Category Archives: People

Early morning mist

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There is one positive thing about the kids waking up early – you get to witness how beautiful the nature can be in the morning. This photo is taken after a cold night that apparently created a magnificent mist in the air and frost on all the trees and bushes. The most beautiful thing about it was that the light and the composition of the mist was changing constantly. I stood outside without gloves taking photos until I suddenly realized that I could barely feel my fingers. It really was a special morning! Another one of my favorites:

This photo has a totally different mood, even though it was taken at the same time.

Rest of the photos are available at: http://kansala.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Antti/2013-03-31+Easter+sceneries/

Samsung Koffari Slopestyle

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Today was the second annual Samsung Koffari Slopestyle event in downtown Helsinki. I decided to head there with the kids to enjoy a nice winter sunday, hopefully meet some old friends and take some photos. And it turned out to be a very good day. We had a magnificent day with the kids, I did manage to take some photos and even see a few old friends.

A few more shots from the session: http://kansala.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Antti/2013-03-03+Koffari+Slopestyle+2013/

For tech geeks:

Today’s theme was simple. I only had my Sigma 50-150/2.8 lens along and used it to shoot all of the shots. I think it was a perfect companion for today.

Company portrait

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I was given the job of taking our company portrait during an annual gathering. We took some traditional group portraits inside, but I think this is the best one. We walked right onto one of the main streets in downtown Helsinki and blocked the traffic for a few minutes to get this shot. I really like the Finnish atmosphere that shines from it…look at the guy all the way to the right in his t-shirt in the middle of Finnish winter.

For tech geeks:

This shot had to be prepared a little beforehand. Before taking the shot I marked the places of the camera and where the people should be located on the road. It all had to happen in a matter of minutes, so as the group was walking to the premarked place, I placed the camera, tripod and the remote controller in the middle of the street. Then I ran into the picture, took some quick ones and ran back to save my camera from the still calm car drivers.

Portraits of Oona

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It has been a while without any blog posts…life has been a little busy lately. But today I had 15 minutes to take some portraits of Oona. These were totally unplanned. She dressed herself for swimming and I thought that she looked so good that I had to take some portraits of her.

For tech geeks:

I used two speedlights for the lighting. One through an umbrella on high camera right and the otherone was gridded to give that round backlight.

1-year portraits

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The above shot is from a very quickly organized 1-year portrait session. We had a few good friends over for new year’s eve when we decided to take some portraits of the soon-to-be 1-year old. I set up some speedlights quickly and we used about 10 minutes to shoot some 50 shots. The kiddo was super relaxed and seemed to enjoy being photographed. As always with kids, the window to get the shots done is only a few minutes. This time we were lucky and had almost 10 minutes 🙂

A couple of more of my favorites: http://kansala.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Antti/2012-12-31+1+year+portraits/

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Fun snow work

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We have been lucky to get new snow almost everyday during December. With Ode we have been doing some snow work and to make it a little more fun, Ode has invented this game where a push him off a jump into powder snow. Today I took my camera along to get some shots. We were really enjoying it and Ode promised to push me once he grows a little bigger!! Can’t wait!

A few more shots: http://kansala.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Antti/2012-12-26+Snow+work/

For tech geeks:

I used a remote control to fire the camera. I was holding the remote in my hand. I used my 12-24 Tokina lens. The lighting was created with two speedlights. Main light was a speedlight shot through a beauty dish. I used the beauty dish to shoften the light a little and it works fairly well even in windy and snowy conditions. The other lightsource is a bare speedlight with a full CTO gel on it. I decided to use that to make the lighting a little more interesting. The initial idea was to use it only to light the snow, but in the end I ended using it more as a rim light. I think the CTO gel worked there as well.

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas to everyone!

For tech geeks:

This year’s Christmas card photo is shot again at our home. I used a white backdrop with a white cloth on the floor to provide a seamless background. The photo was lit with three speedlights. The main light was a shoot-through umbrella on camera right. One gridded speedlight is used to light the background and one bare speedlight is used as hair light.

Last year lighting wise it was a bit more complex, as we had a shiny box that the kids were in.  My blog post about last years shoot: http://www.anttikansala.com/?p=271 and the end result: http://www.anttikansala.com/?p=372.