Finland Is 105 Years Young!

Wait what... Not 105? Photo evidence says that I'm wrong. It's 501 years but written by a kid in first grade. Or kinda like the letters SOI which in Finnish means something is playing or ringing and now I'm confused. My whole life I've been lied to.

It's nice that Finland decided to declare itself independent December 6^th because the daylight time is very short here and all the blue and white lights are much more cooler to look at when it's dark. It would be quite bland to look at the pretty lights in the middle of the summer when the sun doesn't set at all. The people 501 or 105 years ago thought that wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the Independence day in December when in the future blue and white led lights would be oh so pretty but what are led lights, lets not think about that now, surely someone will invent that soon.

So without the darkness it would be like this. Only flags and no lights.

But of course it's not summer but winter now and there's also the Christmas market thing going on. And if you want to go out when it's not yet dark, you better be quick. Like forget the third breakfast and slow waking up, there's no time. (Actually there's always time for another cup of coffee.) You look out the window and the sun is there and you just blink your eyes and the sun is gone. Of course there are also the days when it's really cloudy and grey so no chance to see the sun even if it's not yet dark.

The day shots were taken with my phone but after about four or five o'clock I had to take my Sony A6400 camera out for a walk. No chance taking quick hand held snapshots with film cameras. Modern day digital cameras are so care free. It's so liberating to just fire away and shoot, shoot, shoot, snap, snap, snap. Finger on the trigger almost all the time. I took about 900 photos and that would have been so many film rolls that I don't even want to think about it.

A photowalk without a tram photo is not a proper photowalk at all. And snow! Look! Snow!!!

I absolutely love stalking people. With my camera.

Blue and white street lights for Finland. I guess that's like the Finnish flag but I think it looks more like a worm. Blue worm in the sky. Yes. I would worship that.

Seeing few dead pixels and I sure am glad it's not my camera but the digital sky.

Also I'm glad that it snowed so much that my camera didn't try to fix that and make everything smooth. It's pretty nice that the code inside it knows what's static caused by the ISO and what's snow.

If you've seen any of my film photography posts you may perhaps by now know that I love photographing the tram. I hope you're not fed up with all the tram photos. I think I have not yet photographed it from all sides and with all different film and camera options so yes, there will be more tram photos.

Actually it's just a good way to compare different films and cameras but I do admit that I perhaps am a bit obsessed with the tram too.

I think by now all the tram drivers in Tampere know me as the weird person taking photos of trams. Always with a different camera.

I do occasionally catch a bus too. Or it's rear end. Blurry rear, that is.

And I stalk people. But we've already covered that so it's obvious. It's called #streetphotography.

Trams pass by so often that if you want to photograph the main street of Tampere and it's lights, there's always a tram in there somewhere too.

Another thing that I'm really grateful when using my Sony is that it's water proof. Rain, that is, not diving. And that includes of course snow. So using it truly is carefree.

A passing by bus. Such a cool photo I think. The lights through the bus windows, a person sitting inside the bus and the reflection of the railway station text that's behind me. I would have never in a million years gotten this photo with any of my film cameras.

The Christmas market in the early evening.

This year, instead of fireworks, there are a lot of cool art projected on the buildings. And I think it's not just on one day thing. Some remain longer I think.

So cool that it started snowing. The snow and the projector light together make such beautiful art.

Blue light tree. Or cone. Blue Christmas cone.

And a private dome to drink your coffee, tea or glogg in.

The 55-210mm lens is a perfect lens for taking photos of people so that they don't even know it. Unfortunately it's not that good of a lens for taking photos of those people near you who do notice that you're taking a photo and they try their best to crouch or bow walk past you quickly so that they wouldn't disturb you taking the photo as if I couldn't command my finger when to take the photo or not. They either just swoosh by as a dark figure or are not visible in the picture at all. But I would very much like to photograph them as it's always so funny when people crouch walk by my camera.

Some day I will show you all the crouch walk photos.

Traditional stalking here, no crouchers.

That ends my independence day photo cavalcade.

At this point some may think that don't I have anything else to say about Finland being independent. How it makes me feel, what it means to me or what am I grateful for. Those are the traditional questions journalist ask people when talking to them out there. People coming out of grocery stores, having glogg at the Christmas market or partying with the president at his castle. What does Finland's independence mean to you?

Well, I think I've never answered to this question. Somehow I've always managed to dodge it. And of course it's quite obvious that I'm pretty much grateful for the same things that people generally are grateful for when talking about the independence of their country.

What I'm really grateful is that I get to be a Finn. Properly. I am allowed to talk Finnish, that Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland and that I have had the privilege to learn things in school in Finnish. Because there are so many people who are not allowed to do that. To use their native tongue and and that way also keep their culture alive.

But I do like to learn other languages too. Languages are fun, although I don't know if I'm any good at it.

So today I have a more personal achievement also. At this very same day when Finland is 105 years old (I'm think it's that number, not 501 years) I have learned languages with Duolingo for 105 days in a row! Or at least tried to, not sure if I've learned anything. But anyway, 105 days! Yippee!