The Making Of vol. 2

These are fun to make when bored (and with nothing else to post), so I pulled up some more PSD-files (I'm really glad that I save them sometimes) and made another little making-of video. :) 

I'm planning another concept for a shoot with Sina, but it's still a work in progress so I don't know when we'll be putting plans into action. Hopefully soon. We talked about the styling when we did this shoot, so that's covered, but the place is still open. I have an awesome place in mind where I absolutely what to photograph someone, but I'm not sure if these two would match.

The Making Of

Here's a little making-of animation to this lazy Sunday evening.

Music: Bill Whelan - Reel Around The Sun (Riverdance)

Make-up with Photoshop

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my thought process of tonight:

Hmm...I feel like taking a self-portrait... 
I could test out what kind of a lighting I can get with my two lamps... 
I really wouldn't want to put on any make-up, although I look like sh*t... 
No worries, I'll add some in Photoshop!



Music: Petteri Sariola - Prime

My imagination stopped working as soon as I'd set the lamps to their places. The final photos look as if they were taken at school, but it was good practice. And it was fun to play with PS after a little break.

L'Ultima Notte

Tonight, after years of waiting, I will get to see Josh Groban live in a concert. I can't wait.

So, here's to that!

Anyways...Let's dance!

I was in Helsinki last night with my brother and his wife. We went to see Bon Jovi at the Olympic stadium and it was freaking awesome! My brother and I saw them there two years ago, but we had tickets for the floor (or whatever you call it) and I could barely even see the screens back then (yes, my confession: I'm short). Now we had seats up in the side and we saw the whole thing. 

The stadium was sold out so there was a few others too...

Click for the full size!

It was pouring rain by the end of the show, hence all the plastic on people. Thankfully we had a roof over our heads, so we didn't get wet. 

I want to share some of my favorite songs by Bon Jovi (mostly oldies, of course) with you and I hope you'll dance with me. :)

Bazinga, I don't care.

My new favorite t-shirt.

Rainy day's games.

Vintage Effect Tutorial

So, I asked and one of you answered. Here's a tutorial on how I do the vintage effect on my photos.

I posted this once already, but I had saved the video in a bad way so the quality was sh*t. So here's a better one. I recommend you watch it in HD (click the Vimeo-link) and in full screen. :)

I have all this wrapped around in a neat little action in Photoshop, so if you want to use this more than once and don't feel like doing it all manually, I suggest you make an action of your own. When everything is on their own adjustment layers they are really easy to modify to suit different photos.

If you find this interesting and test it on your photos, feel free to post a link to them in the comment section below. I'd love to see what you come up with! :)

IHANAA LEIJONAT IHANAA!

Ihanaa Leijonat Ihanaa!

Finland is the new ice hockey world champion!

I can't find the words to describe how huge this is, so I'll just post some photos from last night and a couple of videos. There are no words...♥ 

An unusual Sunday night.

In defense of these photos I have to state that I most definitely was not sober when I took these, so....;)

Video footage of how we party in Tampere

P.S. Hopefully Blogger will restore my challenge post sometime soon. It was long and I have an unfinished draft of it, but I really wouldn't want to re-write it as I wrote it in both Finnish and English. 

I'm a total Phlearnaholic

Yey, I got my question read and aswered! 8)  [7:30]

It's so funny to hear my question read. :D And they have a really 'spanish' way of pronouncing my name. Oh well, who cares. If you haven't visited Phlearn yet, I recommend you do so. I love these two!

I'm going on a vacation to Tallinn, Estonia for Easter, and I'm hoping I'll have some new photos to share after that. And I'll be doing a vintage tutorial also, requested by my lovely and active reader Tim.

Happy Easter and see you later! :)

Awesome photography websites

I regularly visit many great photography sites and now I want to share some of the best ones with you guys. These sites are great for boring and/or uninspired moments.
The pictures are linked to the sites.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SCHOOL

This is the place I learned pretty much all the basics when I got my first camera and first started doing photography as a hobby a little over two years ago. Great site and the forum is awesome. I highly recommend visiting the forums and registering.

LIGHT STALKING

This site is a great place for inspiration. They also post tutorials and link lists. The forum is a little 'messy' and not that well executed in my opinion, but the blog part of the site is very nice.

Uninspired

It's been a while since I last posted anything, so I thought I'd give you guys some update. I'm not dead or forgotten about my blog, don't worry. I have had a little break from photography. No particular reason, I'm just very uninspired right now and I have been sick so I haven't really picked up my camera at all lately.

I have learned that forcing inspiration doesn't really work - then it's not inspiration anymore, but just forcing. And even if I do snap a seemingly nice photo in that kind of state, then there's never anything more to that photo. No idea behind it, no soul so to speak. So it's not worth it. It just adds to the frustration that I feel during these times. I'm waiting that excitement to strike again, trying to be patient. It usually works to just empty your mind and not stress about feeling uninspired. Then it'll just strike like a lightning some day and you're back in the saddle again.

