vastasyntyneen kuvaus
10/08/2011
A story about tiny, perfect and loved baby-boy…
Preparations for a newborn shoot:
Beanbag – check, blankets – check, heaters – check, chairs and boxes – check, reflectors – check, camera bag – check, check check check.
Hubby helped, dear him, loaded the car. I can’t see anything in the rear-view mirror. Thanks to my Dad that I can drive easily just with the side ones. Yep, I think I can drive, surely better than your average blond from jokes. 
So I drove off to my customer to photograph their fresh package of joy. The family lives in the center of Helsinki. The lack of parking spots in the center of any capital in the whole world is an old tune. So I lit up at the prospect of not having to carry all the stuff from my car too far when I discovered there was a gate to the yard of the house where my customers live. On the gate was a sign Pelastustie and the gate was open.
The next half an hour were the most sweaty 30 minutes of my life.
I had to close down the side mirrors to fit through the gate.
The path through the house was not straight.
Too late did I discover that my car didn’t fit. I could not move forth – or back!
I could not even unload the car. (I was ready to let the car just stand there and deal with it later, but I could not get out the camera bag, let alone the rest of my stuff.)
Luckily, the father of the family came to the rescue, somehow magically manipulated my car through to the yard and helped unload and carry (only 1st floor – yay!).
It was still fairly early in the morning, my clients’ home was grand (you can check it in August issue of Trendi, currently on stands) and the light in their living room was sweet sweet sweet. Oooooh, I want a studio like this. I want a home like this!
The only drawback was that a gallery next door was just changing one exhibition for another and that meant drilling all day long. Not the best conditions for a newborn shoot, I can tell you. But as I learned recently from one lousy movie (see my Facebook for details) – obstacles are what you see when you lose sight of your goal. And so we didn’t give in and we caught some beauty! All children were heaven like and the connection between parents and the little ones was more than touching. You have been dream customers and I really hope I will have the privilege of documenting more of your life in the future.♥♥♥
PS: No more do I think I can drive. And we almost didn’t get the car out, but luckily a friendly neighbor gave a helping hand. Pheew! 
PS2: Which picture is your favorite? And do you like Ben and Jerry’s ice cream?
Summer in Finland is almost behind us. If you are a summer person like me, this is a sad moment. Yes, we summer people do enjoy spring, and autumn, and even winter, but essentially, it’s the summer that we are waiting for during the other three seasons. In Finland it’s a long wait. So naturally, the end of summer brings sadness to my heart. But a hug and kiss of loved ones heals a lot, I remember all we have done and greatly enjoyed during the summer and all out visitors and friends and trips and I am grateful. This summer has been magnificent (and it will yet continue!).
During this summery season I have been blessed with many wonderful customers. Some of them I met before, such as the family below – almost exactly a year ago when I photographed their newborn daughter. And look, instead of a few days old package of joy, here was a little lady with her own steel-like mind, irresistible smile and a small twinkle in her eyes. She was as perfect as when I met her first time, only a lot bigger, of course.
I hope you will like today’s visual as well as the musical part. To continue your education – a classic piece of Czech culture: Bedrich Smetana – Vltava, from the composer’s cycle My Motherland. It depicts the river Vltava, which runs through Prague, from its beginning as a little stream high up in the mountains to its junction with the Elbe. Enjoy! 
♥♥♥
Finally all the problems with my computer solved and now happily living on Lion. Which means that I can keep my promise and deliver photos that were missing from this post. roooooaaaaaahr ♥♥♥
Ode to my hometown | Perhekuvaus lapsikuvaus
20/07/2011
Hello, I am Niki and I am from Cheb. Cheb is a small town in the Czech republic, near the border with Germany. When I mean near, I mean 5 km from the border with both former Eastern Germany and Western Germany. And when I say the Czech republic, you might recall Czechoslovakia, which is not Yugoslavia, as some people thought when I lived in Holland. They pittied me for having a war ongoing in my country. I objected at first, but soon I realized that people bought me drinks out of pity, so I stopped objecting and started getting dizzy. (well, not, but you get the point)
But before this turns into a dispute over the geographical ignorance of some people, let’s go back to my hometown. Especially given my own ignorance in this field. After all when choosing the country to move to, I was seeking a place with warm sea, loads of sunshine and dark guys. Oh yeah, look at me. Hello Finland!
