It’s been snowing here pretty much non-stop for the past week.
I got a parking ticket for parking with a permit in an area where my permit is valid, because the parking smurf was too lazy to clean the snow off my window to see the permit (or then I don’t understand what’s written on the sign, but we’ll see about that when I object to the fine).
Anyway… In all desperate frustration, you throw your arms up to the sky, look up and quietly say some really foul words and then fall silent for the beauty that meets your eye up there.
Not all beauty is on eye-height, or at your feet for that matter.

D800, ISO200, 1/125 sec @ f/2.4, Nikkor 50mm

I have these funky things that I run into every now and again. Comes with the job, really, I guess. I’ve had it before, and it’s happened again. The things you encounter when you’re cleaning up… IF you care to see beyond the regular, that is…
I’ll give away an A3 print of the last image to the one who can guess what this is (hint: you can’t describe it in one word ).

D700, ISO200, 2 sec @ f/13, Tamron 90mm macro

D700, ISO200, 1 sec @ f/13, Tamron 90mm macro

As above, but with some Photoshopping involved.

… or less

Color or duotone?

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 50mm

As a photographer you know that “light” is one of the most essential variables in anything you do.
Living in a country as Finland, and especially in winter, you see funky things happen with light whenever there’s snow around. It may be in the middle of the night, and pitch black, but with a nice pack of snow, it could almost be twilight, because the snow reflects every bit of light.
It’s the same with both natural light and artificial light.

Yesterday I shot a picture of the street down here in daylight, the sky so overcast that it was a perfectly white massive softbox, good for nice and neutral colors.

This morning I set up the camera again, but earlier. It was still (or again) overcast, but there was the shade of this 15 minutes of civil twilight, where everything turns blue for a short while. It was just before 9am when I took the first shots, with the street lights still burning. It’s funny how the street lights seem to absorb all natural light and throw off this funky orange hue.
Below first the colors as the camera recorded it (slightly accentuated from the RAW file) and on second what I turned it into (because I like it better when it looks a bit warmer ).

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND, 5 images combined in Photoshop

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND, 5 images combined in Photoshop

But then, I actually didn’t know this was going to happen beforehand, the street lights switched off. It was in the  middle of one of the 30 second exposures when that happened, so in that particular image (not posted here) you can actually see the after-glow of the street lights. That image ended up somewhat underexposed (salvageable, but not really interesting), but the following exposures gave a nice example of how big an influence the light, its color and the color of the environment influences the image you take.

Below again first the image with the colors as the camera recorded it, and the next one adjusted to how we “know” a snowy scene is supposed to look.

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND, 4 images combined in Photoshop

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND, 4 images combined in Photoshop

A few months ago I posted a picture taken from the window of my new apartment. It’s really an excellent place to overview what’s going on “in the world below”.
Now that winter’s finally set in, and we’ve got some snow on the ground, it changes everything. The place is the same, but it looks like it’s a completely different world.

I’ll let the picture speak for itself (starting to think there may be an interesting series in this…):

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND filter, three exposures combined in Photoshop

I’ve written about The Photo Paper before. And the last time I did I thought to myself that maybe I was nagging a bit. But I’m starting to wonder about that now. Was it really nagging, or was I making a point?

image courtesy of The Photo Paper

See… After… what…? almost two years or  something they finally said to have published the first issues. I guess they actually have physical editions, too, but in any case I downloaded the first issue as a digital version for free (after the first issue you’ll have to pull out your wallet).
This magazine is supposed to have collected all winners and nominees from the Black and White Spider Awards and the Color Awards. They “say” a lot on the Photo Paper website. They mention a lot of names, jurors among others, half of which may not even be truely consciously related to this. And funnily my name used to be on the website, mentioned as one of the photographers published in the magazine, but only until I made a fuss about my subscription being paid for and not delivered.. I’ve been a nominee with one or more images in Spider Awards for the past 4 years and Color Awards for the past 3 years straight, but my name nor my pictures are in this first issue.
Is that because I told them I wanted my money back when they didn’t deliver the magazine after me nagging for a year?
Or is it really so that they are a vanity press and publish your name and picture only when you pay for the subscription? Was that why it took them about a year and a half to publish the first issue? Because they didn’t have enough photographers to pay for being published in the first issue(s)?

Truth be told, there are a good number of really awesome pictures in that digital issue that I paged through, but what’s really the underlying thought for these people to publish this magazine? Would The Spider Awards and Color Awards really want to be related to this magazine still if they were really nothing more than a vanity press?
Anyone out there who’s featured in this magazine and has NOT paid for a subscription? (employees, family members of employees and acquaintances of family members of employees are not allowed to answer this question ).

I have an old lens for sale. It’s a slower lens, I bought it for about 1200€ back when I was still more of an amateur than I am now. It’s a great lens, but when you’re starting to work on a more advanced level and you need fast glass, this one just doesn’t do the trick anymore. Yet, it’s a beautiful lens and perfect for someone just starting out and wanting something with a long reach. It’s a Sigma 170-500mm, APO, f/5-6.3. Just before the days of image stabilization.

