I’m trying to catch up with posting images I’ve post-processed recently. I took this one in May only a few hundred meters from where I live. I liked the original version, but thought it was a bit too light. Because the image already had a painterly quality to it, I decided to emphasize it by adding a texture on most of the image. I think it worked nicely, making the image a bit darker and giving it a more tranquil mood.
This image was pulled from the previous version of this blog. I took it in Rantasalmi, my home town, a few years ago on a sunny spring day. There’s a small river called Pappilanjoki (Parsonage’s river) that connects two lakes, Lake Kosulanlampi and Pieni Raudanvesi.
Both Lake Kosulanlampi and the river have become eutrophic due to the surrounding agriculture and municipal waste waters. On the right behind the trees, there’s an old parsonage built in 1870. Because of quality of water in the river and the lake, there’s a lot of vegetation on the shores and riverbanks, which has made this area an important resting stop for many species of migratory birds.
Sunset reflecting on windows of apartment buildings in Kuokkala and apartment buildings reflecting on Lake Jyväsjärvi. This photo was taken on Kuokkala bridge from where there’s a nice view to both the city and the lake. This in an older image that I’ve previously published on the old incarnation of this website, but I recently reprocessed it and decided to post it again.
This image of a coltsfoot in spring forest is one of the older photos I’ve been post-processing recently. It was taken on the same evening as the series of spring leaves I’ve been uploading on my Tumblr blog. Originally this image had warmer light and it was a bit soft, so I accentuated the details on the flower and the piece of wood next to it and adjusted the white balance to make the ground look desaturated. I also added a lens blur filter on the background to give a “Lensbaby” look.
To continue the bird theme of the previous image I posted, here’s an older one from last winter. Unlike the last one, this image hasn’t been modified if you don’t count slight cropping. A flock of waxwings were feeding right next to the road one morning last October and provided a good opportunity to get some close-ups. I haven’t seen any this year, but perhaps it’s still too early. This autumn, there haven’t been as many rowan berries as last year either, but hopefully there’s enough to attract a few waxwings to our neighborhood.
Birds are one of my favorite subjects. I’m not particularly picky about what birds I photograph as long as I’m happy with the final image. Because I’m not taking these photos for a competition or National Geographic, I don’t mind adding things to the images or removing stuff in post-processing if I think it will make the image better. In this image there was a dark pipe that splitting the red background, which I found really distracting, so I removed the pipe in Photoshop. It’s still not an award-winning photo, but it is a lot better with a clean background. At least I like it better this way.
For those of you who care about the technical side, this was shot with Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM, which has turned out to be a nice lens for the price, as long as you stay between 150-400mm and f/8-f/11. It you shoot it beyond 400 mm or wide open, it gets a little soft.
Rhinoceros ratsnake seems to have quite a few names, such as as Vietnamese longnose snake, and it must be the funniest looking snake in the world. Unfortunately I couldn’t go to Vietnam to photograph this one, but had to settle for Helsinki Zoo.
This is Myyrä the cat, the newest member of our household. The photo was taken when she was a bit over 11 weeks old, a week before she moved in with us. She’s now 16 weeks old and growing up to be a fine cat.
I visited my home town recently to meet some friends. On the way back to Jyväskylä I had to wait for the train at Pieksämäki station, and having nothing better to do, I snapped a few photos with my phone. I’ve actually posted a couple of those photos on Tumblr, including another version of this image, but I like this one better.
I took this photo very shortly after I purchased my first DSLR, but it’s still one of my favorites. It is one of the few of my early images that came out the way I wanted despite my very limited skillset and now after post-processing it again, it looks even better. The photo was taken at Pitkäruoho nature reserve in Jyväskylä on a relatively cold day in February.