Neeeeevermind… (*blushing a little*)
Back to original subject. My hometown. A king’s town. At least in the medieval times, which left us a legacy of a ruined castle built in 10th century with a 18,5 meters tall Black tower made out of carefully carved blocks of black stone called tuff, which is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. (me so smart, nah? right, thank you, Wiki ) Where exactly did we get the tuff rocks in the middle of Europe, you might ask? Well, you see, we have own small volcano there, near my hometown. (Un)fortunately it is no more active. And the castle is beautiful and I was fortunate enough to agree with my customers that we were going to portrait their family right there.
The castle closed 10 minutes before the session started and we did find some more or less children unfriendly objects around the place (ranging from empty beer bottles to small plastic bags of clear purpose). It is a borderline town and as such it suffers from many flaws, but it is my hometown and I will always like it. But we photographed and had fun and it was very different to be able to communicate with the children in my own mother tongue – it felt like flying compared to limping. The children were the sweetest and best-behaved two little creatures I have met in a long time, the parents were so much in love and when you will view the images you will discover a secret – there is a third offspring on the way. The family was a blessing, I could not have resisted and asked for a playdate – which was successful and fun-filled experience. I hope to meet you soon again and I hope you will like your preview. ♥♥♥
HERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A SLIDESHOW WITH AWESOME IMAGES…
but my trusty iMac is slooooooow and unresponsive and despite my heroic efforts (defragmentation, moving files to another hard drive, cleaning with Onyx etc. etc.) it is still not on a par with its good days, or even worse days. Bear with me, the images will be up soon.
The images can now be found here. three times hooray to Lion!
PS1: As with all castles in the Czech republic, there is a legend connected with the Cheb castle as well. It has been rumoured that ghosts of murdered generals haunt the castle. One evening in a pub under the castle, a master wheelwright boasted that he is not afraid of anything and that there are no ghosts in the castle. Noone succeeded in talking him out of the silly idea. He wanted to prove it’s all just old-wife’s tale. But the moment he reached the bridge to the gate, the gate opened and out drove a carriage surrounded by knights. Flames were coming out of horses’ nostrils. The wheelwright saw himself as a prisoner behind the carriage. He dragged himself home and after telling everyone what he saw, he fell to the ground dead. Take it or leave it! And below still two images from the castle.
“Cuttle-fish” by Jaroslav Rona, a Czech painter and sculptor – displayed on the rampart of Cheb castle.
The gate and the Black tower. Image courtesy of some tourist with a camera.
PS2: Who dares to guess the thickness of the Black tower walls? The best guess wins a little surprise!
Mixtape Monday – About luxury | Perhekuvaus
20/06/2011
“Do you always work at night?” asked my late-night regular Facebook companion. I paused to recapitulate my Sunday… Kids woke up around 7 but I managed to sleep through until my dear dearer dearest hubby kissed me: “Get up, it’s 8am.” Quickly I got up, flew through bathroom, ate breakfast standing at our kitchen window and admiring artwork kids already drew. And off to a photoshoot, I like to arrive a little early to scout the location for the exact light.
But as parents with small children will confirm, arriving a little early doesn’t always happen.
Two and half hours later I came back home, read with kids, ate a snack, a got an hour and ten minutes of nap (thank you, my dear), because my body felt as if I have been working instead of Sisyphus the whole week. Then off to visit friends for lunch, daughter fell asleep on the way back and so during evening we were creating a crafty letter for grandfather with my son. We like old fashioned mail. When even the lil one fell asleep I finally started working. That was 8:20 pm.
I edited and uploaded a gallery for the client from morning, replied to emails, etc. etc. even had a little time to peak here and there at HP7 part 1 my hubby watched. More work afterwords.
And here I am at 2:23am, listening to my companion complaining about his evening walk being ruined because it rained.
My client from the morning was a family with three kids. The daughter has survived cancer. She is 15. Not too long ago it was when they didn’t have any idea if she was going to make it or not. “Get a grip,” I answered to the whining voice on a chat.
My clients give me perspective. They also give me happiness. Thanks to my clients I can do what I love to do. And I come home and see my family and am happy and grateful and content.
I come home and I SEE my family… Today’s Mixtape Monday I dedicate to everyone who, for various reasons, cannot enjoy the same luxury. ♥♥♥
How can you feel so close with someone you have never met? Oh, quite easily, if the someone is not just anyone, but Jen.
This is Jen, that is Jen Snyder of Jen Snyder Photography located in Harford County, MD. Jen is a beauty, a lioness, an inspiration, a friend, a sharing soul, a perfect companion, a gracious giver and most of all a gifted photographer.
Love ya, hon, happy to be able to introduce to you my dear readers! Tell us a little about yourself and your currently favorite image!
#1 Why do you love this image?
