Waiting for our Euro-tourer Mariko to arrive. Should be on the approach now. The good cafe for planespotting had been closed, so took refuge at the Congress Center balcony overlooking T2 Departures to do peoplespotting instead.
Friday, December 30, 2011
WDC2012 Preparations
The day after tomorrow I'll be a designer living in the World Design Capital for a year. Will it mean a big change in anything? Probably not. Perhaps not even a small one. Invites to some design party which I'll be too busy to attend, or something? Anyway, glad they bring design into focus more and more. We'll try to live up to the expectations.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Seal Line Waterproof Phone Pouch
Yes, there is a Santa Claus, and apparently he's connected to www.hikinginfinland.com in some way.
This nice and sturdy looking Seal Line pouch arrived by mail today, after I won day 4 of the advent calendar over at the previously mentioned site. Good first impressions. Even has a camera window in the back. And this will be needed if our winter will continue to be as wet as it's been up till now.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Ardbeg Tasing @Punavuoren Ahven
A tasting of known suspects tonight. The only new experience was the Airigh Nam Beist, which apart from being a pleasantly smooth, sweet and flavorful version of the known Ardbeg style, had the added extra of already being discontinued. The best of the evening once again turned out to be the classic Uigeadail, however. Really suits me. Alligator worked well too, and the rear was brought up by the regular Ten and Blasda.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Blacksmith's Audience
The 45mm, equalling a 90mm in film size, is such a nice lens for shooting people, even in poor light.
Almond Stand
Took the Oly 45mm out for a bit of trials in difficult conditions tonight: The annual Chirstmas market here in Helsinki. Varying lights, lot's of stuff in the depth range and moving people pose enough challenges for a long lens as this, but combined with the tiny GF1 body it proved a most capable tool in the busy, cramped spaces. Surprisingly many of the shots were keepers.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
And So It Begins
To be fair, the first snow here in Helsinki came the night between Monday and Tuesday, but tonight's snowfall was already a much better effort.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Star of the Evening
Not your average Whisky, that's for sure. Someone mentioned a bottle like this goes for around 800€, if one can be found somewhere. Way too much for a layman like me to comprehend, but then again people spend a lot more on some other hobbies (guilty as charged).
Whisky Tasting @Punavuoren Ahven
The classic before shot.
A hard fought battle at the end between numbers 2 and 5: Buichladdich 1988/2003 and Ardbeg SC 1378 1975/2006. The Bruichladdich is an old favourite from previous tastings, and still held it's own, but in the end the sheer depth and complexity of the Ardbeg's taste range led me to pick it as my number one tonight. Hints of chocolate, gingerbread and perhaps some liquorice combined with the characteristic peatines of Ardbeg, and smoothened and lengthened by 31 years in a sherry cask just made it a fantastic Whisky. A privilege to taste.
A slight disappointment was the Caol Ila 25 yo, which didn't live up to the expectation of how good a +20 year old Whisky can be. Part of it might be due to the diluting to 43% from cask strength, which inevitably evens out the taste a bit.
The Menu
A rather old and distinguished lineup at tonight's whisky tasting:
Bruichladdich Infinity [3] Edition 3_10
Bruichladdich 1988/2003 Gordon&MacPhail Bottling
Caol Ila 25 yo
Laphroaig 25 yo 2009 Edition
Ardbeg SC 1378, 1975/2006
Monday, November 21, 2011
GF1 At Work
As the GF1 is a pretty capable video tool as well, especially when using the 20mm and 45mm lenses, I decided trying it out a bit. Result:
First Frost from Mikael Leppä on Vimeo.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Locked Up
First they build a really nice shelter, stock it with firewood for anyone to use, provide a fire extinguisher for when things get too hot, and lock up the aforementioned so that nobody can steal it. That's some nice design philosophy for public use right there.
Ice Patterns
The lakes had received their first coating. Not there to last yet perhaps, but making a good show while it lasts.
First Frost
Today might have been the best day of the rest of the year for taking the camera out for a daytrip in Nuuksio National Park, so that's what I did. Felt good.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Wacom Cintiq 24HD
Our new office toy. Whenever I feel that the 12" screen of my Lenovo tablet PC is too small for current sketching needs, I can plug it into this to get double the screen size to doodle on. Nice!
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Boombox
As far as cool audio gear goes, Hi-fi Expo was full of it. Spreading out around several hotel floors might have been good for quiet listening experiences, but didn't help finding stuff at all for novices such as us. Exhibition layouts can be slightly intimidating and confusing, depending in expertise level in the exhibited subject.
Archipictor @Skiexpo
Skiexpo time again. Not really there for the exhibits anymore; Got a solid pair of planks to slide downhill on, and little to no knowledge of possible holiday time in winter, so not much of interest this year either. The event is more for catching up with some old friends who manage to spend a lot more time in the mountains than me. And since they've combined it with camera-heavy Digiexpo I managed to pick up a 16GB SDCH card for the camera cheaply as well.
