As I've done the last two years before, I've collected my favourite photographs from this ending year of 2012. It includes more colour than before, but also some black and white photography as I've started to find my own style in fine art direction of photography. In this collection, I have photos from Australia, Indonesia, Italy, Paris and Finland.
So, even though it feels like I had relatively little time for shooting this year compared to last year, I still managed to visit a few amazing locations and get some new material.

I also had my first two photography exhibitions here in Helsinki ('A Glimpse Of The World' and 'Shades'), so that was 
a big challenge as well as a place of learning for me. I'm happy I managed to do the exhibitions and we'll see what happens next year in that regard.

Hopefully I still continue to learn and develop next year. There's some new shooting locations already in plans. One of my dream places is becoming true when I get to visit Iceland next July. Really, really looking forward to that!
Happy new year everyone! Here's my chosen photos.

December in Paris could be windy, rainy and chilly, but it's also very atmospheric and beautiful, even if the sun is nowhere to be seen. Clouds and dark shades make the city even more appealing. As I many times find out with my photography, clouds and scarce light creates a unique setting for capturing moody and mysterious scenes. So, here's some urban and cityscape photography from winter days in Paris.

Nick Brandt's photography work takes your breath away and just makes you stare, silent. He left his successful career in music video directing and commercial side to capture the wonders of wildlife of East Africa. How he became introduced to this area he later fell in love with? Nick Brandt directed Michael Jackson's music video for Earth Song, after which, fittingly, he wanted to express himself by photography and make his effort for conservation and threatened wildlife in Africa. He now has his own non-profit organization for conservation work called Big Life Foundation, which focuses on wildlife in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya and Tanzania.

I was kindly asked by two friends (and café owners) to bring in some of my photography and hang them on their café's walls. I named the exhibition 'Shades' and it includes five colour landscapes and four black & white square prints. These landscapes are, yes, from New Zealand, but also one from Bavaria, Germany and one from Australia.
 
So, from 16.11. onwards you can see some of my photos framed on Kahvila Sävy's walls in Helsinki. It's an awesome, cosy coffeehouse. You are guaranteed to get the best special coffees (double cappuccino being my favourite from them), tasty and fresh croissants and hear some nice tunes from vinyl records. I would definitely recommend visiting, even if not for my photos. Here's three of the nine photos that I got printed in Sävy.

I've created a new slideshow collection 'Weddings' about the wedding photography I've done during 2011 and 2012. I added this new section in the navigation menu where the collection can be found.

I want to thank these beautiful now-happily-married couples for letting me to show these photos. You can also click any of the photos to see more.

I've ended up seeing some amazing places around the world already and I've tried to capture it in my own way and style. I consider this only the beginning, however, and there's so many more great and mind-provoking destinations yet to see. 

There will be some selected photographs on display at the cosy Cafe Talo in Hakaniemi from the beginning of June onwards. I also have reserved the upstairs of Cafe Talo on June 1st for my friends and friends of the friends and just all the people that would like to have a look at my photos.

If you like what you see and even wish to get one for yourself, some of the prints are for sale. I will put 5€ from every sold picture into a Kiva Loan (http://www.kiva.org/about/) which I think is a sustainable way of creating new opportunities around the world - the people that might not have the same support system around them that I've had, for example. The buying is not the main point, though, and I just want to welcome you all to join me and have a glimpse of the world.

So, 1.6. there will be a get-together and after that you can visit Cafe Talo (http://www.cafetalo.fi/) and check out some of the photos.

Welcome you all!

More info and updates will follow...Here's the Facebook invitation.

I wanted to share you one of the "new wave" photographers, who has his unique style of photography, but who also is eager to break some old school rules in the photography business. Free sharing, the active use of internet and social media, educating other photo enthusiasts and HDR (high dynamic range) photography are some of the things this man is well know for. He is Trey Ratcliff and I would recommend to look into his work, not just the great HDR images he creates, but also his versatile blog StuckInCustoms.com in general and the tutorials and videos he has put out for everyone of us to enjoy. Trey also offers a Free HDR Tutorial on his blog, so if you're interested in learning more about HDR shooting, this might be something you definitely want to have a look at.

Here's how Trey describes his work and himself: "I am known generally for the unique way in which I capture and process the world around me. I have my own “take” on HDR Photography, and you can see my free HDR Tutorial right here. I grew up blind in one eye and this might have changed the way I view the world. I don’t know. It’s hard to be objective about the way one’s brain was wired. My background is in computer science and math, so I bring an algorithm-like process to capturing the scene in such a way that it evokes memories in a palpable manner. Whatever that means."

This is a short behind-the-scenes video about one of his HDR landscape images from Iceland, just to give you an idea:

This is a bit longer video where Trey Ratcliff visits Google's Mountain View headquarters for an Photographers/Authors@Google talk: