Tuesday, January 31, 2012

His sad and usual heart, dry as a winter leaf

Here I'm demonstrating that I can move the aspect ratio switch from the 1:1 setting to another, if I want. But usually I don't.

Monday, January 30, 2012

50,000 photographs taken with the Panasonic LX5

Today I crossed the 50,000 photographs milestone with the Panasonic LX5. I have had it for six months now, and it has worked well all this time, even in winter weather.

One of the good points about the LX5 is the battery endurance, as I'm getting over 1000 photographs with one charge. The average may be about 1200, but I haven't really kept count. Now that it is winter the battery may have less juice, but I haven't noticed any drastic problems.

Today the temperature rose to about -6 °C in Helsinki, but now we are at -15 °C, and it is getting colder. Real winter weather. And there is frost in addition to snow, which changes the landscape a bit.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent

Today I went skiing with the children, in cold weather, about -12 °C. Fine winter right now, and the weather forecast promises that it will be cold also next week.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Gone skiing

It was a bright day today, and I went skiing.

PS: If you haven't read it already, read Kirk's take on the square aspect ratio. Support aspect ratio freedom!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Harnessed by alien electric shadows

This morning, while walking towards the Ministry, I took some photographs of the landscape in Helsinki, but forgot to check the LX5 settings. An "intelligent" mode was on, and the results are, well, spotty. But maybe you enjoy the variety. The "Side 1/2" photographs were taken with my usual settings.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Must not hear but I have heard

The first of these photographs was taken near the place where they are planning to build a Guggenheim Helsinki museum, or at least some people in Helsinki are.

The plan seems crazy to me, given the high price of the project, including tens of millions of payments to the Guggenheim foundation. And what is most strange is the fact that all the discussion is centered on rather inflated estimates for the amount of visitors - and nobody seems to be interested in the art, or the lack of it, in the project.

The franchising project also endangers what art there is in Helsinki already, replacing the Finnish collections with imported stuff. This is McDonaldization of museums.

But anyway, I managed to go for a long walk today. Good.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

When the night climbs slow

Today was the first day in a while to have time for a long walk, about 1 1/2 hours. It felt good.

And somehow, despite all the hurry and attention getting all too fragmented, this was a day in which there were occasional moments of happiness, being engaged in doing something worthwhile, such as trying to write about a difficult subject, learning about it, approaching it from multiple directions, trying to shape fresh thoughts into being.

All memory resolves itself in gaze

Here are some views from Helsinki, today. White returning from work I tried a different route; even though it is shorter, it took 15 minutes longer to get home.