Introducing Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha

[Birma]

Hi Toni. I sympathise with your dilemma. While a daily target can drive on your inspiration i suppose it can also grind down any enjoyment it provides. How about changing it a weekly target ?

[Kalainen]

Hi Toni. I sympathise with your dilemma. While a daily target can drive on your inspiration i suppose it can also grind down any enjoyment it provides. How about changing it a weekly target ?

Thanks for sympathy, Birma. It's exactly as you describe with a family also needing my time. So I need to find right balance for it, which is something along the lines you suggested.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Day 27 of 365 - Natural wisdom
"I try to add Aura to my photo blog pictures as often as I can, because it makes them more valuable to me. This time I cropped my picture purposely this way so that I could use edges of that soda pop fridge to my excuse to add this picture to 'Season of Blackness', plus it makes it a nice 'frame within frames' picture. I wish I could use Aura more often, but she has a bedtime when darkness descends and therefore I often have settle for her sleeping cat."

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

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[sury]

That is one heckuva shot. I love it for the simplicity. I love it for it brought smile on my face.

Sury

[sury]

Toni,
At the end of the day (no pun intended) it is your play and they are your rules. We are here
to enjoy the game. Change the rules as you see it fit. We are behind you 100%.

Sury

[Kalainen]

That is one heckuva shot. I love it for the simplicity. I love it for it brought smile on my face.
Sury

Thanks for your kind words Sury, I liked it too, especially the colors, and wanted to include it in my photo blog.
And, yes, I'm going to introduce my readjusted concept soon. Thanks for supporting me, I really appreciate it.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Day 28 of 365 - Sociological thinking
"When I started my studies of social sciences in university I really didn't know what to expect. All I knew that I had red some modern sociological classics, most important being Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish, which felt really intriguing to me at the time (and still is, but for other reasons). Within university I found other classics and becoming acquainted with sociological knowledge had two effects on me. First, it opened world in a new way to me. I found emancipatory explanations to my earlier life experiences regarding inequality and human behavior, and it taught me how to think with my own mind. Like many others, I too think, that it's one of the best things that has happened to me in my life. Secondly, it destroyed my older world view and part of me in that same process. [...] "

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

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[sury]

Secondly, it destroyed my older world view and part of me in that same process. [...]

I suppose that is what living is all about, at the microbiological level, the old is constantly
destroyed, otherwise there is no growth. Glad to be living than otherwise, destruction/deconstruction and all.

By the way, there is a tension in that shot. The loneliness and the light.

Sury

[Kalainen]

I suppose that is what living is all about, at the microbiological level, the old is constantly
destroyed, otherwise there is no growth. Glad to be living than otherwise, destruction/deconstruction and all.
By the way, there is a tension in that shot. The loneliness and the light.

I guess one could call it a intellectual growth or something. Makes me wonder how many times I have to leave things behind and does it continue whole life..

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Day 29 of 365 - Taking care of witnesses
"I'm not sure if Aura's sleeping cat is something I would call a toy. Sure it is a toy cat and not a real cat by any means; and while Aura plays a lot with it, she also has a deeper relationship with it compared to her other toys. Usually when Aura plays with something else or we take care of her, like change diapers or feed her, the cat has to sit there and watch it happen. At this point I'm tempted to call Aura's sleeping cat either a witness or a supervisor, and the everyday life where we take care of Aura is like a staged show for the cat. [...]"

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

Ps. With this post, I'm also changing my habit of daily updates. My next blog post will happen at Saturday and I will explain changes more.

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Kalainen]

Week 5, Saturday - Year of the Alpha is dead – long live the Year of the Alpha!
"My blog is now renamed as 'Year of the Alpha – 52 weeks of Sony Alpha Photography'. So basically I'm changing principle of this blog to work from daily to weekly basis. From now on, I will share 2 photographs per week (Wednesday & Saturday). I know this is a lot less than 365 days and I will miss all the photographs that didn't materialize because of this change, but I believe that daily target would eventually grind down any enjoyment it provides. There are some other changes as well. [...]"

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

Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Birma]

Great picture - glad the blog continues

[aster]

Good going on here. : )

I think your photos were very enjoyable on daily basis but I undestand the difficulty of finding good subjects or dividing your time between many other important life matters.

Hope your enthusiasm continues with no further impediments.


Yildiz

[Kalainen]

Thanks for the compliments, Birma and Yildiz. The blog certainly continues. Here is next picture:



Week 6, Wednesday - Purity and Danger
"Most of my days are spent with Aura as I'm babysitting her home while Sari goes to work. This might sound like I have loads of time to use on photography, but it's actually other way around. I need to take care of routines like eating, playing, going outdoors etc. When Aura is taking her afternoon naps, I get two hours of free time, which I usually use for my freelance work if there is any to be done at the moment. When Sari comes from work, I get couple hours of free time which I usually put working on my thesis. Finally when Aura goes to sleep, usually at nine o'clock at evening, it's time for photography. So because of these daily routines I don't get much free time for photography and it makes me very satisfied if I can squeeze some pictures while doing every day routines, like taking care of dishes. Every day routines might sound like a boring subject for photography, but it doesn't have to be. [...]"

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]

Week 6, Saturday - Egg Visions
"I don't know where the idea for this picture came, so don't ask. All I know that I had sight in my mind for couple of days and I wish I would remember where it started precisely. It kept coming back and to realize it I needed to found certain kind of egg cartons which have holes in them. At the first it turned out that they don't make so much that kind of cartons anymore, they are all closed ones. I wandered from shop to another with Aura on a daily basis and just when I was about to give up, we found these 'old kind of egg cartons' and were very happy. Later at same night I found myself laughing alone while I was setting things up for this photograph. It was fun to shoot. [...]"

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/