Tomorrow on 21st of Dec 2016 is the shortest day of the year. I took this photo today just before sunset at 13:21. Today sunrise was 10:53 and sunset 13:49. Sun was above the horizon only 2h56min.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Sunset on the Tornio Finland and Haparanda Sweden border Date: 20th of December, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Shot:1/60 sec. f/7.1 19mm ISO100
Editing: A bit cropping and sharpening.
When I took this photo I'm standing in Finland side, but the building on the background are in Haparanda Sweden. The borderline goes just somewhere on that canal area.
Manila in Philippines is one of those cities, which has so many different faces. Usually the news from Manila are very negative outside of Philippines. Ones you have been there a bit longer you will see it offers so much more. Something for everybody.
Place: Makati City, Metro-Manila, Philippines Photo: Makati City in the evening Date: 24th of January, 2015
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot: 8/5 sec. f/3.5 15mm ISO 100
I wanted to do a video, which shows also the positive side of the city. I named the video "This is my Manila". Enjoy!
Yesterday was a bit chilly weather and temperature was -21C. I walked anyway on the borderline here in Tornio and took this photo. This is underpass from Tornio Finland to Haparanda Sweden. Haparanda old water tower is in the middle of the photo.
Place: Haparanda, Sweden Photo: Underpass from Tornio Finland to Haparanda Sweden Date: 6th of December, 2016
Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 Shot: 1/250 sec. f/2.8 11.976mm ISO 80
Editing: Cropping and sharpening
I took this photo 2:20PM, so it was about 17min after official sunset time.
Many times the sunset view is even more beautiful after sun is not visible anymore. This photo is good example what I mean. Horizon is still yellow, but sky is red and looks like it's in fire.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Dramatic sunset in Tornio Date: 1st of December, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot: 1/80 sec. f/8 20mm ISO 100
Day is very short at the moment here in Lapland. I took this shot 2:11PM and it was already sunset time. This photo was taken in Tornio Finland, but the view with the water tower is in Haparanda Sweden.
Place: Haparanda, Sweden Photo: Sunset in Haparanda, Sweden Date: 1st of December, 2016 at 2:11PM
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Shot: 1/640 sec. f/10 131mm ISO 100
Editing: Cropping and sharpening.
At the moment sun is less than 4 hours above the horizon.
Puerto Princesa in Palawan is great place for scuba diving. There is possible to see very small macro creatures, but also big ones. Even whale sharks. Here are some highlights of my underwater adventures in Puerto Princesa. Enjoy!
Palawan is well-known of beautiful beaches and islands, but there is also rich marine life.
Manila, Philippines. Manila in Philippines is not the first place, if you think about the supercars. There are anyway lot of real car guys. Every Sunday mornings Manila Sports Cars Club has a meeting in Burgos Circle in Metro-Manila. This place was on the corner of our home, so I used to visit there also often.
If you live or visit in Manila and want to see cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and other exotics, Burgos Circle is the place where to visit.
Place: Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro-Manila, Philippines Photo/Video: Supercar Sundays in Burgos Circle
Here in the video you will see the collection of the best supercars in Burgos Circle. Enjoy!
Lot of interesting and also expensive models, which are not so common.
Tornio, Finland. Winter in Finland is cold and the coldest day of the year is usually about -40C. This means rivers and lakes are frozen. Some people anyway want to go swimming outside.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Ice swimming in Tornionjoki (Tornio River). Date: 6th of November, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Shot: 1/320 sec. f/6.3 250mm
I have tried out ice swimming twice and let's say it's quite...refreshing.
Kemi, Finland. Every winter it's possible to visit a gigantic SnowCastle in Kemi City. SnowCastle includes world's largest SnowRestaurant with beautiful ice-sculptures where are seats more than 200 people. There is also SnowHotel, which is something amazing. SnowCastle includes also SnowChapel.
The SnowCastle in Kemi is usually open from the end of January to begining of April.
Place: Kemi, Finland Photo/Video: SnowCastle in Kemi Date: 16 February, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Check my video to understand how big the SnowCastle is really.
Interesting to see what kind of will be new SnowCastle for season 2017.
Puerto Princesa, Philippines. This time something totally different. Palawan Island in Philippines has voted the best island in the world few times. I have spent in Palawan about 9 months and most of the time in Puerto Princesa, which is capital city of the Palawan province.
