Latokartano Spirited Away

For several weeks now I have looked at this scenery from inside a bus and thought of how it reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's movie Spirited Away. Or more precisely a certain scene of the movie, the one where Chihiro attempts to run back home and finds herself at the shoreline looking towards lights of a distant town.

Unfortunately for me though, despite using a tripod I still managed to get the picture shaken. Thanks due lowlight conditions the exposure time was long and only too late I realized I could have used the timer to get the picture. Actually it wasn't too late since I took the picture using timer too and tried to under expose it to get it more darker.

Well I got it darker and I got the picture sharp too but I think this picture is more worth posting for couple of reasons. First of all this reminds me the most of the movie. Second this reminds me to use timer when shooting with long exposure timing. And third this picture helps me to visualize the result in my mind better before shooting. I thought that underexposed photo would look better but to my sincire surprise it did not. It does have nice contrast and all but all together this picture has better atmosphere.

Studies on golden section

Here are three pictures I used to try and study the golden section. The first one is original and the latter two are cropped from the original.

I am not quite sure what to think of the results. First of all the original picture does indeed seem a bit dull after looking at the two cropped ones. There is way too much black around the candle but then again when I tried 10x15, 13x18 and 20x25 dimension on cropping the candle itself became way too dominant when trying to remove the excess black.

I suppose rational choise would've been to use manual cropping but that would have caused some troubles for my studies. Therefore I decided to use the 20x25 dimensions and ruthlessly crop out part of the candle and keep the focus on the flame instead. And so I tried two different croppings: a horizontal one and a vertical one.

On both pictures I tried to align the edge of the candle and the black background at the approximate 5:8 section of the picture with the flame slightly off the center. More so on the latter picture.

But as I said I don't quite know what to think of the results yet. They were done quite quickly and only like and half an hour ago. I have to just look at them and think over the way the picture is different with each cropping. I think I am on verge of getting the grasp on this but I still need more practise. Most of all I have to start taking my pictures so that I have more room to retouch and crop them later even though I strive to take such pictures that the cropping would be unnecessary.

It seems I have to find balance between cropping the picture while shooting it and cropping the picture later while retouching. I have a long path ahead of me.

88th Independence Day

Today 6.12.2005 Finland celebrates its 88th Independece Day. After over hundred years of Russian goverment and more than half a millennium of Swedish goverment before that have left their marks to Finnish society.

Common Finnish grunt dispises Swedish people and Swedish speaking Finns and scorn the Russians and youth doesn't like to study Swedish which is Finlands other official language. I can relate to that since I was't too happy to study Swedish either. But now ten years wiser I have little regrets for not studying Swedih more. If I had studied Swedish harder I could speak three different languages rather fluently (Finnish, Swedish and English) and would understand the basics of two more (Spanish and Japanese).

Oh well. What is past is past and cannot be changed but we can learn from the past. But it is one thing to learn from the past and to apply what you have learnt. I leart to study more when I have the chance but have I done so? No. But I do have rather good excuses for that since my own and my wife's health took a dive during the time I was supposed to study. And our heatlh had priority over the sutdies. Besides I didn't quite like what I was studying. And so I have come full circle. I wonder if I learn anything from history this time. 

Misty winter morning

We had snow for some two days before it all melted away and it began raining water for about a week. Depressing since the snow makes a day so much brighter. I am rather glad I took this picture to remind me of the proper winter scenery.

Even though it is December I think it is a wee bit early to wait for the snow cower to be permanent here in southern Finland. As much as I dislike the cold I truly have to admit that having snow on the ground is something very special.

With a slight horror I observe the development of wather patterns over the past few years. Snow cover comes later and later each year and the snow melts away earlier and ealier each spring. At this rate we will not have any snow at all during winters. Now that would just plain suck. For the three darkest months of the year atleast. When there is more light during daytime I don't mind the lack of snow cower.