Anyway… I put it up for sale on the Finnish Tori.fi, hoping to find the lens a nice new owner.
I was of course happily surprised that after a week or so I received a message in my inbox through Tori.fi from a guy named Chris Thompson (thomchris2000@gmail.com).
Very short:

hei
Onko sinulla vielä tämän kohteen myynnissä?

Meaning literally translated: “Hi, do you have this item still in sale?” My Finnish is far from perfect, but between the lines that reads already “Google Translate”. But hey… English name of the sender, that’s ok. It’s an effort, I’d say. So, happy I may have found a buyer for my piece of glass I reply to the message in Finnish, confirming that the lens is still for sale.

Several hours later I get a reply from Chris again:

Kiitos vastauksesta. Olisin halunnut tulla katsomaan sitä ja maksaa käteisellä, mutta olen pois kaupungista juuri nyt. Haluan lähettää tämän ystävälleni joka asuu Lagos Nigeriassa lahjaksi. Lähetän rahaa teille, sisältäen postikulut maksut kautta pankkiin, mutta minä tarvitsen sinua assit minulle postitse paketin Nigeriaan haluaisin tietää kuinka paljon se tulee maksamaan postitse Lagos Nigeriassa ja kaikkiaan rahaa maksaa. myös lähettää minulle tilitiedot, jotta voin siirtää rahaa tilillesi mahdollisimman pian.

kiitos
Chris

Thanks for your reply. I would have loved to come and take a look at it and pay you cash, but I’m out of the city right now. I want to send this to my friend who lives in Lagos Nigeria as a gift. I will send the money to you, including postage charges through your bank, but I will need you to assit me post the package to Nigeria.
let me know how much it will cost to post to Lagos Nigeria and the total money to pay. also send me your bank account details so that I can transfer the money to your account as soon as possible.
Thanks
Chris

First in Finnish, and then just to be sure in English, so that if Google Translate has screwed up, I could still understand it from the English version. And I understood it very well. Both the Finnish AND the English version. As soon as I saw Nigeria all the red flags went up and the angels sang Christmas carols with alarm bells.
Nevertheless… I’m always willing to give a person the benefit of the doubt (ahem), so I replied:

Hi Chris,

I’m not sure if you prefer English or Finnish, but I can also write in English.
I’m not in a hurry with selling the lens, so I will wait until you are back in town so you can have a look and pay in cash if you like the lens.
In that case you can also take care of the sending yourself, because if I send it I will only send it insured. The costs for sending this lens insured are about 250€ extra, so that would be quite a big sum extra on top of the 400€.

Let me know when we can meet.

Best,
Arno

Now it takes Chris only one hour to reply:

I would have loved to come and take a look at it and pay you in cash, but I’m buying this as a birthday gift and want it to get to Nigeria before the birthday is over. send me your bank account details so that I can transfer 650 euro to your account. thanks.

Of course it is very likely that Chris is out of town for awhile and that he wants his friend in Nigeria to have this before the birthday is over, so I still give the guy the benefit of the doubt (ahem). So I tell him it’s too bad we don’t get to meet and send him my bank details and ask him from which bank I can expect his payment. To which he fairly immediately replies “Bank of America” (which of course makes perfect sense, his IP being located in the US and Finland not having a Bank of America).

So the next day I get a mail from Chris:

hi
I have transferred the  money to your account. please go to the post and send out the package to Nigeria immediately
this is the name and address of the receiver
Name:      Peter Emmanuel
Address    No. 84, Ijesha Road, Ijeshatedo
City:         Surulere
State:       Lagos
Country:   Nigeria
Zip code:  23401
let me know as soon as you have posted it out.
thanks.

I also get SIX mails from the Bank of America. Or so am I supposed to be thinking. Logos unproportionally stretched into oblivion, AND hot-linked from a variety of other websites (of companies that have done or are still doing business with Bank of America and which have the logo hosted on their website). And the email address it came from was customer_service@net-shopping.com. One would think, logically speaking that is, that it would come from a bankofamerica.com email address, but then again… what do I know…?
The Executive Vice-President Deb Walden of Bank of America tells me that I have just received a payment of €650 from their valuable subscriber Chris Thompson and that all I need to do is send a scan/copy of the package slip as proof of shipment of the item to the bank, so they can release the funds into my account (angels singing ChrisT(hompson)mas carols with alarm bells). So… Off I go to the post office to get me a package slip, fill in the address, and my address, which of course is fake and make a scan of it which I send to the email address of Bank of America (the customer_service@net-shopping.com one). Initially I wanted to make my address Huijaus 4 N 19, but I figured then it may have been a bit too obvious that I had no intention of actually sending the package.

The package slip as proof of me sending my precious lens to Nigeria

I received a reply from the Bank of America that they received my mail and that they would verify the information.

In the mean time I sent Chris a mail informing him that the package was sent, and at the same time I forwarded all the emails, including the Bank of America ones to Bank of America, the FBI, the Helsinki Police, Tori.fi and the African 419 scammers police department, as well as to the websites from which images were hot-linked. I haven’t received a reply from any of them, but I guess that’s not really my problem.