Place: Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Philippines Video: Must see places in Puerto Princesa area.
Here is a video, where I have chosen Must See places in Puerto Princesa area in Palawan.
Beautiful places in tropical Puerto Princesa City area. Enjoy!
Here is Northern Finland days are getting colder and last days have been already subzero days. At the moment temperature is -12C, so it means the river has already frozen. This photo I took two days a go on Sunday.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Frozen Tornio River Date: 6th of November, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EOS EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Editing: Cropping
One interesting point of the photo. I took this photo at 14:45, but sun was already very low. Today two day later sunrise was 8:44AM and sunset was already at 3:29PM, so sun is above horizon only 6h 45min.
This just a interesting example how focal length effect to background of the photo. Here in the photo train bridge is on the front and windmills on the background are quite far from the bridge. Windmills look colossal.
Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Train bridge between Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden and windmills.
Date: 3rd of November, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Editing: Sharpening and cropping.
Any idea how to use this feature and do some funny tricks?
This time old photo. I took this photo when I was motorcycling around the Penang Island in Malaysia.
Place: Teluk Bahang in Penang Island, Malaysia Photo: Pier near Teluk Bahang Date: 26th of January, 2011
Camera: Canon EOS 450D Shot: 1/250 sec. f/8 55mm ISO100
Editing: B&W conversion, more contrast, some cropping.
Great memories of the riding day even it was quite cloudy day. More photos from Penang in my travel blog. You can use Search (Haku) on the up right corner.
I have been interested about drones already many years, but I have never owned one. During the last few years drones have developed a lot and features are getting better and better.
One of the newest and most interesting drone on the market is at the moment DJI Mavic Pro. It's small and powerful drone with 4 vision sensors, 4K camara and amazing 4.3mi (7Km) range.
In fact the size is now very compact, because the arms are possible to fold to small packet.
Mavic Pro promotional video.
Here is interesting review of Mavic Pro.
Very impressive drone indeed! I think I have to buy one.
I took this photo today from the border of Finland and Sweden. The Rajalla Mall in the photo is in Tornio in Finland side, but I took this photo from Haparanda Sweden side.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Rajalla Mall in Tornio Date: 25th of October, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Editing: B&W conversion, more contrast, highlights down, more sharpness, cropping.
Tornio is my home town, but this was also new angle to the mall for me too. Always something new.
Now is already October, so it means almost all insects have disappeared here in North Finland. Few days a go I saw a fly in balcony, which hardly could move anymore at all, because it was already so cold. It was perfect target to take same macro shots.
I don't have external flash, so I used internal flash and also flashlight to have some extra light.
Place: Tornio, Finland Photo: Fly Date: 15th of October, 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM + Kenko Extension Tubes (3)
Editing: Cropping, sharpening and highlights down
I tried many different manual setting. Here I used: 1/125 sec. f/18 100mm ISO320
Closer. 1/60 sec. f/11 100mm ISO100
Front close-up. 1/125 sec. f/14 100mm ISO320
Normally it's very difficult or almost impossible to go so near a fly like I did in these shots.
Numbers in the Northern Lights forecast have been very high today for the whole evening and night. Unfortunately there came also some clouds, so I couldn´t take so many photos. Hopefully some evening again.
Tornvallen fortification was built in the end of World War I in 1918 to defend the railway bridge, which was under construction. Fortification include two bastions. The bridge was completed in October 1919. Tornvallen means Tower Hill in English.
Place: Haparanda, Sweden Photos: Tornvallen fortification Date: 4-6th of October, 2016
South bastion.
Fact sheet of Tornvallen.
South bastion inside.
Bastions have connected with the tunnel. Stairs go down to the tunnel.
South bastion inside from another direction.
South bastion on the left and north bastion on the background.
Railway bridge between Haparanda in Sweden and Tornio in Finland. Connection tunnel between the bastions is just under railway, where I took this photo.
North bastion.
North bastion inside and stairs to the tunnel.
Only two years and this place will be already 100 years old. Piece of local history here in Haparanda-Tornio area.
Editing: More contrast, highlights down, sharpening
Here is another photo from the same place. I just converted the photo to B&W and I added intentionaly too much contrast and sharpness, so it looks very dramatic.
This is the best time of the year to take autumn photos here in North Finland.
