Sunset from Lauttasaaren silta #1
The sunset today in Helsinki was amazing, the sky was really on fire! I just hope that I would have had my DSLR with me and that I would have been in southern tip of Lauttasaari or at the top Hotel Torni… So these photos are taken with compact camera (Panasonic LX3) on my way to home. Two additional photos below.
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River Skafta / Link to Gallery I
My aerial tour started from Reykjavik, the northernmost point of this aerial tour was lake Hvítárvatn (Google maps link), easternmost point was Lake Langisjór (Google map link), and southernmost point was Vestmannaeyjar (Google map link).
Landeyjasandur / Link to Gallery II
I used two cameras and two lenses (24-70 mm and 70-200 mm). When the window was open it was rather windy, especially when I pushed partially the camera and my hands outside to capture some composition… I used aperture priority mode, the aperture was typically F4.5-F5.6 and the shutter speed was typically 1/800-1/1600 sec.
I was very lucky with the weather, there were nice clouds, and more importantly, nice shadows in many areas 🙂 Especially in Landmannalaugar area the clouds were almost perfect. I had seen spectacular pictures of river details, but still the reality surprised me. The river patterns were truly amazing.
Last week I had landscape photography presentation in Kameraseura – International Evening meeting. This blog post is based on that presentation.
The art of landscape photography
Good light is essential in the landscape photography: if the light is poor, there are no possibilities to capture excellent landscape photos. Because landscape photographers use only available light (at least typically), the only way to guarantee good light is to be in the right time in the right place.
Utö, Korppoo, Finland, August 2006
So planning is essential part of the landscape photography. You can be extremely lucky, but in the most cases, the best pictures demand planning and persistence. Planning requires that you think what is good weather for particular location and subject. You must also study the location in advance, e.g. find out the directions of sunrise and sunset at different times of year.
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Sunrise in Lauttasaari, Helsinki, December 2009
I will be giving a landscape photography presentation next week in Kameraseura – International Evening meeting. My presentation will be in English. In this presentation I will first discuss shortly about cameras, lenses, and other equipment needed for landscape photography. Then I will discuss about the art of landscape photography, i.e. how to plan your photography, how to work with light, basics of composition and other issues to be considered when taking photos. Finally I will show my landscape photos, the emphasis is on the photos taken this winter (Kuusamo, frosty Helsinki and winter seascapes).
If you are a member of Kameraseura, or consider joining, you are welcome to come and listen my presentation! It will be on next Wednesday (5.5.2010) at 6 pm in Kameraseura (Lastenkodinkatu 1).
I have made four photography trips to Kuusamo since 2003. Based on the experiences in these trips, I decided to collect here some info about my favourite photography locations in Kuusamo.
Iivaara
View from Iivaara in summer
 Winter Landscapes from Lapland Gallery I |
 Winter Landscapes from Lapland Gallery II |
The images of these galleries were photographed during 11 days at the end of February / beginning of March. At the beginning of trip I participated to three day Winter Landscape Photography course arranged by Kuusamon Kansanopisto. The teachers of the course were Paavo Hamunen and Pekka Punkari. The rest of time I photographed according to my own schedule.
During these 11 days, I walked about 30-35 km with snowshoes and climbed to top of three different fells (Konttainen twice, Valtavaara and Riisitunturi once). Riisitunturi had the best snow in trees (“tykkylumi” in Finnish). Here you can see one prime example of that. Other places that I visited were: Kiutaköngäs, Kirintövaara, Ruka Peak, Niskakoski, Myllykoski, Aallokkokoski, and Jyrävä.
In the middle of trip it was continuously cloudy and snowing for six days. If you climbed to top of some fell during that time, you could not see any distant scenery, you could photograph only the trees at the top of fell.
Last three days were mostly sunny and the last day at the top Riisitunturi was probably the best day of the trip. I was prepared to go there to photograph the sunrise, but it was fully cloudy at 5 am, so I continued sleeping and went to Riisitunturi for afternoon and sunset. Sunset was luckily spectacular 🙂
