Tag Archives: finland

Six Picks: the Cathedral of Tampere in central Finland

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in architecture, art, culture, travel photography

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A regular themed photo blog selected from images either in or on their into my website archive at www.timbirdphotography.com

I just paid a flying visit to Tampere, a city on the confluence of two big lakes in central Finland, and dropped in to what is one of my favourite buildings in the whole country, the city’s cathedral. It was designed by Lars Sonck, a prime exponent of the Finnish National Romantic architectural style at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a kind of cultural expression of national identity when Finland was still governed as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire.

Much of the best and most distinctive architecture and art in Finland dates to this period; the National Museum and National Theatre in Helsinki are other examples, as is Hvitträsk, a wonderful lakeside Tolkienesque fantasy in wood and granite close to the capital, the former home and collective studio-cum-drinking den of three architects, Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen, and now a museum. The cathedral’s materials of wood and granite, as well as evocative symbolic frescoes, paintings and stained glass, are typical of what I think is a very appealing style.

Tampere Cathedral contradicts the idea that all Lutheran churches are restrained and sombre. In fact when it opened in 1907 the cathedral was controversial with worshippers who wondered, for example, why a symbol of the devil, a snake fresco, was featured in its interior.

Here, then, are six picks from my visit.

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Tampere Cathedral – straight out of Tolkien. Greatness in granite.

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The ceiling of the Cathedral bears the image of a snake by Hugo Simberg.

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View towards the altar, showing the vaulted ceilings, a kind of romantic Gothic, with the altarpiece and stained glass window designed by Magnus Enckell.

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The Burning Bush is one of six stained glass windows by Hugo Simberg.

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Twelve boys hold the Garland of Life, a fresco running around the gallery, painted by Simberg.

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The main door of the Cathedral. You can see many heavy wooden doors and whimsical granite arches like this in the Jugendstil districts of Helsinki, such as Katajanokka and Eira.

 

 

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http://visittampere.fi/

Read an essay by Elisa Valtonen about the Cathedral here:

http://www15.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/REL/ev-cathe.html

For info about Hvitträsk:

http://www.nba.fi/en/museums/hvittrask

Six Picks: Arctic Snow Hotel, Rovaniemi, Lapland

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Arctic travel, hotels, lapland, Travel, travel photography, winter

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An occasional photo blog presenting six themed shots from Tim Bird’s travel photo archives – visit www.timbirdphotography.com

It’s a drab and relatively snowless winter in southern Finland and skiers and skaters, of which there are many in this part of the world, are lamenting the lack of the white stuff. Up in Lapland, a thousand or so kilometres, it’s a different story – there’s always lots of snow up there. I was there myself a few weeks ago, and one of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Arctic Snow Hotel, just above the Arctic Circle and close to the provincial Lapp capital of Rovaniemi.

This isn’t the only architecture of snow and ice in the northern Nordic area, of course. There’s an annual Snow Castle at Kemi on Finland’s north-west coast celebrating its 20th year in 2015 (I’ve stayed at that one too) and igloos full of Auorora-hunting Japanese couples at Kakslauttanen near Finland’s Saariselkä ski resort, where I also spent one icy night. They’re wonderful creations which usually start to thaw at the end of March and whose inside temperatures soar to minus five – compared with minus 20 to 30 outside. Being an honorary Finn, I can’t bring myself to name those impostors on the Swedish side of the border.

So to deliver a taste of winter to snow-free zones, here are six images from the Arctic Snow Hotel. If you want to stay there, you’ve got one month left – they’re taking bookings until ‘around’ March 31!

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Snow sculptures on the walls, the work of local art students.

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Reindeer pelts on beds of ice, and a fire place made of ice! Real fires not recommended.

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A ghost in the ice chapel. Weddings are held here.

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Gothic lighting in the ice restaurant.

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Cool suite in the Arctic Snow Hotel.

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The Ice Bar, always on the rocks.

Visit the Arctic Snow Hotel web site at http://www.arcticsnowhotel.fi/

If you’ve enjoyed this little pictorial distraction please Share, Tweet, Like, and watch this space for more Six Picks photo blogs.

Six Picks: New life for Söderskär Lighthouse

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Six images in a (fairly) regular photo blog chosen from my archives and latest assignments: www.timbirdphotography.com

The Söderskär Lighthouse is a couple of hours by tourist launch from central Helsinki and half an hour by faster motor boat from the Vuosaari district. The 150-year old lighthouse is unused these days for its original purpose, but it’s popular with day-trip tourist groups who head out here from late June to mid August from both Helsinki and nearby Porvoo, avoiding the early summer bird nesting season. The lighthouse gave inspiration to the creator of the Moomins, Tove Jansson, in her Moominpapa at Sea, in which the Moomintroll family take up residence in… a lighthouse. Jansson knew these waters and islands well and spent summers on another nearby island.

