I know I should update my journal more often but I've been freaking busy lately... Anyway, here it goes. I have three topics I would like to deal with, two of them have something to do with the title of this journal.



1. The Dead Season

The summer is now far behind and autumn has taken over. This means that most of the migratory birds have left to south, the colours of nature are fading fast and darkness has fallen to the latitudes I'm living in. Many species can still be reached of course but days are grey and dusky. With my poor primary lens the exposure becomes way too long for birds. This means that when I want to photograph birds, the only choice is to wait for bright day and look for tits and magpies at noon (when there's enough light). Squirrels can always be reached fo course. With better equipment and with an image stabilizer I would rock even times like this .

Landscapes aren't much better. The nature is dead but not dead enough to be inspiring. Believe me, I've tried to use the barren scenery for my advantage but the success rate has been extremely poor.

The worst problem is the lack of light. Days are really short; soon enough I will go to school hours before dawn and come back home after sunset. Moreover it is cloudy ALL the time! Babies who born in the end of October won't see the sun in three months . This is truly a dead season for nature photography.



2. The Nature Photograph of 2007

The annual contest of Finnish nature photographs was held some time ago. The winner was Lassi Rautiainen's shot Takaa-ajo (Chase) [link] which is pure awesomness. Congratulations for the winner!

However, the overall level of the contest was really poor. This page [link] includes the category winners and honorable mentions. Some are good but many of them are just "OK" or seen about 374 980 times. This is the winner of 15-17-old photographers [link]
Now, take a look at my personal favourites of my own gallery.

[link]
[link]
[link]

Which one do you consider better?



3. The Death of the Dumbbox

My TV, good old 21' Nokia just broke down, after 10 years of service. It showed no signs of getting tired; it just suddenly self-destructed. Now I have time to read books .