Woke up late today. I’ve been staying up until early hours for almost a week now. I just can’t get myself to sleep before 4am or so. I know, I should just get up early one morning so I’d be tired earlier in the evening. But so far, I’ve failed to do so. Anyway. Today I woke up to a nice phone call. It was about this rather fine job, photographing a few places for a firm. I hope it will pay ok, I’m pretty tired of being paid half the money I should be getting. I just sent my offer for them, and to me it seems fair. Hope they think so too.

I am a cheap photographer and I really don’t wanna be one of those asswipes who ask for thousands of euros per a day’s work just because.. I don’t even know what their excuses are. I know, I know, if I’m going to make a living out of this, I just can’t keep doing this for those pennies. I often joke about getting a manager to deal with the financial stuff and all, but frankly, it’s starting to sound like a joke less and less every day.

But yeah – I’m feeling better and better about not leaving the country just yet. It seems I’m finally getting some more work and now that I have the new camera, it’s gonna be a bit easier and the results better. Of course, it’s not the camera that decides what’s in the photos, but it will certainly improve the quality. Phew!!! I’ve been needing that for a looong time now.

More photo talk: we started a fun photo project with a few pals. We’re taking a couple of photos every week with a changing theme, and of course, since it’s something I started, we’ve already pushed the first deadline by a day.

Me and deadlines. Not always such a good combination.

Ok, I thought this blog would be about my travels to Italy and travels to Italy only. But, since snapping pictures with my camera and painting are something I’ll probably continue doing during my travels, I might as well spill some of the results in here.

My latest – “It’s in your hands”. Acrylics on canvas, 65 x 54cm.

I also painted this tiny tiny thing last night – I call it the Waiting Light. You can see it here if you’re really curious.

But that’s that. We’ll just have to see how Italy affects my choice of subjects from now on!

The last few days of making the movie “Veijarit”.. I wasn’t there to photograph seaguls, but I did it anyway in between taking shots of the awesome people and beautiful scenes.

I wish all weeks could start like this. I wish all the people could start their weeks like this.

OH, forgot to blog about THIS.

See, he’s looking at me. Looking at me! It’s love (which means he thinks I’m a guy). Some of the photos can be found in a gallery shaped page here. I saved some on my computer and will never give them away.

There was also a photo article on Kaista. In Finnish.

From Poets of the Fall:

Unfortunately we are forced to cancel at least Thursday’s gig on MS Isabella. Marko has inflammation of the larynx + high fever, which in practice means he has no voice at all.

Fri & Sat are still open, but at the moment it doesn’t look too good. Our deepest apologies, we were really looking forward to these gigs. We hope we can play on the sea at a later date! Stay tuned.

Aww. We girls were actually excited to spend 3 days on a boat, although in normal circumstances it would be a nightmare. But, you know. When you love someone / a group of someones..

Picture taken at Klubi / Tampere last Thursday. More coming up soon at their photo gallery.

..got ~1000 photos of the bands we went to see. And still missed a couple of happenings taking place on stage.

What an awesome trip, once again. I love my girls. I love my boys. I love sitting in the car, singing out loud; sleeping in Omppu, spending a hangover day at a spa, dodging drunken people who are about to push me over with my camera. I love life on weekends like this.

Tomorrow, Tavastia. And while waiting for the live photos of Phoenix Effect and Poets of the Fall, I give you a hooded crow. What an awesome character.

Added a few tags. This needed them all!

Sometimes I can handle more than 10 minutes outside just for fun. That only happens when I carry my camera and can actually pretend to have a reason to be outside.. in the snow.. and cold..

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing about my personal life anymore. I do realize how stupid it is to apologize for something like that, but for some silly reason I feel I have to. After sooo many years (has it been nine already?!) of blogging about everything I do, everything I feel, everything I’m going through in my life, it just feels.. rude? Why? I have no idea.

Maybe I’m finally trying to drop all the less important hobbies and concentrate on things I *really* wanna do in life. Like roam the savannah with Dave or some other nature maniac.

Yeah, I wish. I really do.

I circle around my own bellybutton (as we say in Finland) and will now present you my photo of the day, quite randomly selected.

The story behind this photo: I had to visit the zoo three times to see the leopard babies (endangered species, by the way) coming out with their mama. One night, 10 minutes before the closing… time, I FINALLY spotted them. I’m sure the mom waits for the zoo to quiet down, and even knows the time of the day when that will happen. I’ve witnessed at least horses and swans to learn the daily feeding times of the day, almost by the minute.

I also had to go through pretty violent feelings, spotted a couple of idiots banging on the glass wall & growling & yelling at the mama leopard. She got really upset and aggressive, and tried to get to them trough the glass (wish she did).

They were Russians, who apparently didn’t understand English at all.. I hope they at least got the “YOU IDIOT” part.

There. Rant rant rant & again with the love for the animals :)

..with a project. I’m suddenly so involved with this fun thing called Harakan Taivas, which would translate into Magpie’s Heaven beautifully. It’s a retro / second hand clothing store my friend decided to start, and wanted me to join the project…

So, for the last week or more, I’ve been painting the walls, planning the interior & doing all kinds of things related to the store itself and of course, the promotion of it. We have a blog too [click!], but it’s in Finnish – I’ll translate some of it to English at some point, but at least there are a lot of pictures of what we’re doing. In case you’re interested :)

Also, some nice news about my photography. I took part in this fun competition put up by an awesome nature photographer called Chris Weston, and ended up in the top three! But the best part of the whole thing was his commentary on my swan photo. Here’s a quote:

“In this image by Tiia Ohman, the photographer has made great use of the elements of design in order to capture a striking, graphic image of a relatively common subject. A perfect exposure has brought out in vivid detail the varying textures of the swan’s feathers, creating an almost 3-dimensional appearance to the photograph.”

“Seeing the detail, as in the Swan, is a perfect example of learning to see. A brilliant effort.”

-Chris Weston [see his website here.]

Imagine that! I think these comments are something I’ll cherish for the next few months – that is, if National Geography doesn’t call me up and ask if they can publish my photos. Ha ha ha. Maybe in a few more years… (what a dream!)

So, that’s that, all is well here, inspiration & long days..  Hope you’re all happy & well! Leave a comment before you leave!