Introducing Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha

[Kalainen]

Week 9, Saturday - Two worlds
"I firmly believe that good photograph should have some context or it should tell something – otherwise it’s just picture without meaning or a technical study. Only the picture is not enough, but neither is the story. That’s the main reason why I see the effort of writing something about every picture. In a sense, taking a picture and writing something about it is an exercise which will force me to interpreter my own pictures. [...]"

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 10, Wednesday - Laterna magica
"I don’t know about you, but every time I edit my photographs in computer software (todays laterna magica really), I’m facing a question of how much I should bend reality in favor of something else (usually visual aesthetics). I feel if I bend it enough I will eventually break the photograph because it becomes something that doesn’t exist. [...]"

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 10, Saturday - End of blackness
"So here we are, this is the last day of my first season, the 'Season of blackness'. When I started this photo blog ten weeks ago I really didn't know what would come out of it. Except the website, I didn't have any detailed plan or answers in my pocket. All I knew I needed to throw myself into some direction – and 'Season of blackness' was chosen because I knew I loved lo-key photography, but often felt that I had far too few chances to concentrate to it and learn to do it properly. I was excited and terrified at the same time because I honestly didn't know I could pull it off. It was a risk I needed to take to make something interesting happen in my photography. [...]"

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

Next week at Wednesday I will introduce my next season. With a new season I will try to change my approach to photography, explore strange new things and hopefully produce new and interesting content for those who have followed me this far. In a mean time, I would also like to thank you for everyone who have visited my site, commented my work or been in touch some other ways. If you have any comments regarding my first season, photographs, texts or anything else, I would love to hear from you. Anything honest is fair really.

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 11, Wednesday - The Island
"It's all kind of blurry and I'm not sure what happened before. I feel like I'm suffering from a mild memory loss, but I'm now back at the island. I've been here many times and it looks same as before. If you would ask about it, I could describe, not just the geographical character of the island, but also all the roads, houses and my earlier occasions there. It seems I've been living here quite some time already, but I can't never tell how I exactly came here in the first place. All I know is that sometimes I'm not here. I'm somewhere else, but can't recall what those other places are. [...]"

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

Today I'm starting my second season, Season of tilt, which will deal more with my dreams, memories and inner feelings. I'm trying to stray out of the objective reality and use photography to express something else. One could describe it as a psychologically tilted season which merges things from subconscious. I should also add that I'm sincerely grateful for Lensbaby which has been kind enough to support my second season with their most interesting lenses. For this season I'll be using exclusively Lensbaby Composer Pro with three different optics: Double Glass, Sweet 35 and Edge 80. Therefore Season of tilt will also concentrate on exploring the creative possibilities offered by Lensbaby products and you might want to follow it through just to learn more about them.

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]

Week 10, Saturday - End of blackness
"So here we are, this is the last day of my first season, the 'Season of blackness'. When I started this photo blog ten weeks ago I really didn't know what would come out of it. Except the website, I didn't have any detailed plan or answers in my pocket. All I knew I needed to throw myself into some direction – and 'Season of blackness' was chosen because I knew I loved lo-key photography, but often felt that I had far too few chances to concentrate to it and learn to do it properly. I was excited and terrified at the same time because I honestly didn't know I could pull it off. It was a risk I needed to take to make something interesting happen in my photography. [...]"

Toni

Toni,
That face was fantastic on its own. I am not able to relate that low key image with Season of blackness. I can see the recurring theme (of Season of blackness) in all your previous photos. Perhaps low key is not necessarily a fit for depicting the "Season of blackness" or if it is, perhaps the image may not be. Could it be that the image is more aptly suited for depicting the beginning of "Season of blackness"?

Sury

[Kalainen]

Week 10, Saturday - End of blackness
"So here we are, this is the last day of my first season, the 'Season of blackness'. When I started this photo blog ten weeks ago I really didn't know what would come out of it. Except the website, I didn't have any detailed plan or answers in my pocket. All I knew I needed to throw myself into some direction – and 'Season of blackness' was chosen because I knew I loved lo-key photography, but often felt that I had far too few chances to concentrate to it and learn to do it properly. I was excited and terrified at the same time because I honestly didn't know I could pull it off. It was a risk I needed to take to make something interesting happen in my photography. [...]"

Toni

Toni,
That face was fantastic on its own. I am not able to relate that low key image with Season of blackness. I can see the recurring theme (of Season of blackness) in all your previous photos. Perhaps low key is not necessarily a fit for depicting the "Season of blackness" or if it is, perhaps the image may not be. Could it be that the image is more aptly suited for depicting the beginning of "Season of blackness"?
Sury

Thanks for your comments Sury, I appreciate your time. I guess I'm still searching how to approach this new season. Working with Lensbaby products I want to associate it somehow to dreamy look, but like I said, I'm still searching for it..

