Credit Crunch

Last year I shot a story about Finnish Bankers working in London.
At that point, the economic was still in a better shape, or at least people thought it was. I remember that the Euro against the pound was something like 1,45, at the moment it is 1,08. I shot many pics for that story, there was one thing in common, in all of pictures. People were in a hurry, in whatever they did. I know this doesn't come as anything new for people who live in London, but the amount of rushing in the Bank area, is completely different from other places in London.

Every banker needs to have their Blackberry, this is nothing new.

But, what striked me the most, was these Joggin' Clubs. Yep. Bankers have joggin' clubs, and they actually go joggin' in the middle of their work day, in the traffic, surrounded by people rushin for their 15 minute lunch break.

Of course I also found couple of guys, who took their dinner as a form of liquid. They seemed kind of relaxed.

I just felt in these times of our credit crunch, to look back at how London looked like a year ago...!! It could be at the moment, that people don't have time to even go for a lunch....or can't afford one.

What I would like to own, and what I have now.

Yep. Some people say photographing is not about equipment. Yep, it is not. I completely agree, but in anything you do, when you want to become better, you want better equipment. In my work, sky is the limit. At the moment, I am still mainly shooting with my lovely old 5D, because for most of the job, it works. I have been testing other Digital backs, but I really don't like the way they work. It seems, that they all have that PC-type-of-interface in them. I don't know about this camera though. It is not really out yet, but it should be good. At least, if it isn't a good camera, It looks great.

Leica S2. he first camera, the S-2, will feature a 37.5 megapixel CCD sensor in a weatherproof body which is similar in size and handling to conventional 35mm-type DSLRs. So It should be great. To be honest, I've been a Canon guy, then switched to Nikon at one moment, and now I am back at Canon.

I have so many lenses for my Canon camera. Here is my equipment list. If anyone ever asks, what are u shooting with.

Two Computers and a screen : A Duo-core PC, with a 24'inch Dell-Screen,a Sony w4000 Full-Hd screen, and a new Macbook Pro 15'inch.
Backup : DVD's, and many 500Giga external Hard-Disks.
Software : Photoshop/Bridge Cs3 and Apple Aperture.
Cameras : Canon 5D, Panasonic Lumix Lx-3, Holga, Petri Penta 35mm and a Olympus Mju.
Planning to get the 5D mark 2, and probably the S2 or similar at some point.
Lenses : Tamron 28-75 2.8 Macro, Canon 50 mm 1.4, Canon 24 1.4L , Canon 70-200 IS USM 2.8 L, and a 2x Converter.
Radio Transmitters : 3 Pocketwizards, From B/H photo.Don't get anything ELSE!
Flashes : Quantum t5Dr, Canon 430ex, Nikon Sb-800, Lumisoft fx150, Couple of 300w-flashes. Planning to get the new Profoto, after some testing.
Bag : Lowepro +, and when I walk around, just a normal bag.
Light adaptors : Reflectors, small and big, Gary Fong, Lumisoft Umbrellas, etc.
Batteries : Turbo 2x2 Quantum and rechargable batteries.
Filters : Standard UV-filters.
My favorite equipment : THE SUN.

For recommending anyone with the cheapest alternative for extremely good photography I would say go get the OLD 5D as an used one, probably around 800-900€, and a new Tamron 28-75 2.8 Macro lens, and as a flash just an old Nikon flash, with Manual settings, and couple of Pocket wizards. Play around with them, and they are suitable for 60-70% of any photography you will ever need to do. Just be creative. And if you get the possibility to shoot outside. Do that! Remember, the sun is one light source more. Use it, don't kill it.

Alpo Suhonen, former NHL-coach.

This is a funny story. Or I don't know if it is funny.
So, I was ordered to take a picture of a ice-hockey coach, former NHL-coach, Alpo Suhonen. I had a low amount of time, to take this picture, maybe about 5 minutes.
People, don't understand, that sometimes when you take pictures, you need to have the setup ready, and depending on the person, it could be you only have 1-2minutes of time to take the picture. So if you see bad pictures in newspapers, that is one of the reasons. Of course, some photographers just have amazing verbal talents, and no skills.

So, when I met Alpo, he was in a hurry. Nowadays, every single person is in a hurry. It doesn't matter, if you are shooting them in the studio or outside, they are always in a hurry. I don't know, whether it is fear of losing our jobs? In my case, impossible. I can not lose my job, I can only gain more clients or lose clients.

So, I had many ideas, when I saw Alpo, but the reason why this portrait is taken from the left side, is that he had just had a surgery on his right eye, and he insisted I would not show it. If you look closely, you can see that on the right eye, there is a small patch, which is covering the whole eye.

I am not sure, if it the most interesting shot in the world, but it certainly is bit different from the normal portrait shots, you tend to see in the magazines and newspapers.

The story behind this picture.

I think every good picture, has a story behind them. Especially, when you get to take pictures of things that you find interesting. Sometimes, the case isn't so. It could be that a normal snapshot, can lead to something, that you will love and cherish for the rest of your life. I think this picture is one of them.

On 2007, Summer, I visited my brother who lived in Toronto at the moment, and I had never been to Toronto before, and I had rather low expectations. The funny thing was, that before Toronto, we visited New York, and I loved New York. I thought, that maybe Toronto is just a small city, and not that exciting.

It turned out to be completely the opposite, I loved Toronto. My brother lived in the center of the city, and one time I was walking around the town, thru Queen St., which is the hip-area of Toronto. A little bit like East London, or in my city Helsinki, the "Punavuori". The difference between this street is, that it is really really really long. You could walk like an hour, and you see shops and shops.

So I was walking with my camera, at that moment I had the Nikon D2X, a nice digital one, which had an awful high-Iso in all the pictures. Nowadays, I walk around the city mainly with my pocket camera, because I am tired of having 3kg's around my neck.
If anyone wants to buy a pocket camera, I would recommend the Panasonic Lumix Lx-3, the quality isn't supergood, but the lens is a 2.0, so it is fast and you can actually shoot low ISO-pictures in stores, bars, etc.

So, every picture has a story behind them, some stories are more interesting than the others. My story, mainly involved the fact, that I realized that Toronto became one of my favorite cities. The picture I took, was not planned in advance, it was a snapshot. I just saw a pair of legs, and amazing colours, and thought, this looks like an interesting shot. I still find it really interesting.

So, keep your camera with you, everywhere you go. You never know, what shot can become your favorite one.