Beautiful Midnight Sky in Tornio

Yesterday evening the sky was very beautiful at midnight. I played with the camera settings so, that the colors looks even stronger and more dramatic. I took this photo 17min after midnight and there was still so much light.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Beautiful Midnight Sky in Tornio
Date: 23rd of May, 2017 at 00:17

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Shot: 1/40 sec. f/5.6 29mm ISO 200

Editing: Sharpening, cropping.

Lot of light already all day long.

Regards,
Mika

Vibrant and Colorful Singapore

I have been in Singapore many times and few times also several weeks in a row. Singapore is very clean city with skyscrapers where everything works well. It's also very green city like is the whole country. There are also many interesting place outside the city center.

Watch this my short video clip about Singapore what else it offers.

Singapore is great place and there is always nice to visit.

Regards,
Mika

Ps. I added this video clip also to the video section of this blog. If you like my video clips, please Subscribe my Youtube channel.

Snowy Park Path

Winter has turned to spring, but we have still snow here in Tornio. I took this photo in Ainopuisto.

Place: Ainopuisto, Tornio, Finland
Photo: Snowy park path
Date: 12th of April, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.5.6 IS
Shot: 1/320 sec. f/9 100mm ISO 100

Editing: I edited the photo using several different kind of filters and also manual editing. Also cropping.

Snow melts every day more and more, but there is still long way to summer. 

Regards,

Mika

FoodPhotography - More Sushi

Sushi is always good, so more sushi. It's already some time, when was sushi day last time.

Photo: More sushi
Date: 15th of April, 2017

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15
Shot: 1/40 sec. f/2.2 9.215mm ISO 800

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

Shot: 1/100 sec. f/2.2 12.138mm ISO 800

Was it good? Of course it was.

Regards,
Mika

Foggy Cloud

One night I was checking from the balcony are there northern lights on the sky, when I saw interesting foggy cloud.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Foggy cloud
Date: 31st of March, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Shot: 4 sec. f/4 19mm ISO 320

Editing: Cropping

It moved quite quickly and there was abit ghostly feeling.

Regards,
Mika

Fireworks and Bridges

Tornio ice fishing competition started on Friday and there was also fireworks in the evening.

Place: Tornio, Finland

Photo: Fireworks and Bridges

Date: 24th of March, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D

Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Shot: 6 sec. f/13 19mm ISO 800

More photos from ice fishing competition later.

Regards,

Mika

Flowers and Shadow

I ended up to take this kind of photo accidentally. When taking photo and using the flash in the camera the shadow is always behind the object. My wife took few photos about these flowers and I gave her some extra light from the side and saw big shadow.

Then I played with the light a bit more. In this photo I had a light on table and it's upward to flowers making huge visible shadow above the flowers. Then I took the photo normally on the front of the flowers without flash, so the shadow is in the "wrong" place.

Photo: Flowers and shadow
Date: 17th of March, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Shot: 1/50 sec. f/4.5 35mm ISO 2500

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

The light-shadow combination is quite interesting or what do you think?

Regards,

Mika

FoodPhotography: Sushi Day

We made today some sushi at home and I took few photos using white background before the delicious sushi dinner.

Photo: Sushi Day
Date: 7th of March, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
Shot: 1/60 sec. f/16 50mm ISO 400

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

Shot: 1/60 sec. f/16 50mm ISO 400

Shot: 1/125 sec. f/3.2 50mm ISO 400

Sushi day is always good day.

Regards,
Mika

Ready to swim?

March is the last real winter month in Finland. Swimming outside is anyway possible all year round. In winter it just means ice swimming. This is the main ice swimming place in Tornio.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Ready to swim?
Date: 3rd of March, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Editing: Little bit cropping and sharpening.

I have tried ice swimming twice, but not this winter. How about you?

Regards,
Mika

Kukkolankoski Rapids in Winter

Kukkolankoski Rapids is part of Tornionjoki (River Tornio) and it's 15km to north from Tornio. The rapids is 3500 meters long and height is 13,8 meters. The rapids area does not freeze totally even in the winter, when temperature can be sometimes close to -40C.

I took this picture from Sweden and the landscape behind the river is in Finland side.

Place: Kukkolankoski Rapids in Finland/Sweden
Photo: Kukkolankoski Rapids in Winter
Date: 19th of February, 2017

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15
Shot: 1/1250 sec. f/2.8 13.75mm ISO 80

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

In summer the view is totally different and there are people fishing on the rapids area.

Regards,
Mika

Frosty Trees in the Evening

I took this photo on the evening walk in the city center of Tornio.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Frosty trees
Date: 16th of February, 2017

Camera: Canon PowerShot G15
Shot: 1/8 sec. f/1.8 6.1mm ISO 1600

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

Here is another.
Shot: 1/8 sec. f/1.8 6.1mm ISO 1600

Frosty park in the evening looks very beautiful.