This was from my son’s 1st birthday shoot. At the time I left our session feeling really disappointed because neither of my kids was being cooperative and it really got me down. I didn’t think I had any success. I wouldn’t even pull the photos off the memory card for a few days. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw! This one is my favorite of the bunch. I just love the way they are looking at each other, the way the light is wrapping around their faces. My daughter was leaning forward getting ready to tickle him and I can just feel her mischievous giggle.
#2 What were your settings with this image?
I used my 24-70 on my D700, ISO 500, 1/250, f2.8
Are you formally educated or a self taught photographer?
A little bit of both. I have a bachelor’s in Photographic Arts, but it dealt with B&W darkroom printing. The transition to digital was self taught and it was really hard on me. I had to learn all over again.
A good portrait means ….
An image that takes your breath away when you see it. It freezes time, so you will always be able to go back and remember the particular look in your daughter’s eyes when she looks at you, the way your son’s entire face lights up with his belly laugh, the fat rolls on your baby. It’s not just a recording of what you look like, but it also memorializes your love for each other.
Your favorite female photographer
Annie Leibovitz. Sally Mann. Connie Imboden.
Tell me about your ideal client…
They trust me, follow my clothing advice, and act like I’m not even there when we shoot. The family is just so into each other that they laugh, snuggle and play without concerning themselves with what I’m doing. People not necessarily worried about everyone looking at the camera, but instead wanting portraits of everyone loving on everyone else.
What is the one thing that you tell every client?
Be yourself!
Do you have any personal projects?
I am going back to my roots and returning to my first love of photographing urban scenes at night, lit by streetlamps.
What do you love about Photography?
I love freezing time. I have such a terrible memory, if I didn’t have a photograph to look at, I might loose the details as time passes. I routinely look back at photographs of my children when they were younger, to remind myself how they’ve grown and changed, how they used to look, what they used to do. Funny expressions, situations they’ve gotten into (when my daughter got into my makeup, when my son emptied out the tupperware drawer so he could climb in, etc)… I want to remember it all.
What is the one book that should be on every photographer’s shelf?
Siezing the Light: A History of Photography …. it’s good to know what the trends are now, but I think it’s also really important to know the history of the craft.
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
I wish I could fly. Or turn myself invisible. That would rock!
What are you most proud of?
My children. They amaze me.
Thank you, Jen, for sharing your answers to my nosy questions! good luck with everything…
Find more beautiful images on Jen’s blog and check out her work on Facebook as well.
PS: It’s funny how Jen is a similar physical type to my other dear friend whom I likewise met online… Jana Florentyna Zatloukalova – an owner of a great Bistro Florentyna, successful author of A Cooking Book for my Daughter and a fantastic chef. Not to mention my everlasting support.
We ate on Washington square. (You know, that’s where the arch from early series of Friends is… this one). We bought food in one of the student shops, where they are open till late and serve huge amounts of delicious fresh meals and salads from a bar. You take a plastic box, stuff anything you like inside and pay by weight. Yummy.
I also ate a pretzel. Of course I did. I bought one in Central Park while waiting on my friend Marzena, who went out to find a place where to fill balloons with helium. Despite her heroic efforts on this matter, she came back with empty hands and so we shot this cute little Manahattaner for his 1 year old celebration without any balloons. The family was super sweet. The boy was almost tireless, a perfect little model. We explored a gazebo, some fenced flower fields and a beautiful playpark for children.
Oh and earlier that day we bought some props at a street flea market in southern Manhattan. I bought a 40′s antique children chair (think 6€), a beautiful wooden coca-cola crate and Marzena gifted me an egg basket. Of course I wanted to haul it over to Finland myself. However, no suitcase can accomodate a chair, a crate and a basket, so I decided to get it all wrapped at the airport into the bubble plastic follie. Except that “American Airlines have stopped providing this service a long time ago, ma’am.” So what am I to do with the junk if I can’t get it wrapped? “I don’t know,” shrugged the Information Desk lady shoulders and off she went for a snack. No kidding, all happened. Also happened, inevitably, that all the stuff came crushing from the airport trolley on the floor with loads of noise… Boy, did I get some looks! I looked positively like the worst of Romanian Gypsies… Until I spotted a friendly looking Finnish lady at the check-in, who (upon being spoken to in Finnish, and even in my troll asukaspuisto Finnish) magically produced a huge plastic bag meant for baby prams. Thank you, Finnair, I will make sure to fly with you again. ♥♥♥
3 Comments
They are all great, but maybe the one in the basket and the one where the baby’s sleeping with hands under the cheek pop out for me:-)
Your images are so full of love and life! Gorgeous!! My favorite is the one with Mom…stunning!
Lovely images as always. Love the lighting on these. Care to share your location lighting setup?