A day passes and I get a message from Bank of America saying that they have been unable to verify the postage of the item from the courier’s website, but I have nothing to worry about, because my money is safe with them.
At the same time I get a mail from Chris, asking me the tracking number for the package. I play stupid, and tell him that according to his bank I should send the tracking number of the package to the buyer unless I have received my money, and that I haven’t received my money yet, so I won’t be sending him the tracking number just yet. He instantly replies:

why have you not received the money? I have paid and the money has already been deducted from my account. so how do I know the status of the package? please let me know the status of the package
thanks for your understanding

To which I reply:

I don’t know why I haven’t got the money, yet. Ask your bank, they are responsible. I sent the package on Monday and sent a scan of the package slip to the email address your bank gave me. I’d prefer to get the money ASAP, too. I just sent off an expensive lens and I haven’t even gotten any money. This is starting to taste very dodgy…

To which he profusely apologizes and asks me if I have got any message from the bank about a shipping document that needs to be verified and I need to let him know so he can contact them about it and ask what’s going on (he’s such a sweet guy! ). I tell him that I got a mail from them saying they couldn’t verify the document, but that it’s probably because of the holiday (Finnish Independence Day was around that time). He writes me back:

okay maybe because of the holiday, that is why they couldn’t verify the postage. I will write them to know exactly what the problem is.  I can assure you that you will get the money. I will write them.
thanks.

So… He assures me I will get the money… And he continues a day later:

hello
I contacted the bank to know why you have not received your money, but they told me that they have not been able to verify the postage.
please did you give them the right information?
what is the status of the package now?
please let me know so that I can talk to them. let them give you the money so that I can have the shipment tracking number to know exactly where my package is.

HIS package?? Riiiiight… So I reply to him:

Yes I gave them the right information. And I want my MONEY!
The package has left the airport of Helsinki, and I’m out of a lens and out of money.
I hope you’re not scamming me, because I will run to the police quicker than you can say package.

And his totally indignant reply:

OMG! how could you think of me scamming you? if I do, how will I be able to get the tracking number? I have been honest to you and I want to make sure that you get your money. I’m a very honest person. I will still contact the bank to make sure that you get your money.

That’s basically where the communication stops.
I got a couple of things in between that took up most of my time. Would’ve loved to keep him on a leash for awhile longer, even only so that he couldn’t go after other people’s stuff, but I think he got wind of it that I was actually pulling his leg.
Next time I’m going to send them an actual package and see what happens with “the money”.

In any case, aside from this being a funny story, it’s more of a warning. I’ve written about scams before, but this is one of those 419 operations that keep on going on all the time, and not only with photography items, but with everything. Be very wary about who you deal with. If people don’t negotiate about prices of items you sell, and are willing to pay a shitload of money extra for shipping without blinking, or if they bid generously over the set price of which you sell your item for, your red flags should go off. And if they want you to send it before paying you, even more red flags should go off. And if they want you to send it to Nigeria the red flags and alarm bells should go off so loudly your neighbors will bang the walls.
Be careful out there!

(By the way… The lens is still for sale, if anyone’s interested, contact me )

I found another good “victim” for the cross-processing.
Before:

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 50mm

Then into Photoshop:

Four different Hue/Saturation layers with different blending modes...

… gives us this end result:

The end result after cross-processing

They’re a pain in the arse. Especially when you’re in them. But sometimes, when you’re NOT in them, and you have a nice overview of what’s going on, a traffic jam can be a very inspiring thing. When you’re a photographer, at least.

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND filter

The cool thing is that you can take a whole series of shots and they all turn out differently. And then you can combine stuff. Take a car from here, a tram from there, some tail lights from a third, etc. etc. And “minor” details like a biker and/or pedestrian from a few others to set the mood.

Now all I’m waiting for is ambulances, fire trucks and police cars to race by so I also get some blue lights in there still. Since that happens pretty much on a daily basis, it’s just a matter of time.
To be continued…?

As a marketing person I look at things. I look at commercials, I look at posters on the street, etc. I may not look at them in the same way as a non-marketing person would, but I think in this case it doesn’t matter how you look at it, it’s a fail nonetheless.

Commercial posters like this are supposed to be made attractive so that people will come running to your store / shopping center. So when I passed this poster on the street, rather than getting excited to get there my jaw pretty much fell in my lap, because it’s so disgusting…’

Kluuvi shopping center ad. Copyright by and courtesy of the genius AD/Design agency that came up with this.

I was in the car, so I didn’t have time to read all the small print. It may just be that this is a (bad) joke or a poster for an animal protection group, but I don’t think so. It may be that they try to convey the message that they are environmental/animal friendly with what they offer.
But what I see is a big header “Eat & Joy” with a picture of a terrified cow that smells the rancid smell of fear and death of his fellow cows in the slaughter house and the realization that his/her fate is exactly the same. I don’t feel at all inclined to come Eat & Joy in Kluuvi after seeing this poster.
It’s tasteless and totally misplaced in my opinion.

But hey… Whatever floats your boat. Maybe Kluuvi is aiming exactly at the people who get off on these kinds of images.