Ossi's fine magazine illustration was all over the place as well, of course, which was nice.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
N8 Doing AR: Nokia Live View
Downloaded the Nokia Live View app for the N8 today. It's still in beta, and downtown Helsinki isn't perhaps where I'd be in need of this kind of app, but a quick test here tonight showed pretty good UI logic, layering and nice integration to maps and navigation. The direction and location of items were sometimes a bit off, but I guess that's still acceptable in a beta app. Overall a positive experience, and I see plenty of potential here.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
'Shroom
Happy to notice that the 45mm does a nice job with close-ups too. It's no macro, though, but not needing that much anyway.
Healthy and Nutritious
The kind of outdoor lunch to make when you can get home in the evening to wash the dishes.
45mm in the Forest
The Panasonic 14-45mm zoom has been my standard outdoor lens for as long as I've had it, but for today's daytrip to out local national park I decided to try out the new Olympus 45mm f1.8 glass in hiking conditions. Overall I was pleasantly surprised how versatile it is. Didn't feel I missed any shot because of the restricted focal length, and in today's cloudy weather and flat lowish light the bright f1.8 and narrow depth of focus kept things interesting. The autofocus was not quite foolproof, but in thick forest with plenty of branches and stuff to fool it I'd call the results good enough, and there's always the possibility to use manual focus too. So, the lens is a good piece of outdoor glass too, it seems. Not perhaps the only lens to take on a hike, but certainly good enough to bring along.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Abandoned Cart
Tried out the new Oly 45mm lens after dark tonight. Good results all-in-all, and would have been even better had I bothered to dig out the Gorillapod from my bag. The AF wasn't always spot-on in the darkest places, but that's what manual focus is for. With conditions as dark as tonight I wouldn't expect to catch moving subjects well with this gear anyway.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Alligator Tamer
Taishin -kun has grown a lot since I last saw him in 2006. These days he's a fearless explorer of the animal kingdom (especially if the animal is made of wood and thus won't bite).
Thursday, October 06, 2011
New Glass: Olympus 45mm f1.8
Fresh arrival from Japan. I'm kind of liking the contrast to the black GF1 body, and both AF and manual focus seemed smooth and quick at the first trials. Looking forward to trying it out properly over the weekend.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Relandersgrund
Took the camera out for a walk tonight, and here's one of the more presentable results. Not used to how quickly it gets dark these days, so had left my Gorillapod at home and had to use any railing or lamppost available to get steady shots with the 14-45mm lens. Well, by the end of the week I should get some new optics hand delivered straight from Tokyo, and then I'll have more room to play with in low light situations.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Herring Tasting Judges @City Hall
Overheard from the judge's table: "Hey, taste number 16. They haven't been cheap on the rum in that sauce!"
Herring Tasting Competition Entries
One of the many traditions surrounding the annual Helsinki Herring Market: Competition between various makers of herrings in sauce.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Kilchoman Family
On the left the future Kilchoman bottle design, in use for the Inaugural 100% Islay Release, next the Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Inaugural and New Spirit, which is only available in tiny 5cl bottles.
Kilchoman Tasting @Punavuoren Ahven
Just back home form spending a nice evening with a new single malt acquaintance: Kilchoman. Being the newest distillery on Islay, only opened in 2005, they have been making quite an impression on people who know about these things, and based on tonight and a few times before I think I see what it's about.
We had Inaugural and Inaugural 100% Islay, Spring releases 2010 and 2011, and to top it of a taste of New Spirit. The last one is technically not a whisky, just a distilled product, but surprisingly tasty already, and a great privilege to be able to taste the origin of Kilchoman whisky. That's something impossible for pretty much any other distillery in Scotland, it seems. The others showed great potential for such young bottlings, the Inaugural Release suiting my taste the best, and it will be interesting to follow this whisky well into the future, now that we know where it's beginning is.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
To A or to B? Habitare 2011
The big interior design fair has turned into an annual event, apparently. Still having a bit of an identity crisis between displaying and selling, like so many other public fairs here (cough, SkiExpo, cough). Still, the thing that feels most left out in my perspective are the actual designed spaces. Sure, each manufacturer makes a good effort of showing off their products in a nice setting, but interior design is combining various elements, and that is still sadly left for the viewers imagination in Habitare.
Pictured: One bathroom fitting manufacturer that shan't be named thought apparently it would be a good idea to let the public play design manager. If it only were that easy.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Rabbit Carpet
Actually it's called Silence, and designed by Studio Permafrost in Norway. Spotted at the To Declare design exhibition last night, along with some other refreshing stuff.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Toshiba Mini NB550D
And that's the business side of it. Liking the keyboard knock-and-feel, and internals are upgradeable as need arises.
Green Machine
The bronze version would have been slightly more stylish, but not 30€ more stylish, so green it is.
Toshiba Mini NB550D Unboxing
After seeing a few Apple products unboxed, the experience here is decidedly more rough, but so what. It's what's inside that counts.
Inside is the reason of a little gap in the blogging. Got myself a highly untrendy netbook for freelance work and blogging. Handles web, photos and writing more efficiently than a tablet. That's basically my excuse.
Friday, September 09, 2011
Big Heart
Some buildings have soul, this one's got a heart!
Inside there seemed to be some designer party going on, which makes sense as the annual Helsinki Design Week is about to begin again.
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