Spo's photos with the keyword: Finland

... Read an interesting book about western propaganda in post-war Finland. After WW2 GB and the US were worried about Finland falling prey to Soviet propaganda, so they started their own here. Their offices in Helsinki flooded us with their books and magazines, radio news, tv-shows and movies and granted generous scholarships in their universities; so successful was their campaign that us Finns still don’t understand why we all absolutely love english language, Reader’s Digest, Donald Duck, John Wayne and indeed anything coming from the west – even that other Donald. (According to a recent study, our interaction with US has never been livelier than during the Trump's first administration.) That love applies to Hornet (pictured) as well, our number one war machine against the Evil Empires, Rogue States and whatever Axes of Evil the west has pointed us with its long and wise finger. Surely that eternal love will also apply to the Hornet’s successor F-35, which was officially chosen of five fighter candidates – even though everyone was so sure there really was no other option than the most expensive one, F-35, that our former Chief of Defence went to work for Lockheed Martin, maker of F-35, before the deal was fixed. Who ever said love was free? I, err… shot her at the Malmi Airshow. Our beloved one is sooo beautiful, capable of doing sooo pretty things, isn’t she?

Had the ancient shepherds had means to travel fast, they would have noticed that rainbow is not anchored to the ground but moves with the viewer. They would have understood that the arc is in the eye of the beholder, that each of us has their own, personal rainbow. Had that happened, would they ever have dared to tell a story, where rainbow is the sign of god's covenant with people? Oh modern man, shackled by science and knowledge!

One small step for mankind, one giant leap for a man.

And they went, and they melted.

Only 30 years ago the plains were full of barns. Not so anymore.

Just a snapshot of another boring landscape again. Incidentally downtown Helsinki is seven kilometers in the direction of the tracks. Yes, Helsinki, the capital of Finland, the most urban hipsterious city in the world!

Instead of quoting a famous philosopher or more Nirvana here, I'll just say that I am likely to shoot my first moustache in this one. I was 17 or so. Lighting is a total accident, literally: municipal electric supply was flimsy in those days, and lights flickered every night. I have lost the negative so I scanned it from a proof I made back then. As a result there is plenty of blind black in the dark end. But it was winter and dark anyway, so it kind of fits, I guess.

She came from our building, someone I had never seen, pushed her huge bags into her tiny car and drove away. Last thing she did she slowed down under my balcony, looked out of her car window at something above my floor, and there were tears in her eyes. Or perhaps it was just the light. Shot through black curtain, and not an especially thin one either, with a 85mm lens practically touching it. Focus is in the cars, and with f/1.2 the lens has no way of focusing to the curtain, not by a mile, but still the structure of the fabric is visible.

The point near the zenith where aurora were coming from. Aurora move fast, so in order to avoid the normal blurry look and to keep the stripes visible – as well as the noise! – I used ISO 10 000. The bright stars at the top belong to the Big Dipper, whereas the grey thing at the very bottom is ice.

As photogenic as haypoles were, they are history. This I took in the end of the 70's; we had spent the night in the tent nearby but had gotten so cold before the dawn that we'd had to take a hike. Here the sun had just risen and can be vaguely seen behind the closest stack. In a thick fog in a place like this it can get so amazingly quiet at night before birds wake up that an urban dweller may go nuts out there! The fog sucks all reverberations and echos whatsoever from the ether and you can only hear your own breathing, blood circulating and brain buzzing – and the worst of all, your thoughts, if any. :-)

Air vents on BA flight from London to Helsinki had frozen shut during the flight, and my ears had almost killed me. At his point in the apron bus I could hear nothing but loud snapping in my head, so there wasn't much left for me to do but to take pictures. Year was about 1991, and I will remember the flight forever. Canon F-1 with a 20 mm lens.