The photo shoot with Juni is still on hold. The weekends are really the only time we can get together with no time limits, and even then I sometimes have to go the stable and/or Juni has something else to do and/or something else just happens that you can't predict. It's life, but we will do the shoot eventually! I'm sure of it.

I hope everyone's well and not sick like me! Even though I have had a little silent time from posting to my blog, I still visit all the blogs I follow and read regularly. Hopefully I'll get some new ideas soon and get to make an update about those again for you. :)

Here's a great Katy Perry cover by Bruno Mars. Enjoy!

I got my Diana prints back!!

I got a call from the lab yesterday saying that my prints were brought back. As you can imagine, I was super excited and called my mom to pick them up today (I'm really sick with a cold at the moment). Well, she just brought them to me and I'm not that excited anymore...

My very first 35mm Diana film aaaand it sucks. BIG time. 

Apparently I keep "compensating" with the viewfinder, when it's actually doing the exact opposite of good. I keep aiming a little higher than what I see through the viewfinder, although I've told myself a million times to stop it. And now, with the 35mm Back, it's even worse....I was out in the town shooting buildings and stuff with Ms. D and due to this problem of mine I barely have anything at all in my shots, except for the gray sky. Plus I think the color film is pretty much going to waste when shooting these colorless winter scenes. 

Oh well...live and learn, right? Now I know to kick myself the next time I stop trusting the viewfinder. 

But while my photos suck, this definitely doesn't! An amazing Britney-cover by Sam Tsui & Kurt Schneider. This is obviously one of those songs that have all the ingredients to be amazing, but the original version just sucks (another good example is Rihanna's Umbrella). The true magic comes out when someone else does a better version of it and reveals it to the world.
Enjoy, subscribe and share! :)

Hello photo prints!....uhm...these aren't mine?

CITY AND COLOR - SLEEPING SICKNESS

I took my first 35mm Diana film to the lab on Monday and they said that one of their machines was broken but being fixed. So they promised me my prints for today. I went to pick 'em up today and when I got back to my car, all excited to see if I had any good ones in there, I found myself staring at some random photos of men fixing a digger and a cat on a laptop.

Gladly I was still in the parking lot so I went back in and said that those weren't my photos. Yes, the name and other info on the envelope was mine, but those photos didn't come from my film. Apparently they had had them all mixed up due to the broken machine and the hurry they had had to work in order to get back to schedule. The older couple who run the shop/lab started looking through all the print envelopes they had behind the counter, but they didn't find my photos. So the only option is that someone had picked them up before me and they hadn't looked inside their envelope before they were at home.

I'm pretty bummed about this, but they have my number and they'll call me when/if my photos find their way back. Hopefully I'll get them soon, and hopefully I'll have some decent shots in there to share with you guys. I haven't really touched my digital camera these past days; I've been on my Diana-mood.

Well, meanwhile you can go and check out some of my older Ms. D shots! :)

Also check out the awesome song above and this other great song below!

Dear mom and dad, please send money

I don't have anything special to post at the moment so I thought I'd think about it a minute and post this instead. Great lyrics and a happy video :)

Birthday gift shopping and New Year's Eve plans

I went shopping with my mom today and she bought me my birthday gift. New riding shoes and quilted riding trousers for winter. My old shoes were bought for my sister when she was about 12, so they are about.....13 years old. And they don't keep the water out nor keep my toes warm. 

Pruducts and photos from Kaviola

Tomorrow I'm going to my riding school's New Year's Eve party and in the evening I'll be going to see Ensiferum and Amorphis at Pakkahuone. Here's to that:

And a random photo series I made a couple of nights ago.

Sami Hedberg

Here's something hilarious for my Finnish readers. I love this guy. Probably the best Finnish stand-up comedian ever.

I know I will never feel like I'm leaving. I can breathe, 'cos you are my air.

Caleb Hydra - With This Love

I love this song so much. I'm a little disappointed that Santa didn't bring me one of those for Christmas ;)

I bought some new eye shadows today. Make Up Store's orange and yellow and I think I'm in love!

Here's a quick photo I took...I look like Sid from Ice Age, but anyways...

Sugarland

This has got to be one of the most stunning and emotional videos I have ever seen. I have a country music phase at the moment and I'm falling in love with Sugarland all over again. Jennifer Nettles has a voice to die for! 

Stay

I love this next video for its atmosphere. Freedom, roadtrip, Route 66, old american cars, beautiful people, sunshine, dreams, perfection...*sigh* I love country music.

Something More

Musta alkaa vähän tuntumaan tältä...

Seventh Wonder

Yey! I have myself the new Seventh Wonder album and I'm totally loving it!

Seventh Wonder is a Swedish progressive metal band and I think the vocalist - Tommy Karevik - is probably one of the best (if not even the best) metal vocalist I've ever heard. I like the pure control he has over his voice.

Here are some of my favorite songs from them:

First, the 1st single out of the new album - Alley Cat

One Last Goodbye

Hide And Seek

Edge Of My Blade

Banish The Wicked

And many more...