Just a quick look before holidays, more when I am back! She was the sweetest little thing 
Archive for the ‘Families’ Category
You must remember my beautiful customers from Hämeenlinna. They must have been really satisfied with their images, because they booked me for another shoot. 
This time the whole extended family was going to be in the spot light. Everyone, Janne and his sister with family and their parents. We photographed near Lohja at their parents’s house and it was a fantastic spot, right in the middle of nowhere. Despite many warnings I didn’t get lost. And I don’t use GPS! Just old fashioned map. I found Lohja. Then the smaller town. Then the road. The the mail box with number 79. The only problem appeared when I drove into the yard. There was a lady, smoking, clearly confused with having a photographer driving up to her front door.
“Are you Janne’s mother?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, that’s me,” came the answer.
“Do you know I am going to photograph you today?”
long confused look
Me: “Janne is joining us soon, right?
I could feel her confusion growing. So she called her husband. I asked again if they were Janne’s parents. Yes, yes… without a doubt.
“Janne Mycustomer’s parents?”
And then the light shone and we discovered that no, not Janne’s Mycustomer but Janne’s Somethingelse indeed. Mycustomers live just up the road. They have their mailbox here, but that’s all …
Luckily I had enough time. Mycustomers were waiting for me. We visited a nearby swamp that had a very particular, very subtle smell. It was really dangerous in certain spots and Janne’s father of course had to go right there to pick up some rare plant for Janne’s mother. We were happy when he got back, safe and sound. The we took off the rubber boots and took some images around their garden. At the little pond, at savusauna, in a small apple tree orchard… We had much fun and then Janne and his family arrived and we had more fun and then we got tired and the light was gone and there was excellent pizza and then I had to say good-bye, but got a bag full of fresh lettuce pressed in my hands before I was able to disappear in my car. I didn’t object and made a delicious salad later.
These are just few. A quick sneak peek. The problem with you guys is that there are just too many good ones. I can’t choose!
Cheers to all Jannes and their mothers … I am curious, how many Jannes do you know? And is that the most common Finnish male name? Because it sure does look like it!
Forever honeymoon – Niki Strbian Lapsikuvaus
August 7, 2010This is a blog post #100. I guess, it better be a good one. Except that I am sleep deprived and it’s after midnight and I can just about SEE the viruses marching across my keyboard every time I sneeze. I will do my best.
Actually, I don’t have to. This post is going to be great no matter what I write or do. It’s because of them. My awesome clients. A little girl, who was also sleep deprived and tired but unlike me calm and pleasant. Her mother, beautiful, sexy , elegant and smart and much adoring her little treasure. The father, clearly belonging to rare species of Padre Fantastico and he was funny too!
You said you have been together for eons. But your love was as radiant and your comfort in each other’s presence as clear as if you were together mere months. Perhaps it’s been eons, but you are still in the honeymoon phase. You must have found the much-sought-after spell – a recipe for happiness. Admit it!
Actually, you don’t have to. You already showed me and I was there to capture it forever or at least until you loose the cd with your pics. 
So you better frame them! Enjoy your sneak peek. I am blessed to have met you…
And the little star of the day… Happy 1st birthday!
How (not) to be radiant – Niki Strbian Perhekuvaus
July 23, 2010I believe that everyone has once in a while the urge to be glamorous, radiant and star-like. Even the most saint and self-decentered human beings I know sometimes want to be like that. Me too. (not saying that I am a saint or self-decentered…)
I, too, want to be classy and ravishing… Especially when my dear husband takes our kids to the ZOO by car and I have to walk to the photosession. It would be ok, I like walking, but it was far, it was +33 degrees Celsius, the sky was clear, there was no shade en route and there were no buses (Thank you, YTV, for a gap-free summer schedule. Not!). Add the heavy equipment in a black backpack. Finally I arrive. And start frantically running from one side of the lake to the other, because we have not agreed an exact spot. Sweat is dripping from my eyebrowes, my t-shirt is completely wet and, of course, I forgot the mosquito repellent at home, so now thousands of hungry mosquito ladies are dining on my skin.
And then my customers arrive. Fresh, smelling like a rose garden and all smiling and happy. Right there, that’s the moment when I want to be glamorous, radiant and star-like!
But then I take out my camera, end up on my stomach in the dirt and knee-deep in smelly water of the lake and I am thinking that it wouldn’t last long anyway. Though it could have saved the first impression I make. I hope to impress you with the photos at least. Because I was not there on Wednesday to show off, but to capture who you are. And you are…
Playful.
Acrobatic.
Cute.
Loving.
Sisters.
Family.
And very much in love.
It was a pleasure to meet you!
Oh and anyone knows a proved cure to mosquito bites that are itching so much it is driving me crazy? I want to know it!
I must do it again (though I know it’s getting old). I so love my job! It again brought me to the most exceptional place where I meet people worth befriending. This family has booked a shoot with me while back and there was much anticipation and energy flowing both ways during the wait. Wasn’t it for the fact that they live in Hämeenlinna, I am sure we would have been hanging out as friends long time before the session. Given the distance and the (universally known) fact that my family prefers travelling to the south, geting to know each other had to wait till the officially booked date. But boy, did we click!
The shoot happened at the verge of and inside of Aulanko, a forestry area turned in spots into a beautiful park with ponds, romantic little alcoves scattered here and there, a stone gazebo and … and … and go see it for yourselves, will you? If you have not yet, or even then… All this was built by a wealthy foreigner, Hugo Standertskjöld, for a lady of his heart. This woman, much coldheartedly, never really appreciated his efforts and so he died old and alone and in his will gifted the whole area to the town of Hämeenlinna under one condition – it will always be free, it is eternally forbidden to require money to enter the park.
Ok, dry your tears, my dears. You will need your sight clear to appreciate more beauty in the pictures below than the Aulanko scenery in the background. The fate has thrown my way the first doppleganger I met in real life. Mom of this family looks like a ……………. (insert a name of a Hollywood star, or better yet leave me a comment, if you dare to guess). Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, but also is a skilled pizza chef. But one question keeps coming back… Are there more stars hidden unrecognized in Finnish homes? I am asking you: COME OUT! *thinking hard* Maybe I can wish even for specific names? Brad Pitt, anyone? Meryl Streep? Al Pacino? Taylor Lautner? Ok, I better stop, because this list can get real loooong.
Enjoy the pics and do leave a comment with your guess. You never know when you might win something …
A beautiful family. A beautiful spot. A beautiful day. Much enjoyed session… Nothing more to add.
xoxo
Last Wednesday I was sitting on a pier of our lake, playing happily with kids and chatting away with our visitors from Slovakia, who to our great sadness flew back today in the morning. My phone rang and only happy star constellation helped me overhear it in all the noise (kids, dogs and wind – a killer combination). There was a lovely female voice asking to photograph their newborn son, who was already 16 days old. Hurry, I answered, we must hurry! Newborn babies loose that newborn characteristics look all too quickly. So we hurried and set up the shoot for the very next day. This was the fastest inquiry -> session time ever. I drove to Hyvinkää and met the happy couple and their tiny gentleman on a sunny Thursday morning in the appartment that one can only describe as “photogenic”.
The little baby boy slept throughout the entire time and he had a super clean and smooth skin, even for a newborn baby. The sun shone and I really, really, really very much enjoyed this session.