There are a few basic rooms in one of the renovated outhouses for those who want to stay the night (for a fee, naturally), and overnight packages include an evening meal, breakfast and lunch the next day. The place can be booked for special functions too. There’s a good old fashioned wood burning sauna too. You’ll find all the contacts and details for tours and visits at the link above.

Luckily no other visitors were there during my late summer visit with three friends, just the friendly warden and the boatman. Standing on top of a lighthouse on a pretty much deserted Baltic island under a starry sky is a surreal and wonderful experience. Here are a few shots to prove it:

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Light from the town of Porvoo beams across to the Söderskär Lighthouse.

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A light in the lighthouse keeper’s house still shines.

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Tourists can visit the lighthouse for day trips – or to spend the night. It’s popular with birdwatchers but its status as a nesting area means part of the area is off limits during the nesting season.

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A hanging bridge adds an element of adventure when crossing from one island to another – especially in the dark. Three people at a time only!

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The view from the lantern chamber. Estonia is to the south across the Baltic.

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When it was functioning, Söderskär marked the south-eastern approach to Helsinki. It stands on one of a small archipelago of typically rugged Baltic islands.

Thanks for dropping in and please do follow future blogs. Also please feel free to share, tweet, twot, google, gaggle and toot the actual blog to all and sundry… but please remember that copyright rests with the photographer, that is, me, Tim Bird, and you need to get permission for any other use. Thanks!

 

Six Picks: Finalists and winners

13 Sunday Jul 2014

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Six images in a weekly photo blog from my constantly expanding archives at www.timbirdphotography.com and bulging hard drives.

It’s World Cup Final day, and this week I’m taking the opportunity to recall some of my own photographic triumphs and near-misses.

Last week I was in London for the opening of the Travel Photographer of the Year 2013 competition exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington. The creator of the competition, Chris Coe, and his wife Karen have developed this contest to be among the world’s top showcases for travel photography, encouraging amateurs as well as professionals to enter their work and giving a boost to young aspiring enthusiasts. I’ve entered the competition every year for at least seven of the ten competitions judged so far – number 11 is open for entries right now until October 1 – and I’ve had varying degrees of success. I’ve entered again this year, so keep your fingers crossed.

I like entering competitions, partly as a way of increasing my confidence as a photographer and partly to match myself against other photographers. You can always learn something new in photography and you can do that by seeing what other people are doing. Being able to tag “Award Winning” to my description also helps to convince editors that I can shoot as well as write, not something that everyone can do. At the TPOTY opening I had another chance to meet and compare notes with photographers from all over the world. The deserving overall winner this year was Timothy Allen (bad move on my part, this – now I’ve linked you up to his page, you’ll probably never come back to mine!), an intrepid and talented photographer whose professional credits include the stills for the BBC TV series Human Planet.

So in this week’s Six Picks forgive me if I take the opportunity to indulge in some celebration of some of the prizes I have won in recent years.

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Planet Ant, a highly commended entry from the Digital Photographer of the Year competition a few years back. Taken in Koh Chang in Thailand in 2009

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The Travel Photographer of the Year competition celebrated its tenth anniversary last year with a separate “10 for 10” contest. My Splash of Colour shot won the overall prize and it’s on show at the exhibition in Kensington until August 17 (see below). It was shot in Udaipur in India in 2013. I won a handy and versatile Fujifilm X20 compact camera for this one.

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May Day (Vappu) band in Helsinki. This shot earned me a Highly Commended in the TPOTY competition, single image Festivals category, in 2006.

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A young cricketer in Agra, India, with the Taj Mahal looming through the mist. This won the Famous Places category in the AA Holiday Photographer of the Year 2008 – and earned me a cruise for two in the Canary Islands.

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Buddhist monk novices in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, the site of the original Tree of Enlightenment. This was one of four images published in the Finnair inflight magazine Blue Wings that earned me the title of British Guild of Travel Writers Photographer of the Year for 2012 – and a commission to shoot for the Sarawak Tourist Board in Borneo.

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Ghost ship to Stockholm: third prize in the Finnish Readers’ Digest / Matkaopas magazine / Kamera magazine Travel Photographer 2009 competition. Taken on the island of Suomenlinna in Helsinki with the help of the Silja Line ferry. The prize for this was a Canon Powershot camera.

If you are in London, drop in to the TPOTY exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington. It’s free of charge and runs until August 17. Many of the pictures are displayed outside in the courtyard, with the pervading and exotic perfume of jasmine flowers lending an appropriate sense of far-off places. The exhibition shop includes postcards, prints and posters from the competition Collection, soon to include another of my own short-listed entries, as well as the Journey series of compilations of previous competitions. The shot from Udaipur above is included in the latest volume, Journey Six.

Please feel free to share this weekly photo blog and to follow future issues. But please request permission before re-using this photos in any other context, including commercially – copyright remains with the photographer, that is, me, Tim Bird.

You’ll find more of my photos at www.timbirdphotography.com.

Six Picks: Helsinki – world’s best summer city

06 Sunday Jul 2014

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Six themed images from the archives at www.timbirdphotography.com.

