Itsukushima
During my time in Japan I visited Itsukushima, an island in the Inland Sea off the coast of Hiroshima. The island, which is largely uninhabited and protected as a part of Setonaikai National Park, is best know for the unique Itsukushima Shrine that lies on it’s northern shore, but I found the presence of large numbers of tame deer to be far more interesting. From what I’ve read, the deer became tame over the course of many decades as a result of tourists feeding them and the superstitious beliefs of locals who allow them to walk wherever they please. As a result, they are a lot like cows in India and can be seen in most places where people can be seen as well. I think this photo sums up the atmosphere on the island in how tolerant people are of the deer. I had to skew and content-aware a small part of the photo (lower right along the bottom edge) in order to get the perspective right and didn’t spend to much time cleaning up the content-aware cloning so it might look a bit weird there.
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Päivityksiä / Updates
My fall semester at Clark University is coming to a close and with this the photography course that I have been making posts for over the past few months. It’s hard to believe but even with all the editing work that I’ve done I still have thousands of photos from this past summer that I have yet to edit or show anyone, most notably nearly all the photos that I took during my 10 days in Japan. I plan to work on these when I’m back in Finland for my winter break from late December to mid January. After I’ve presented my final prints for my photo course I’ll upload those to Flickr and possible here as well, but until then here is one photo from Tokyo. Lastly, be sure to check out this website.
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Palanut / Burned
About a month ago I posted some photos from an abandoned factory that I had recently found in Worcester. After visiting for the first time I knew that I had to come back with a wider lens and more time to explore further inside and around the massive complex. A few days ago I made another trip and this time concentrated on capturing the combination of fire and water damage and the unique marks that this history has left on the structures. I was most interested in a large wooden silo (that happened to have a perfect crack in it for photographing the inside) on the outskirts of the complex that looked like it could have collapsed at any moment. I haven’t processed these images much (only some RAW edits) and will work on them more extensively soon.
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Miehitys / Occupation (Kaks / Two)
Here are more photos from my ongoing interest in the subjects of the Occupy Boston protest.
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Pesä / Nest
I shot this at an abandoned coal-fired power plant in Worcester. The superstructure of the plant rose up about 80 metres and for most of the way was surrounded by metal staircases and walkways that allowed me to climb up and capture this shot of a birds nest made around a cluster of water pressure monitors. I love the contrast captured here between something very natural and delicate and something industrial and rigid.
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Väsynyt / Tired
From Occupy Boston. Some people seemed more out of place than others. I wasn’t sure who was dressing up to make a statement and who was genuinely themselves.
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Miehitys / Occupation
I recently spent some time photographing people at the ongoing occupation of Boston’s financial district. The lighting conditions were challenging and the subjects fast moving. I have a lot to work with from this event and hope to have more photos up soon. Despite the obvious exposure problems resulting from the dramatic lighting, I like this photo because the message transmitted by the actions of the two figures is so dramatic and direct.
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Kantele
My friend Adam and I recently took a trip to Boston and stopped at my home in the USA there. I was excited to show Adam, a talented and largely self-taught musician, my small collection of unusual, old instruments. Of the instruments he played for the first time, I was most fascinated seeing him figure out how to play the Kantele, an instrument described in Finland’s national epic, the Kalevala. There are no exact specifications to follow when making a Kantele so countless designs exist and as a result there is no one way of playing a Kantele. Having never known how to play the instrument myself it was amazing to watch him discover the notes it could produce and actually play simple songs on it.
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Meri / Sea
I visited Newport, Rhode Island, USA a few weeks ago and took these photos.
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Steve Jobs
I don’t normally enjoy reportage or photographing anything associated with current events, but after hearing of Steve Jobs’ death I had a rare urge to document how people would react. On the weekend following the news I headed to Boston to spend a few days at my home in the USA and walked by the Boylston Street Apple Store as I often do. This time I was surprised to see piles of flowers, candles and hundreds of notes stuck to the glass walls of the store, surrounded by quiet spectators even late at night when I arrived. As a collector of vintage microcomputers (theapplemuseum.org) this expression effected me personally and it was amazing to read the notes people had left and to think about how much the Apple community has grown since I started collecting over 7 years ago.
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