Last week I had a cold but now I'm in rather a good mood. I FINALLY got around to going to the camera club. I've been meaning to, but there have always been some other things at the same time with the meetings, or else I've come up with some excuses to postpone it. Anyway, earlier this evening I went to the monthly meeting of the camera club, and well worth it it was. The speaker was photographer Tuomas Uusheimo (http://www.thomastribe.net/index.html) who told about his work and showed pictures he had taken, in Shanghai and in Finland on a small punk festival. He is mostly into street photography, and I really liked his work: a strong sense of presence and life in them I found. I am hoping to become better at street photography, and something like Uusheimo's pictures are definitely something to look up to in that regard. As far as the people present, they were mostly men with the average age upwards of 50, judging by the grey-haired heads. Well, perhaps the study club which is next week or some of the other activities have more participation by younger members. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people of mature age, it's just that I hope to find new friends closer to my age as well. :-)

Another thing is that I have started a campaign of one person (myself) to eat plenty of vitamines. My parents like to carry lots of berries to me whenever they visit, because they grow strawberries and also have some raspberry bushes, plus they are maniac wild berry pickers (blueberry, lingonberry, the latter I don't like). I haven't been very good at eating them but got to it very well recently. Strawberries and raspberries, melted from the fridge, with plain youghurt, add a bit of sugar, is very tasty. So is porridge with blueberries added frozen. At the moment I'm a fan of porridge made of four types of grain.

Hm... to go or not to go? The new research lecturer of the Finnish Institute in Rome is giving a talk on sunday in Tampere, on the topic of the Jewish War, the Flavian emperors and the urban image of Rome in the late 1st century A.D. I even wrote an undergraduate level paper on the Jewish War at the university some - good heavens! - 10 or 11 years ago. It's two hours in each direction on the train, but if I went early I *would* have time to do some photography as well. I quite like Tampere. Depends on the weather I guess.

Another to go or not to go? I've been thinking I'd quite like visiting Holland as I've never been there (apart from Schiphol airport). The thought feels more and more attractive. In the spring maybe? Amsterdam and Rotterdam, perhaps have a chance to meet up with the lovely Val and Koos as well?

To end, here are two little films I shot just yesterday. I have to admit that the audio of both is from www.freesound.org (thanks to nicStage). There were noisy cars driving past on the street close by so I couldn't use the original sound. Hm... maybe these are actually better as silent versions? Well, the sound can be turned off.

ICE AND WATER

Ice and Water from Maria Niku on Vimeo.

COLOUR WAVES


Colour Waves from Maria Niku on Vimeo.

There was ONE sunny day this week, on monday. These are all from that day, taken of or from the steps leading to the city cathedral in the city center.

Reefs in the Wind

A long time since I've done a video. In fact the last video I uploaded was six months ago! I got a bigger camera bag that has room for the PowerShot S5 along with the SLR stuff, so it's lovely to carry everything around and take out whichever camera happens to suit the situation. Just the sort of thing I like.

This one was yesterday. Such a beautiful day again, very sunny and not so cold as on saturday, so I walked some of the way to the library, along the shore. I thought the reefs (I don't know their real name) were so beautiful in the wind.


Reefs in the Wind from Maria Niku on Vimeo.

Now back to Alan Partridge. The Alan Partridge box I ordered from HMV arrived today so I'm having a fabulous time. Not only does the box have the entirety of Knowing Me, Knowing You and I'm Alan Partridge, it's also got lots and lots of extras, including Alan's Christmas special, Alan's Yuletide and commentary audio track for the first series of I'm Alan Partridge - two separate commentary tracks: one by Alan and his PA Lynn, the other by Steve Coogan and the director of the series. Looking forward to that. :-)

Snow is VERY white

Have you noticed? Well, it's occasionally a bit blue as well. 

The clouds FINALLY parted so of course I didn't want to let it go to waste. Also cold, -10 C (cold is about the only time at this time of winter that the sun comes out here, otherwise it's cloudy), but I didn't mind. Now that there's a lot of snow it really is magical, the whiteness and the sun. The sun still sets about 4 pm, and after that it's freezing. But when the sun is up, I actually love winter.

Nothing particularly remarkable going on, only that I have developed a medium-sized obsession about Steve Coogan's comedy. Alan Partridge of course, but I also like the lovely Pauline Calf a great deal. I tend to get these "phases" about English comedy. The last time it happened was when I started listening to the Goon Show. Then I just HAD to watch all of Peter Sellers' films.