Neste Oil Rally 2011

Yep, it's that time of the year again and I went yesterday. I woke up around 2:30 am after about 3 hours of sleep and left home around 4:30 am for Jämsä where my brother and his wife were staying in a camping site. From there we drove to Jyväskylä.
It was a little bit different going to the rally on the first day. Not as much walking as we only went to two locations to see the race. I usually go on the second or the third day, but this year I couldn't make it today or tomorrow. But I had a good time, and I got to practice my rally-photography. First time with my DSLR and I practiced the panning technique again. :)

The day started with a beautiful sunrise. Although the sun did look 4 times larger and totally red in real life.

It's nice driving so early in the morning - you can step on the breaks whenever you want
if you see something pretty ahead.

The official Rally-dog says "Good morning!" :)
(Notice the proper Finn-scarf.)
(This I took with my phone)

So this is what I was doing at first (and what I have done in the previous years)
and kept thinking how boring the photos looked.

And then....a little more SPEED! :)

My big brother with my old and faithful companion. :)

Over 10 helicopters landed behind us on the field. She was observing them...

(...and certainly not the cookie in my sister-in-law's hand ;))

Panning practice vol. 2

I practiced the panning technique more today and I think I got some much better results than last time. Let me know what you think. I shot these in RAW, so I'm trying to learn to change my process a bit. I chose RAW mainly because a horse this dark is likely to turn out too dark when shooting in snowy environment.

This one is my favorite because the eye is in focus. The snow is still slightly gray-ish but whatever.
1/20s   f/9   44mm  ISO100  

This was the second best. The muzzle is in focus in this one and she looks cute and happy. :)
1/20s   f/9   49mm   ISO100

MARKO, RAX & panning

The photo shoot with Juni is gonna get down on 30th! I can't wait. Probably gotta do a little more planning, though. One can never be too prepared, eh? 

I've been browsing through some photographers' websites for inspiration and I found a couple of pretty amazing professionals. I want to share two with you guys. 

MARKO

First one is Finnish photographer called Marko. I love his portraits of Finnish celebrities. Very inspiring and creative. 

RAX 

(Ragnar Axelsson)

And this second one has got me seriously amazed. Incredible grainy black & white photography and his compositions are really inspiring! I especially love the Greenland- and Last Days Of The Arctic-galleries. 

As for my own photography, I haven't done much this week. I received a 35mm Back for my Diana and I'm pretty stoked about that. I bought some film today and will start shooting now. I've been meaning to take a full film from the PopCam to a nearby photography shop to get it developed, but I haven't got around it just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

I had my camera with me at the stable today and I tried to get some shots, but it was so dim already that they didn't turn out so good. I tried to get some half-decent panning shots, but this is all I got.

Here Pretti's head is KIND of in focus....so almost there, but not quite.

Gotta try again when there's more light and I have my tripod with me (uhm...I never have my tripod with me...). Anyways...I also snapped this mobile phone shot of a brilliant cat who refused to move and ended up with two riding belts on his back.