Introducing Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha

[Kalainen]

Day 16 of 365 - Hidden portrait (by Sony Alpha Friend Afzal Khan)
"I am Afzal Khan. By my profession I am a designer, particularly a graphics designer. I have my own firm Hyphen advertising in Kathmandu, where I work as a Creative director. We take care of advertising designs like print ads and commercials for television. However, in country like Nepal there is not much scope for creative work. Especially the kind of photography I do contains no commercial value. So whatever I'm doing with photography is just for myself. It's my big passion and gives me satisfaction. I bought my own camera about three years ago and have been taking photographs ever since. Sony cameras are my favorite because of easy technology and rich colors they produce."

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/

[jbtaylor]

"The question your asking came for me too, but I'm not so sure if I actually want to break out of it at all. I want photographs to look that they have been designed to look that way - not just some subjective glance or something. And I think it has a some sort of reason why it's part of my photographic eye. I need to refine it and sophisticate it to become my visual character. "

Well it didn't take long to "break out" did it. A lovely image indeed.
To be clear, I was not suggesting that you need to change your point of view. I only suggest that growth and development allows one to choose with finality where they want to be artistically. Consider the film "A Clockwork Orange". The opening scene is one of the few that was staged (built for the scene) in it's entirety. The camera moves deliberately from a close up of Alex's eye ending at the back of the room showing all objects in their perfect symmetry. Only a true master of the medium would then toss a camera out the window later in the same movie.

[Kalainen]

Well it didn't take long to "break out" did it. A lovely image indeed.

I want to correc here, that this is not taken by me, but of Afzal Khan who participated to my photo blog by publishing this in it. Participation is open to anyone and you can read more about it here: http://www.yearofthealpha.com/photographer/

To be clear, I was not suggesting that you need to change your point of view. I only suggest that growth and development allows one to choose with finality where they want to be artistically. Consider the film "A Clockwork Orange". The opening scene is one of the few that was staged (built for the scene) in it's entirety. The camera moves deliberately from a close up of Alex's eye ending at the back of the room showing all objects in their perfect symmetry. Only a true master of the medium would then toss a camera out the window later in the same movie.

I agree with you and maybe I need to develop other tools into my tool box as well. Interesting about the Clockwork Orange. It's been awhile once I've seen it before, but I guess I must return to it now, in some point.

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 17 of 365 - Transference
"Aura has a sleeping cat, which we bought for her before she was born. We wanted it to be 'there for her from the beginning', so that she would later have something 'which has always been there'. While it is very dear to her now, it's has also been interesting to follow how her relationship to cat has developed during this time. While cat didn't receive much attention at the beginning, it seems that it now develops new skills on a daily basis. At first it just sat there with us once in awhile. Then we had to start changing diapers to it. Now it seems that the cat does all sort of things. It reads books, uses computer (to look pictures of other cats!) and if it wants it can fly in the sky."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 18 of 365 - Working with a film
"I have always been interested in visual things and consider myself a visually orientated person. As a kid I draw a lot and later on my path led me into graphics design, which I learned without formal education (I'm sure that's actually a pretty common in these days, but I highly respect those who have had some sort of formal education to it, because they learn their craft in a broader cultural and societal perspectives). I’ve played with painting, 3D-modelling and so on. Naturally one would think that I would have gone into photography pretty early. I was, but there were more than one false start before I got seriously started with it which was pretty late. Most of my false starts were related to using real film and analog cameras, but there were other reasons too."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 19 of 365 - 'a Good photograph'
"I took this photograph couple of days ago when I was out with Aura and we were crossing a bridge of Tammer race. We have finally had a pretty nice winter weather here in Finland and conditions were excellent for this kind of picture. It doesn't exactly align with the visual character I'm after with my photography and connection to my theme is loose, but I appreciate situations when environment sets up in a perfect position to be photographed. And while I think it's 'a good photograph', I have a mixed feelings about it."

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/

[David Kilpatrick]

For me that's what photography should really be about - light, the moment, framing the world as a picture. Great!

David

[Kalainen]

For me that's what photography should really be about - light, the moment, framing the world as a picture. Great!
David

Thanks for your kind words David!

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 20 of 365 - The flip side
"This is a time of unprecedented well-being. Never before has man had the same kind of possibility to live as actively, healthy and well as now. Entire societies are developed by politics of societal well-being and markets are used to distribute ever increasing health services to everyone. From the day we are born we are taken care of by society. Our growth environment and learning programs are designed by experts who consider all kinds of things from aesthetics to integration and well-being. Then we are taught how to organize our life for healthiness and how to take care of ourselves. If you still encounter problems there are all kinds of experts, medications and programs available. Even the daily food we eat have all kinds of vitamins and other necessary food supplements added in them by default, not counting all available beauty products which we can use to enhance aesthetics of our life. In short, we have everything available for us to have a good life."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 21 of 365 - Forever darkness
"In borderless and forever darkness you roam.
Without identity, helping hand or home.
Only the mute and sparse streetlights to keep you company
There is nowhere to go."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 22 of 365 - Cat adventures
"Now that Aura's cat has learned all kinds of new skills and is living pretty active life (see day 17), I thought I might as well play this game too. Today Aura's cat is leaving for a holiday with three travelling bags and who knows what it's going to do next. I'm secretly toying with a idea that I would do, for example, a sixteen page photo book of 'Cat adventures' and hide it until Aura is old enough to discover double life of her cat. It would make a unique and perfect birthday present when she is like 15 years old of something!"

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 23 of 365 - Distinction
"We feel the borders, but avoid to acknowledge them. Every day they run invisibly across districts and streets. Stratified into culture they organize the city and categorize people. It's a way we dress our self, what we eat and what kind of literature we appreciate. What kind of taste we have, who we know and to whom we answer. How we speak and look to each other. How we touch and are being touched by others. It's how we exist and who we are."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 24 of 365 - Visual motifs, again
"I took this photograph couple of days ago while we were heading to library with Aura. In my mind this picture compares very closely to Day 19. Not only is it taken almost from the same spot, but the light is a bit similar and again the whole picture is based on a very well known visual motif of silhouette figure. I hope the guy is at least someone else this time! When I took that earlier picture, I wrote about feeling mixed about it because pictures which are too much based on known visual motifs become clichés easily. Looking it now, I feel I need to lighten my stance and focus it a bit."

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/

[Kalainen]

Day 25 of 365 - Creative process
"When it comes to creative process, I have very little figured out. During these 25 days I've realized that I need creative process, and with 'process' I don't mean just some happy accidents here and there, but a system of thought that will output new ideas on a regular basis. I guess some sort of common thought about creative process relates to mental images of mixing and blending different kind of ingredients together - and creative accidents happen when unexpected things are put together. Interpreting it this way makes the term 'creative' somehow relate to a categorical mix-ups. It's a common thought and while I'm tend to do just that, I'm still not sure if it's fruitful approach to creative 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/

[Kalainen]

Day 26 of 365 - Changes
"I've been running this blog now for 26 days and update it with a new picture and text every day. While it has been a fascinating project and I've been creating pictures I would never have done without it, I now have to admit that my original plan has been too ambitious and I have to change my concept somehow to make this work. The trouble is, with a unfinished thesis, freelance work, family life, everyday things and other routines to take care of, the blog has to be run at nights. No matter how I try to organize things I find myself post processing pictures, writing texts and updating the blog usually at two o'clock in the middle of the night. After 26 days, I can say that this doesn't work in the long run and if I want to continue doing this, and I do, I need to change my rules. I'm still working on with a new plan, but in practice it means I won't be updating my blog on daily basis. More info to come in a next few days."

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/