Regards,
Mika

Food Photography: Sushi

Food photography is one kind of art and food photos are taken nowadays more than ever. I took this photo few days ago when we made sushi at home.

Photo: Sushi
Date: 11th of February, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6
Shot: 1/60 sec. f/5.6 85mm ISO 400

Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

I'm hungry now!

Regards,
Mika

Vinci | Android App - Tornio Old Church

This time I tested Android app called Vinci, which has lots of different kind of effects. Target of my photo was this time old Tornio church.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Tornio old church
Date: 7th of February, 2017

Camera: LG G2 mobile phone (Android)
Shot: 1/2000 sec. f/2.4 3.97mm ISO 50

Editing: Vinci

First the original shot before editing.

Here are few examples after using different kind of effects.
Effect #1. Here the photo looks immediately like drawing or painting.

Effect #2. This version is already more artistic.

Effect #3. Here the theme is blue.

Effect #4. In this one the colors are darker and feeling is more dramatic. I like this one.

At the moment there are lot of different kind of photo editing apps available for mobile phones. Most of the apps are very simple to use. Results after editing can be also very interesting.

Regards,
Mika

Factory and Windmills

I took this photo two days ago, when was cold winter day. Sun was shining brightly, but temperature was about -17C. In this photo you see Outokumpu steel factory area and windmills.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Outokumpu steel factory and windmills
Date: 8th of February, 2017

Camera: LG G2 mobile phone
Editing: Cropping and sharpening.

Have to say the weather was quite chilly, because there was also some wind. Sunny doesn't mean always warm. At least not in North Europe in winter day.

Regards,
Mika

Curvature

I have taken photos many, many times on Tornio old bridge, but I have never thought one thing before. The curvature of the bridge. If the photos have taken using mobile phone or DSLR with wide angle lens, the curvature is not visible. I took this photo using my zoom lens and the focal length was 250mm and the end result is very interesting.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Curvature
Date: 31st of January, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Shot: 1/400 sec. f/6.3 250mm ISO 200

Editing: Cropping and sharpening

Sometimes photography and photos can surprise you and that's awesome!

Regards,
Mika

New page - Videos and Photo Collages

I added a new page Videos and Photo Collages to this blog. There you can find direct links to my Youtube channel. All the pages are visible on the upper left corner.

Cheers,
Mika

Plants in Winter

Many plants looks in winter time very different than in summer. Some of those can be photogenic also in winter.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Plants in Winter
Date: 28th of January

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
Shot: 1/320 sec. f/7.1 50mm ISO 100

Editing: Color temperature colder, sharpening, little bit cropping.

I tried different kind of color temperature settings for this photo, but using colder setting it looks a bit like painting.

Regards,
Mika

Camera360 | Android App - Wintry River View

Today was very warm and nice winter day and temperature was about +3C. It felt almost like in the spring time.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Wintry river view
Date: 26th of January, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Shot: 1/250 sec. f/7.1 90mm ISO 100

Editing: For this photo I used app called Camera360 in my phone (Android). I used filter, where only blue is visible. After that I added more saturation to make blue even more visible.

So not everything else is black & white exept sky and water is blue.

Regards,
Mika

BirdWatching - Rare Iceland Gull Seen in Tornio

One Iceland gull has been already about two weeks here in Tornio. According Finnish Wiki Iceland gull has spotted in Finland only  about 28 times ever. I heard from birdwatcher that last year 2016 people didn't see any Iceland Gull in Finland. There have been already some birdwatchers who have driven 500-600km from South Finland to Tornio to watch the bird and then back to home. Maybe that tells something how rare Iceland gulls are in Finland.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides), In Finnish: Grönlanninlokki
Date: 24th of January, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

The bird has been in the same place where are also ice fishers and they have feed the bird. Also today when I was there.

Lunch time.

Eating.

Almost done.

If you try to go closer the bird, it will fly away, but only 10-20 meters. Looks like fishes keep the bird on same place.

Let's see how long the bird will stay here in Tornio.

Regards,
Mika

Old Wooden Houses

I took this photo in the area where are many old wooden houses. Then I wanted the photo looks old, so I played with different kind of filters.

Place: Tornio, Finland
Photo: Old wooden houses
Date: 16th of January, 2017

Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Shot: 1/20 sec. f/14 26mm ISO 100

Editing: Cropping and many different kind of filters. Some filters I used many times, so first saving and added same filter again to get the stronger effect what I wanted.

For comparison here is the original photo.

Same photo, but totally different look.

Regards,
Mika