Happy New Year 2009!

I started this blog 18.4.2008 with this post where I comment my morning jog and show some pictures I took along the way. I hope my blogging and photography has improved during this journey and will keep improving.

I have a lot of expectations for the 2009:

• I will open and register my firm (Tmi Petteri Löppönen) for business (Even though I hopefully will have a regular dayjob from the different field)
• In June I will receive my Qualification for Photographer -degree
• I will plan and open my official homepage
• I will continue this blog, but I think I will write from now on mainly in Finnish, because most of the readers are Finnish, but I will write the main points from each post also in English

I wish everybody Happy New Year 2009! with this shot taken from the Suite of Radisson SAS Hotel, Oulu a year ago. The building with a star reflected is Oulu City Theatre and behind it you can see Stora Enso paper mill

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all of you Merry Christmas & Happy new Year 2009!

Photomontage

We got an assignement to make a photomontage and this is the end result. This has been made in Photoshop from three different pictures using layers.

Rock party posing

Yesterday we had a small christmas party among friends and the theme was ROCK! Of course I had a camera with me (Canon PowerShot G9) and also one Vivitar 285HV speedlight and Cactus triggers. We had a fun night there and I got a chance to take also some posing pictures there with these nice girls.

Rock girl

Jenni posing as a rockstar. Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Strobist info:

On camera left Vivitar 285HV at 1/4 power through umbrella. Another Vivitar 1/4 behind model to light livingroom wall.

Shooting Mona & Elli

Last thursday I had an opportunity to practise shooting in studio. Thanks to Teemu, who is a co-partner in Studio Kuutio, we had a nice shooting session there with Mona and Elli. They performed like professional models and didn't complaint at all during the almost three hours shooting session. Here are the shots I personally like most.

Phillip Toledano - Days with My Father

I surf a lot in the internet and very often found myself exploring photography related sites. I have seen so many good pictures and more often, mediocre work that doesn't move me at all. That's why it's always inspiring every now and then to find photographic pearls like Phillip Toledano's site, and especially the series "Days with My Father". In those pictures exists the true essence and meaning of photography - to move people and create emotions.

Results from the weekend

I succeeded to pass the assignement that the judges gave us on friday in Tornio. Our task was to plan and shoot five pictures from the given subject. The subject they gave us was to shoot the pictures to the imaginery magazine article, which covered the story of Finland's and Sweden's increasing co-operation in the Tornio-Haparanda border and especially the influence of the recently built Rajalla - På Gränsen -mall. Rajalla is co-operative project of two cities located in two different countries, Haparanda (Sweden) and Tornio (Finland).

In the beginning I felt the task somehow difficult. I didn't found any creative ideas to shoot in the mall, so the first couple of hours I just hang around the mall and was just looking around to get inspiration. I went out from the mall to the border area and found there underpass that connects Finland to Sweden. I took some pictures there and headed back to the mall. I saw a mall guard there and got an idea. I asked him where I can find the director of the mall, so I could take some pictures of him to the "story".

The guard went to the administration part of the building and a minutes later came and escorted me to see the director. The director was very helpful and told me some details about the mall from the floorplan, which was hanging on the wall in his office. I took some pictures and left the rest of the shooting for the next day.

On saturday I was back in the mall after 10:00 am. I got some nice shots and asked one girl to pose for my picture on a 2nd floor, watching over the reeling to the 1st floor.

In my previous post I showed you the preliminary assignement pictures (from no. 6 to no. 9) I have took and chose to the judging. All pictures, except no. 7 series were accepted. Also my product pictures (Larsen X.O.) were happily accepted. I am quited pleased for the overall results, though I have to shoot again that no. 7 again. But everytime I make mistakes, I do also learn from them.