Introducing Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha

[Birma]

I especially like the back light in the long grass, Toni. Wonderful light and bokeh. ( and the hat!) Everything about that picture says summer sunshine

[Kalainen]

I especially like the back light in the long grass, Toni. Wonderful light and bokeh. ( and the hat!) Everything about that picture says summer sunshine

So happy to hear that I've accomplish my mission - summer sunshine that is!!

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Season of Summer Light
Week 32, Wednesday - Moments
"One question that has continuously accompanied me during this season is about getting a good shot of Aura regarding facial expression. It's (at least) a two staged problem. First of all, how do I get the unstrained smile. This is a question where I have very little figured out. When I did the first picture of this set, I learned by accident to play 'a certain game' with Aura. I set her where she has to be, focus on her face and hide behind the camera. Then I ask does she see my nose, tongue, eyes or something similar. Then she looks at me, I raise my eyes behind the camera and once she reacts to this by saying 'I see!', I fire multiple shots (continuous shooting mode) and just hope I got the expression captured. It's a simple game and so far it has gotten me here. But the thing is that I've done it so many times by now that it loses the edge and there are some particular signs in that I might need to invent new strategy in future - Aura gets bored to same game.

The second problem deals with other end of this process. [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Season of Summer Light
Week 32, Saturday - End of Season
"This is the last picture of 'Season of Summer Light'. While the summer in Finland isn't quite done yet and it changes slowly to autumn, this season ends here and next week I will move on to next theme. I can say that it has surely been great summer, both weather and photography wise. Especially I have enjoyed a lot the long summer days when we were doing small day trips around local areas together with food supplies and towels. At the same time I feel a bit sad because this particular summer, when Aura was two years old and learned things like swimming, climbing trees and picking flowers, is ending. Having a kid of my own I have luxury to live part of those childhood summers again, but as an adult I'm, at the same time, painfully conscious how the time and life passes by. [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

Ps. This one is for you, Birma!

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[sury]

Lovely shots Toni, especially the second one. In the first one, the eyes have reflection (perhaps of you)
that is quite distracting. She is so beautiful it does not take anything away from Aura, never the less...

Sury

[Birma]

Toni, two lovely shots to end the season of Summer. I was sad to hear this season is ending, which means that your pictures must have struck a chord with me. Thank you for the picture of the hat . I think you will keep that picture, and years from now one glance at it will remind you of all of the other pictures you have taken of Aura in that wonderful Finish summer sunlight.

[Kalainen]

Lovely shots Toni, especially the second one. In the first one, the eyes have reflection (perhaps of you)
that is quite distracting. She is so beautiful it does not take anything away from Aura, never the less...

Thanks, Sury! Eyes are always difficult, or perhaps the right word is unpredictable because it's the surroundings that always reflect from the eyes. In this case it's the sky and trees (+ me of course). I also thought that the eyes are pretty extraordinary in this shot and had difficulties to decide if they are distracting or sparkling. So maybe they are a bit distracting indeed. In the search of that perfect shot...

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Toni, two lovely shots to end the season of Summer. I was sad to hear this season is ending, which means that your pictures must have struck a chord with me.

Thanks Birma! This is one of the best compliments I have got regarding my work.

I think you will keep that picture, and years from now one glance at it will remind you of all of the other pictures you have taken of Aura in that wonderful Finish summer sunlight.

In our family we have a tradition of making a photobook of each summer. Some of the shots I've taken here will surely find their way into that book. This particular shot might fit as a good ending picture there as well, but it's too early to think about it. Our last summer photobook (2013) was finally finished at May 2014. There were too much raw-files stacked up and I think it's the same this year..

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Season of Touit - Picture 1
Week 33, Wednesday - Introducing the Season of Touit
"Today I'm starting my fourth season at Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography. Like earlier seasons this one also carries a special theme which will define my photography for the next ten weeks. While the earlier seasons have dealt with blackness, personal memories and summer photography, 'Season of Touit' will concentrate on bringing new point of views into to my photography by moving away from the standard focal lengths that I've used thorough the year. Reasoning behind this plan is simple. It is my experience that creativity arises from limits and appropriate amount of obstacles. Crossing the limits requires one to find new ways and once it is done it breeds new ways of working which will eventually develop one's photographic eye. By restraining myself from my standard focal lengths I'm essentially setting creative limits for my work for next 10 weeks.

