Helsinki Cruise

A few days ago I went on a one day cruise to Helsinki with Viking Line's new cruiseferry Viking XPRS. There is definitely more to see in Helsinki that one could in 10 hour time, so choices needed to be taken. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Sea Life, Heureka and after that had a little walk near the port. So the Korkeasaari Zoo and other attractions will remain for another visit.
In my opinion, Sea Life would appeal more to youngsters whereas Heureka would be interesting to adults and fun for children. All in all I had fun all day even with the showers and thunder that I got :)
So a few cherries on the top of the cake:

Glowing cone

Today I was at the commencement of the Institute of Social Work at Tallinn University as a photographer for a friend of mine (Jaanus Jõgisu, my former course mate at TUT), who's girlfriend (Sirli Kask) received the bachelor's degree. Being there, I found this unusual chandelier, that caught my attention.




PS. My camera equipment got updated with a MB-D80 Multi Power Battery Pack - so longer photo trips are now possible. The only downside is that if the camera has the MB-D80 attached, it won't fit to my Tamrac Velocity 7x sling pack :( Although I've had the battery pack only for a few days now, it has already become a nuisance to screw on/off the battery pack each time I take the camera out or put back to the sling pack. So I am definitely in need for a bigger camera bag. Currently I have Kata R-103 GDC Rucksack in the offing, mainly because it seems to have good build quality and it provides protection against shocks, but it can also hold my laptop. However, I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open, because there might be a cheaper replacement.

Natural wonders of the beach

Now I'm breaking my promise not to post very often. It's the beginning of a long journey, so mistakes are forgivable :).

A few words about the pictures: They were taken in August 2007 in Hiiumaa near the Kõpu lighthouse (roughly 5 km to the West). They are few of the more interesting finds from the beach where I was camping.
I really like the first one - it's like miniature rock. The second one has some outer space element in it. The third one represents nature's perfect geometrical skills.

System.out.println("Hello World!");

Joke of the {day|week|year} (I'll let you decide which one of the mighty 3): Romi starts blogging.
Ah, whom am I kidding, 'starts' is just such a strong verb and makes the whole sentence more a sophism than a postulate, so it really should be 'tries' if I want to be practically correct.
I am not a big wordsmith meself, I consider meself one of those (few), who believe that quantity does not implicate quality, therefore I'll make it short:

It all started in March 2008 ... nope, I can't start like this or the short story will become a long one and smell like bad code which would then need some refactoring. Well a better try:

A few months ago I gave meself a promise, that IF I complete this term with excellent results in all of my subjects (altogether 10 subjects of which 9 were examinational) I would start a blog .... It would seem that I am blogging, so by now you must have already guessed how I did (26 credit points with a weighted average grade of 5.0).

As I mentioned before - I am not big on words (paraphrased) - so this will probably become another photo blog on the WWW. This way it is easier for ME (egoist as I am :P) and also YOU (who ever you are) won't have to put up with my not so good (not to say bad) English. So mostly photos, maybe some laconic comments also.

So, a photo blog, this brings us to the question of GEAR. Well, as I am not a professional photographer (more like an ever learning hobbyist) I don't need [read: cannot afford] cutting edge stuff. As arbitrary crap would also not meet my requirements I've gone with a DSLR camera. Let's not descend into debate about why digital or why that specific camera choice ...

My equipment:
Camera body: Nikon D80
Lens: currently only AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED, but plans are big: 70-200mm f/2.8
Flash: Nikon Speedlight SB-800
Tripod: Manfrotto 055XPROB
Head: Manfrotto 488RC4

But even with a good semi-pro camera (yeah I can assure it is great - Nikon this is promotion for you, hope you won't forget me :P) like this don't expect me to post every day something new. I think you'd still be too optimistic if you hope to find weekly updates. You know "shit does NOT just happen, shit takes time, shit takes effort!" (these golden words were said by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie The 51st State). So be patient.

Now I've finally come to the end of my first post. In addition, this post will probably be last of a kind, by that I mean - so massively long :) Remember: less is more - my credo ;)

P.S. haha, note the date (hint)