Peace of mind...

This lake is my favorite place in the whole world. It's the only place in which I can find the perfect peace of mind. I don't know anything better than swimming there and then sitting at the end of the dock just listening to the nature. Somehow I seem to forget everything that might be troubling my mind, and I just....am. I kind of feel 'one with the nature', however corny that may sound.

I often try to look at the lake through the eyes of someone who's never been there before and I see its beauty in a totally different way. Really it's a small lake that opens up in the middle of the woods and road that runs next to it is framed with beautiful birch trees. Well obviously I see that with my own eyes too, but sometimes I just 'wake up' in front of it all...

There is nothing more refreshing than taking a swim in the lake when the water's cold and then running back to the hot sauna. I took my first swim this year when the water was only +5 °C. It took my breath away - literally - but it was great as hell!

We also have all kinds of water birds there in the summers. This summer we've seen a merganser, a diver and the usual mallards.

Winter beauty!

I went back to the beach today and I have a few pretty awesome shots for ya. :)

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I love this kind of a weather. Cold, snowy and the sun shines. I can't think of anything more beautiful.

My school is over for this year and now I get to concentrate on enjoying the holidays (wait, that made it sound like I would have actually concentrated on school before today....). 

Obviously I shouldn't start any kinds of projects because I can't finish them. Like the 24 Christmas Songs -theme. Turns out, it's not too natural for me to post something everyday and I don't like to force myself to post. I doubt this will bother anyone, but just acknowledging it.   

This is my December

It's freezing cold today, but it has been clear blue skies so I'm loving it. I went down to the beach today and found a bunch of mallards there. I felt so sorry for them...don't their flippers get cold?

My dad bought this great digital photography book, The Digital Photography Book Vol. 1 by Scott Kelby (Suuri digikuvauskirja in Finnish) and I've started to pay more attention to the camera settings, technique and especially the composition again. In this photo the settings could've been much better, so I had to add some light on the mallards in Photoshop and it shows as messy graininess.

But I have a feeling those ducks aren't going anywhere so I'll be going back there sometime soon for a re-do.  

And as an update to the The Ark situation, me and my friend have tickets now so we're going to see them for the very last time!