In practice this means I will restrain the use of my usual lenses (SEL50F18 , SEL1855) which cover focal lengths from 18mm to 55mm (equivalent to 27mm to 82,5mm on full frame). Instead I'm going ultra wide and close-up photography which are, regarding the perception of the depth, kind of extreme ends. Wide angle exaggerates the depth and makes things look further away while close-up photography brings things so close that we can only see details of the subject. These extreme ends will define my photography for next ten weeks. I'm also very happy to tell you that ZEISS has decided to support me on this task with two of their lenses: Touit 2.8/12 and Touit 2.8/50M. Needless to say, I'm honored to be supported by them, thank you Tobias! In coming posts I will introduce both of these lenses and tell you more about them in detail.

Founded by Carl Zeiss the ZEISS has been a leading company of camera optics for over 150 years. Photography professionals associate the name ZEISS with exceptional optical quality and their distinct optical concepts, like Planar and Distagon, have gain a great reputation among many photographers. My second task during this season is to find out what does this enthusiasm regarding the ZEISS means and tell you about my findings. [...] "

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Season of Touit - Picture 2
Week 33, Saturday - Meet the Zeiss Touit 2.8/12
"Before I received these lenses I didn't have any experience of Zeiss. Being a photography enthusiast I knew about the Zeiss's reputation and had read about it on various sites, but didn't have any firsthand experience. Mainly because of this reputation I was very interested to see the lenses in my own hand and find out what was all the fuzz about. In short, I had my expectations about the ZEISS quality and to make a positive first impression Zeiss would need to fulfill these expectations – not necessarily an easy job regarding that there is a certain hype around Zeiss and where crowds get together expectations build up at accelerating speed (that's the way the internet works).

What struck me first when I opened the Touit 2.8/12 package was how small and compact the lens is. [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[sury]

Reaching out to sky... That's what Zeiss does to you... But as my daughter said,
why is the sky limit when we landed on Moon? Go figure.

Sury

[Kalainen]

Reaching out to sky... That's what Zeiss does to you...

Hah, that's a great line, Sury! I must use it somewhere! Seriously speaking there is a half truth there and Zeiss has so strong reputation that for some people it has become a sort of fetish. While I love the lenses, I can already say that right here, it makes me reconsider how to write about them, so that I don't add into this fetishism of camera gear.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Season of Touit - Picture 3
Week 34, Wednesday - Meet the Zeiss 2.8/50M
"The other lens I'm going to use for this season is the Zeiss Touit 2.8/50M. Compared to Touit 2.8/12 the 2.8/50M is clearly bigger and heavier, though weights almost the same at 290 grams. I've always thought that lens size doesn't matter as long as it delivers good optical quality. Touit 2.8/50M makes me reconsider this stance. Not saying it's too big, but 2.8/50M is definitely closer to upper limit what I personally feel is acceptable. Having a small and compact mirrorless camera, like Sony Nex-5N, has given me a lot of flexibility and inspiration and this is surely something I don't want to jeopardize. However, comparing the Touit 2.8/50M to other options makes it clear that it is actually a very compact lens for what it does. The other macro lenses from Zeiss (Makro-Planar 2/50 & 2/100) weight approximately double and are therefore substantially bigger and heavier. Considering that Touit also has full autofocus capabilities which other Makro-Planars don't offer, it becomes clear that Zeiss has done a wonderful job with it.

Like it's wide-angle brother, the Touit 2.8/50M has a great build quality and the same modern Zeiss look [...]"

Read full post at my blog: http://www.yearofthealpha.com

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[sury]

Thoroughly enjoyable close up Toni. Very nicely done.

Sury

[Kalainen]

Thoroughly enjoyable close up Toni. Very nicely done.

Thanks Sury! This time I think I got the light right. Still makes me wonder did the butterfly see me or not. It looks like it's looking at me (or you), but because of position of the eyes I'm not sure. Different world for sure!

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/