Shades of brown in Helsinki on December 18th.

I managed to go for a casual photo walk today, hoping to find something interesting to photograph despite the weather. It was a struggle at first and it felt like I was filling my SD card with junk. And then you check the clock and start to stress about how little daylight there is for photography. At least it did not rain and I caught glimpses of the blue sky occasionally. Eventually I did a get a few photos I like.

Willow catkins in December, which is... not good. Christmas trees for sale at a dingy shopping center. I love how 'Finnish' and 'unchristmassy' the photo is 😄 The abject dreariness of Helsinki without snow in winter. People in front of a bakery, waiting to get their hands on fresh bread. I caught a whiff of it and considered joining the line.

#photowalk
#helsinki
#etelähaaga
#munkkivuori
#pikkuhuopalahti
#finland
#december
#winter

A late night photo walk yesterday. Mist, a light sprinkling of snow, a few hares, not a lot of people...

I went for a customary Wednesday evening run and then realized I should have gone for a photo walk instead as the weather was a bit unusual: mist and snow at the same time. I got back home at around 9 pm, changed clothes and grabbed my camera.

I ended up walking for a couple of hours in Tali and Munkkivuori until my fingers were frozen enough to call it quits. I am not particularly happy with any of the photos – mostly of empty streets as I saw only a few other people. There were brown hares though...

#brownhare
#lepuseuropaeus
#helsinki
#finland
#tali
#munkkivuori
#november
#fall
#autumn
#photowalk
#nightphotography

I have been somewhat disappointed with my recent photos, so I have not been interested in picking up my camera for a while. But today I showed those thoughts (and myself) the door and went for a walk. I'm glad I did! Look who I found almost immediately running back and forth on a path :) The white wagtail cheered me up quite a lot and I started to "see" photos again: buildings, birdwatchers, lesser spotted woodpeckers, common mergansers, fresh bird cherry leaves, bumblebee queens and so on.

#helsinki
#munkkivuori
#tali
#finland
#whitewagtail
#motacillaalba
#lesserspottedwoodpecker
#dryopatesminor
#commonmerganser
#mergansermerganser
#birdcherry
#prunuspadus
#spring
#april

Discolored and disfigured by the winter.

There are still withered rose hips around, left untouched by the local greenfinches and other seedeaters. Is it just me, or do the rose hips look a bit like some deep sea octopuses? Especially the first one as it looks like it has an "eye". Love the cool (😮‍💨) hairdo as well. The second one took a direct hit from a snowflake, shattering it into smaller crystals. Nice, I did not expect to capture the moment.

This particular rose is the beach rose – an invasive species here in Finland and apparently lots of other places around the world. There are concerted efforts to eradicate them, and it's no longer legal to sell them anywhere in Finland. I expect these roses to be replaced by some of our native rose species in the not-too-distant future.

#beachrose
#rosarugosa
#rosehip
#helsinki
#munkkivuori
#finland
#winter
#february

Länsihelsinkiläinen kaupunginosa kohosi kahvipöytään. #munkkivuori

#Munkkivuori-sarjaa katsoessa tuntuu kuin jokainen näistä nuorista olisi ollut omalla tai vähintään rinnakkaisluokallla. Tykkään ja suositus 🤩