-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 11, Friday - The Fish
"This is one of my earliest memories. It's hot summer day, me and my father are in the kitchen. He has a big fish in a white plastic bag. It's still living and twitches a lot. My father want to show me something and tells me to watch carefully. He takes the fish out of the bag, puts it on a chopping board. The fish still twitches and he has to squeeze it tightly to hold it there. Then he hits the fish in the head and after couple tries it becomes senseless. 'Now I will show you something', he smiles and takes a long knife. [...]"

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/

[aster]

Hi Toni, : )

I think that you are on a good path to finding your true self behind the lenses. Whatever happens I believe that at the end of your Alpha year you'll still have earned some new qualities and approaches which probably will trigger new photography approaches and thoughts with new material/subjects.

Keep up the good work. Good luck as you move on and off your path while finding what you exactly are seeking ...


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[Kalainen]

Hi Toni, : )
I think that you are on a good path to finding your true self behind the lenses. Whatever happens I believe that at the end of your Alpha year you'll still have earned some new qualities and approaches which probably will trigger new photography approaches and thoughts with new material/subjects.
Keep up the good work. Good luck as you move on and off your path while finding what you exactly are seeking ...
Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

Hi Yildiz and thanks for your kind comment! It makes me very glad to see some people in this thread since it's been pretty quiet lately.

At the moment I feel one of the greatest thing Year of the Alpha has brought to me so far is the knowledge that I can shoot something else than just family&holiday stuff, which I did before I started. Of course I did shoot something similar from time to time before I started, but I never found any use of those pictures. And the lack of home resulted me shooting less and less other than family&holiday stuff. I felt my perspectives where shrinking and jumping into Year of the Alpha was good choice to change that. Finding good themes for different seasons, is the key thing. I feel that my first season (blackness) was right move for me. Second season is still finding its form. Well, there is still lot of weeks to go and who knows what they will bring.

Again, thanks for your kind words, I really appreciate people commenting my work. It gives me power to keep on trying. Having said that it makes me sad that I'm not always able to give it back, like being active in other parts of particular forum. With Year of the Alpha I'm trying to make most of my very little free time. But one thing I always try to do is to check work of those people who comment my work (and give them feedback if I find something meaningful to say). I tried to find your photography, but didn't found anything. Would be interested to see them as well (PM if you want).

-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 11, Saturday - Where is God?
"When I look back to my early childhood I'm not sure if I believed or didn't belief in God. However I'm very certain I believed in what most children do: if I think or wish something hard enough it will become reality. This kind of belief would suggest that there is someone who listens and fulfills these wishes – the God. However, when I was a little bit older, say 10 years old, I'm very sure that I didn't belief the bearded man in the skies. Did it make me a young child atheist? No, of course not [...]"

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/

[aster]

Hi Toni, : )

Well good luck all the way.

To answer your question of if I take photos and if they exist in the forum, yes, I do take photos but I really was not as actively participating as I used to for a while now, hence the lack of photos from me lately. : ) No wonder you couldn't find any at first glance.

It's like a passing phase and I do believe that I will start shooting again soon enough. You may see some in the future...

Don't worry about trying to provide feedback for everyone's photos who commented on your work, it would be hard since putting the time in for such a task can prove very demanding. This forum is more about sharing on friendly acknowledgement basis than competing with the others' submission rates.

When it happens, it happens. No need to be compelled into doing something when it just doesn't feel right in time.

Keep digging into your search of belief or materials and enjoy your own heart's trip.

Thanks for going to the trouble of trying to find my photos. There actually are many pertaining to the years past. : ) Maybe they don't surface as easily now because of the way they are sort of buried in there somewhere.

Thanks,

Yildiz

[Kalainen]

Hi Toni, : )

Well good luck all the way.

To answer your question of if I take photos and if they exist in the forum, yes, I do take photos but I really was not as actively participating as I used to for a while now, hence the lack of photos from me lately. : ) No wonder you couldn't find any at first glance.

It's like a passing phase and I do believe that I will start shooting again soon enough. You may see some in the future...

Don't worry about trying to provide feedback for everyone's photos who commented on your work, it would be hard since putting the time in for such a task can prove very demanding. This forum is more about sharing on friendly acknowledgement basis than competing with the others' submission rates.

When it happens, it happens. No need to be compelled into doing something when it just doesn't feel right in time.

Keep digging into your search of belief or materials and enjoy your own heart's trip.

Thanks for going to the trouble of trying to find my photos. There actually are many pertaining to the years past. : ) Maybe they don't surface as easily now because of the way they are sort of buried in there somewhere.

Thanks,

Yildiz

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, Yildiz.

..and get back to shooting!

-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 11, Tuesday - The Cars
"As promised in earlier post, I posted something that would exemplify the character of the Edge 80 optic. Because Edge 80 has a flat field of focus, tilting of the lens produces a nice buttery-like out of focus areas with a slice of sharp area within the picture. How much you tilt the lens and how large aperture you have affects where the out of focus area will appear and how wide the sharp area 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]

I certainly like the composition and probably is a good fit for that optic.
BTW, what is EDGE 80 optic? Some kind of tilt/shift lens?

Sury

[Birma]

That's great Toni - I like the small dof and the bokeh car lights