previous time was three years ago. So, at the beginning I was feeling little rusty… I was also photographing from the first row. I liked the low perspective from the first row, but there were also challenges: It was quite difficult to compose and focus on skaters when they were passing me with the high speed at the distance of few meters. It would have been also easier to get white ice as background from the higher location. If I would have photographed the also short program on Friday, I would have used different, i.e. higher location, at that time.

The atmosphere in the arena was terrific, the (mostly Finnish) audience was supporting all teams! And when the Finnish teams where performing, the supporting and cheering was incredible 🙂

Supporters of Marigold IceUnity waving flags

Supporters of Marigold IceUnity (MIU) waving flags

Posted in Event, People, Skating, Synchronized Skating Tagged , , , , , |

Synchronized Skating: Double Victory for Finland!

I visited yesterday ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2011, and photographed the free program. Finnish teams won double victory 🙂

World champions: Rockettes

World champions: Rockettes

Congratulations to Rockettes and Marigold IceUnity!

Silver: Marigold IceUnity

Silver: Marigold IceUnity

I will post later a gallery, but here are some of my favourites (click to see a larger image).

Team USA 2 - Miami University Senior Team

Team USA 2 - Miami University Senior Team

Team Sweden 1 - Team Surprise

Team Sweden 1 - Team Surprise


Continue reading »

Posted in Event, People, Skating, Sport, Synchronized Skating Tagged , , , |

New gallery: Spring Ice II

Pack ice in Lauttasaari, Helsinki

Link to Spring Ice Gallery II / Pack ice in Lauttasaari, Helsinki

The last two weeks have been rather photogenic here in Helsinki. The sea ice has melted and there has been lots of interesting subjects to photograph: icicles, packed ice and drift ice 🙂

Suomenlinna, Helsinki

Sunset in Suomenlinna, Helsinki

In this gallery you can see the photos that I have taken on six occasions during last two weeks: I made three trips to Suomenlinna and three trips to the southern tip of Lauttasaari. One Suomenlinna trip was part of my landscape photography course in Kameraseura. I will write more about my course in few days.

Posted in Landscape, Seascape Tagged , , , , , , |

Icy Helsinki Cityscapes

Helsinki from Suomenlinna

Helsinki from Suomenlinna after sunset

Today was maybe the last day to photograph sunny and icy seascapes in Helsinki this spring. So I did spend several hours today in Suomenlinna photographing the floating sea ice and icicles 🙂 You will see those photos later, but here are four cityscapes that I captured on my way back to Helsinki from Suomenlinna.

Hanasaari power plant from Suomenlinna ferry

Hanasaari power plant from Suomenlinna ferry


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Posted in Cityscape, Landscape, Seascape Tagged , , , , , |

Helsinki Panorama

Helsinki Panorama

View from Sisä-Hattu towards Ruoholahti, Länsisatama, Suomenlinna and Pihlajasaari

I photographed this panorama last tuesday (22.3.) after sunset from Sisä-Hattu (small island at the southern tip of Lauttasaari). The full size of panorama is 42000 x 3400 pixels, here you can see 8000 pixels wide version.

Posted in Cityscape, Landscape, Seascape Tagged , , , , , , |

New galleries: Life in Helsinki – Summer Galleries

Katajanokka / Link to Life in Helsinki - Summer Gallery I

These two galleries contain varied photos from the summer Helsinki. The first photos are from the May Day celebrations, and the last photos are from Herring Market (Silakkamarkkinat) in October. There are also photos from historical parade, Suomenlinna, Esplanadi park, Seurasaari Midsummer party, and The Night of the Arts event.

Rautatientori / Link to Life in Helsinki - Summer Gallery II

Posted in Cityscape, Event, Landscape, People, Seascape, Street photography Tagged , , , , |

New gallery: Life in Helsinki – Winter Gallery

Christmas Market in Esplanadi / Link to Life in Helsinki - Winter Gallery

This Life in Helsinki – Winter Gallery has 48 varied photos from the wintry Helsinki. The majority of photos include people (unlike my landscape photos…), it is snowing heavily, or couple of traditional landscapes have been taken from Suomenlinna ferry.

Light art by Mikki Kunttu, Helsinki Cathedral, Finland

Posted in Cityscape, Event, Landscape, People, Seascape, Street photography Tagged , , , |

New gallery: Above the Rooftops of Helsinki

Lasipalatsi

Lasipalatsi / Link to Above the Rooftops of Helsinki Gallery

These Helsinki cityscapes have been taken from four different places: the clock tower of Helsinki Central railway station, the tower of Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Hotel Torni, and roof terrace of Sokos Hotel by Helsinki Central railway station.

View from Hotel Torni to the north, Helsinki, Finland

Posted in Cityscape, Landscape Tagged , , , , , , , |

New gallery: Fire Circus Walkea

Fire Circus Walkea / Link to Gallery

Fire Circus Walkea (Tulisirkus Walkea) is part of the Season of Light 2011 happening. Director of this fire art performance was Antti Suniala. Performers of this excellent show were Joshua Dyffort, Minttu Pietilä, Ulpu Puhakka, Valerie Sealey and Antti Suniala.

Fire art is rather difficult to photograph: I want to show the movement with long shutter speed, but I still want that the performers are recognizable (i.e. not totally blurry). This means that the success percentage is not very high, but when everything matches, I like the results a lot 🙂

Posted in Event, People Tagged , , , , , |

Landscape photography course in March

Lauttasaari spring sunset on 26.03.2009


Kameraseura will arrange landscape photography course next March (25.-27.3). I can recommend this course, as I will be the teacher 🙂 The course language will be Finnish, but you can participate to the course even if you do not speak perfect Finnish (if you request, you can have part of the material in English, and also the questions can be asked in English).

The course will be weekend course: on Friday evening we will go through the theory of landscape photography and look landscape images from the course participants, on (late) Saturday afternoon we will have field trip to some photogenic location, on Sunday afternoon we will review Saturday’s images and continue the theory.

I will go through the landscape photographer’s equipment (camera, lenses, tripod,..), but the main emphasis of the course will be on the art of landscape photography (choosing the location, choosing the right time, composition, use of light, camera settings, what filters to use,…).

Ice details in Lauttasaari on 26.03.2009


The destination of Saturday’s photography trip will be decided on Friday based on the weather forecast and the snow/ice situation. Possible destinations are e.g. Suomenlinna, southern tip of Lauttasaari, or Vantaanjoki/Ruutinkoski (near Haltiala). Sunset on that day is around 18:45, so if the weather is sunny, we will photograph sunset. Digital camera and tripod are needed (I will have two tripods for loan). And if the weather is cold, also lot’s of warm clothes are needed, as we will be few hours outside 🙂

You can book the course in Kameraseura website. This course (and other Kameraseura spring courses) will become available on 10.1.2011 at 10:00. The price of this course is 100€ (85€ for Kameraseura members).

Posted in Art of landscape photography, Landscape, Landscape photography course, Nature, Photography course Tagged , , , |