DPS Assignment: B&W nature

This week assignment was to take a black and white photo of nature.

Yesterday I set to travel to Estonian Soomaa (trans. boglands) that are now flooded. They say there are five seasons at Soomaa: spring, summer, autumn, winter and flood. And now we are definately having the flood season.

My photo for the assignment below:

And here a few more sights of the flooded area, some in colour, some in black and white:

DPS's Assignment: Spring

The new assignment has sent me to nature several times to photograph the early signs of spring in the Baltic countries, in South Estonia and recently in North Latvia.

And it has made me think of the impact of spring on people on the northern hemisphere. What is the essence of spring?

And my conclusion is: it is all about breaking free. Free from ice, free from snow, free from the prevailing  darkness.

Waterfall in Taevaskoda, South Estonia at the River Ahja

Had this assignment been given a few weeks later, my conception of spring would have been far more delightful. I could have photographed flowers in their early buds, the blue sky, butterflies.

But at this particular time, the spring is still melancholic. Breaking free, like giving birth, is painful. It is devastating, and sometimes even ugly:

The wings of an icy swan

Water is breaking free, not with a bang, but in minute drops

Yet there are signs of a new life:

Willows are budding

Two cats basking in the sun in South Estonia

This year the winter has been exceptionally hard, there has been more snow than we can remember. And now, as the snow is turning into water, there are floods everywhere:

Taken from the River Gauja in Latvia

House at the River Gauja in Latvia

Yet, the spring fills us with joy, finally the rivers are free from ice, they are running with mighty force:

River Ahja in South Estonia

River Amata in Latvia

And what is most important, finally there is light, every day more and more!

The Erglu cliffs bordering the River Gauja in Latvia

River Gauja in Latvia

DPS's Assignment: Tell Me a Story

Let me introduce you to our Furry Friend, Latte.

Latte has a slight behavioural problem, he is still living the life of an adolescent at the supposed mature age of three. Which means that the movement never stops, never, ever...

... except when Daddy goes away.

Latte is Daddy's boy, I am good company, but Daddy is all that really matters.

When Daddy goes away, Latte sits in front of our balcony windows, like a sphinx, literally for hours without moving. Head held high so that he can see out. Anguish in his eyes.

You can almost hear Cole Porter's song: Everytime you go away, I die a little...

Daily Vision: Early morning fox

Recently I have been in the habit of waking up real early. I guess that the ever increasing amount of light after a dark winter is waking me up.

Sometimes it is pays to get up at the early hours of the day. Yesterday I managed to get a glimpse of this foxy lady:

The photo is taken by Canon 1000D + Canon 55-250 mm 1:4.0-5.6 IS- and the quality is not the best. I still post it here from the sheer pleasure of managing to see this magnificent creature.

Photography Thursday

In Finland there is a forum of photographers sending each Thursday a photo according to the given challenge. This Thursday the challenge was a poem of Finnish poet Caj Westerberg.


muistot kaikuvat loputtomina kuin

vastakkaiset peilit
eikä niitten kautta voi astua kuin toisiin
itsensä kuviin,
ulkona taivaanrannan tähti, kumipallo, ja koira

 
From his collection: Uponnut Venetsia (1972)
 
 
Here is my translation of the poem:
 
memories echo endlessly
like facing mirrors
and through them you can only step
to another image of yourself,
 
outside there is a star at horizon, a rubber ball, and a dog
 
 
 
So, this was the challenge, and below my photo that tries to capture the essence of this poem:
 

 
The dog in question is not just any dog, but my very much beloved and missed Ronja who passed away five months ago.

Daily Vision: Golden reeds

Golden reeds dancing to the wind on the Lake Pyhäjärvi, Otepää, South Estonia:

Camera: Canon 1000D + Sigma 18-200 1:3.5-6.3

Focal length: 134 mm

Aperture: f. 8.0

Speed: 1/250

ISO 100

Matter of taste - which pleases you?

I have a problem with my printing house. Every once in a while I need big prints in the sizes A2 and A1. For them I use a printing house with a good reputation. The only problem is that the IT guru of the house wants to improve my photos, big time.  He starts with  improvements that will enhance the printing quality but ends up changing the photos to the extent I do not recognize them as my own anymore.

Basically, I am not against improvement, I am not saying what I produce is perfect. Far from it. But I feel there are limits to alterations.

I give you an example.

I took this picture late in the evening at a remote place called Dirhami situated on the Baltic Sea on the west coast of Estonia. There was magic in the air, the atmosphere was like in a fairytale. I tried to capture this particular moment, when the world was turning from blue to lilac, just before the sunset.

I liked the result so much that I added the photo to my internet photo store Ottilia Visions.

On Friday the printer called and told me that he did not find the colours natural and had enhanced the photo to better correspond to reality (reality being imaginative since he was not present when the photo was taken. He  even gave me a lecture on the colours of different types of sands in Estonia).

He sent me his version, below:

This is my poll: which one do you like better?

The absolute truth - reality, true colours and lights at that particular moment at that particular place - are from somewhere in-between these two.

Daily Vision: From the road to Võru

My daily pic is taken in mid February this year from South Estonia, close to a small town called Võru.

It was a dull and cloudy day, and even though the picture was taken at noon, the dull light gives an impression of evening and setting sun.

Canon 1000D + Sigma 18-200 mm, ISO 400, aperture: f16, exposure 1/640

"Assignment: Product Photography "

Darren Rowse's DPS's weekly assignment was a product photograph.

Here is my entry:

May I tempt you to a jelly bean that will brighten up your day?

Ottilia's Daily Vision: Mystery Balls

One of Ottilia's Visions characteristics will be a Daily Photo, which is a current pic of my choice.

Today's pic is part of a Mystery Series - the mystery being, what an earth is this. Any suggestions?

Welcome to Ottilia's Visions - a new photoblog

Welcome to Ottilia's Visions blog.

This blog is dedicated to the art of photography, and will be my forum to exhibit my pics and discuss all aspects of photographing.

For the past two years I have been writing in Finnish a blog called Suomalaisena Virossa (As a Finn in Estonia), where I have shared my thoughts and experiences of my life as an expat in Estonia. It has become quite popular, I am happy to say, and one reason to this may be the fact, that I use a lot of photos to illustrate my stories.

How does one become an expat? I guess, we all have different reasons. For me it was all about changing my life in every possible way. Four years ago I had it. I was deadly bored with my not-so-well-paid but steady job and the everyday strain of business life. So I quit it and moved to South Estonia, more precisely to Otepää where I opened a small but cosy family hotel called Villa Ottilia. From my old life only my husband Kimmo and my dog Ronja followed. I have never regretted it.

Actually my name is Tiina Linkama, Ottilia is just a nickname my husband gave me. It is also the name of my enterprise: Ottilia Oü.

So I am Ottilia, my hotel is Villa Ottilia and my blog is Ottilia's Visions. There is still one more Ottilia, namely my e-mail business, which is a small outlet selling my photos of Estonia. At the moment the site is all in Finnish, but you are welcome to have a look of this gallery that carries almost identical name to this blog: Ottilia Visions. All photos are from Estonia, most of them landscapes,   but I am now widening the selection to cover other subjects, too.

So now you know something about me. For starters. I hope we will become friends. I hope you let me share my visions with you.

Once more: welcome to Ottilia's Visions