I’ve been trying to understand — like all of us I suppose — what is the thing we are going thru with this all embracing pandemic. What is the best course of action, where do I stand in this. Not that my opinion really matters, but in principle: as individuals I think we should stay as informed as possible …
One aspect of being independent freelancer has always been a bit of a soft spot for me. It is working alone. Thus every opportunity to work together with a professional, solid team is a blessing which I enjoy very much. Some time ago, actually two years ago already, Petteri Saario – one of our most highly respected award winning nature documentarists – and …
A project I started about ten years ago… and almost immediately abandoned as flash became obsolete and HTML5 was still in its infancy. But. Things have changed and I thought it would be a good time to rekindle this one. I was changing ISP the other day and on the server I found a folder full of panoramas I had shot years ago. So …
Three years ago my friend, documentarist Petteri Saario (DocArt) approached me with an idea. There was a pitching competition by SES and AVEK (Finnish Film Foundation and Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture) looking for new forms of visual storytelling for children and he suggested we work on it together. 26 pitches were presented and four approaches were selected for final …
This is a project I have been working on for some time now. It is very personal and one of the most important – if not the most important piece of work I’ve ever done. I have enjoyed tremendously doing it and I am proud of the result, I think we did well. At the same time, happiness is not the feeling …
The past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of teaching in the Aalto University a course titled Multimedia Storytelling. I think it is the fifth or so time I do it and everytime it has been different. This time it was spread over several weeks whereas last time it was a one week intensive. This time I gave quite …
Certain stories just cannot be left untold. Even if nobody assigns them, even if you cannot be sure if anybody really cares. And goes without saying, nobody pays you to do them… A former student of mine Vilja Harala from Lahti University of Applied Sciences approached me. She was in the middle of her final thesis — and …
I’ve been away from the screen and the keyboard for a long time. The whole of last year was definitely a turning point of some kind… ending of something which had become an essential part of my professional life (i.e. high profile sports photography) and beginning of something else… (more about that later). And while busy trying to get that “something else” …
Spring for me means intensive teaching. Presently doing Video 101 for photographers in LAMK (Lahti University of Applied Sciences). As always, enjoying it immensely. I asked the students in three words describe what they feel is essential in a good film / documentary. And to make things more interesting: one word had to be a noun, one an adjective and …