This week I wish it was 12 picks, not just six. The summer in Helsinki – when it finally arrives in earnest – is, well, more summery than just about any other city I know. The sun barely sets, there are mountains of berries in the market places, there’s a continentally European feel to the cafes and bars spilling out onto the pavements, and the Baltic horizon is dotted with sails, cruise ships and tourist boats. This week we’re in holiday mood, so here is a quick photo tour – almost as quick as the summer itself – on this magical July evening in the Finnish capital. Not just a run-through of the main tourist sights.

New potatoes in the market places are a sure sign that the Helsinki summer has arrived.

New potatoes in the market places are a sure sign that the Helsinki summer has arrived.

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Get on your bike and cycle around the Helsinki shoreline and you’ll come across plenty of small, sometimes quirky cafes and ice cream kiosks. This one, Regatta, isn’t far from the Sibelius monument but thankfully off the itinerary for the bus loads of Japanese tourists that make a beeline for this tribute to Finland’s most famous composer.

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The classic harbour view of the Neo-Classical centre of Helsinki, dominated by the Lutheran cathedral. The quayside market square is in the foreground.

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The summer climaxes with the Helsinki Festival in August. The 2013 festival included the Harmonic Fields installation along the shore front close to Eira and Hernesaari – literally, wind instruments.

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If I could do it all again… Helsinki is a great place to be young.

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Traditional hay making in full swing in the fields near the manor at Tapaninvainio, close to the Vantaa River. Anyone can join in.

If you’ve enjoyed these quick glimpses from my photo archives, please share and follow this weekly blog. And take a look at my substantial photo galleries from Finland and around the world at www.timbirdphotography.com

Six Picks: Summer scenes from Helsinki’s River Vantaa

09 Monday Jun 2014

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Six themed shots from the archives at www.timbirdphotography.com

The River Vantaa is one of the Finnish capital’s treasures, and one that visitors often don’t get to find out about. Leading upstream from the rapids at Vanhakaupunki – literally, old town – where Helsinki was founded in 1550 and arcing around the eastern side of the city to the northern edge of the forested Keskuspuisto (Central Park), the river takes its name from the city’s northern neighbour, Vantaa.

For me, the river, flowing a few hundred metres from our house, makes summer visits to the city centre a special pleasure, with cycle tracks leading through woods and meadows, past bathing beaches and rapids, as well as the occasional outdoor summer restaurant terrace. Canoe rental is an option near the bridge leading up to the old manor restaurant and stables and riding school at Tuomarinkylän kartano, fishing is popular near the rapids where the river cascades into the sea, and the beach at Pikkukoski (“Little Rapids”) is packed with bathers and partying kids once the holidays get under way. Haltiala farm to the north is popular with families, especially during the lambing season in spring, and anybody can join in with the traditional hay-making at Tuomarinkylän kartano. Sunflowers, flax and peas are grown in some of the fields adjacent to the river towards the Central Park and anybody can go and pick them.

Here are six shots of one of Helsinki’s best summer assets.

ImageHiking and cycle tracks run along both sides of the river, a fabulous scenic ride.

ImageThe rapids at Vanhakaupunki where the river meets the sea and where Helsinki was founded in 1550. The buildings on the left contain a small hydropower plant.

ImageFishing on the river, home to perch, pike, grayling, salmon, trout, and rainbow trout.

ImageModern developments creep closer to the river banks every year.

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Sunflowers are grown in some fields and once they’re in bloom anyone can pick and take them home.

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Dramatic sunsets are common on the river, but you have to wait until nearly midnight to see them on long light summer evenings.

Please feel free to get in touch – all feedback appreciated – and visit my website to see more pictures from all over the world: www.timbirdphotography.com. Feel free to share these links using social media but please ask permission before re-using any of the shots displayed here and on my website in any other way – copyright is mine for all photos.

Visit my other occasional Blog at birdseyeview.me

 

 

Six picks: Night shots of Helsinki

13 Sunday Apr 2014

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Six themed shots from the archives – a new blog project

…in which I open the vaults containing my vast archive of travel photographs.

Nights are getting shorter here in Finland as summer approaches.

Here are some reminders of what we’ll be missing in the Finnish capital:

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New look central Helsinki: the “Citizens’ Square” beneath the Music Centre with Sanomatalo, HQ of the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, to the right and the Pike sculpture by Reijo Hukkanen in the foreground.

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Rare sighting of the Northern Lights or aurora borealis on the island of Harrakka in March 2013. The aurora has reached a cyclical peak and sightings have been more common than usual this far south in the last year or so.

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Lights from the Juttutupa restaurant near Hakaniemi reflected on the water.

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Helsinki’s National Opera House and the tower of the Olympic Stadium.

 

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Apartment blocks at Siltasaari, close to the Hakaniemi square.

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Fairground rides at the Linnanmäki amusement park.

If you’ve enjoyed dropping by or you’re interested in any of these photographs, why not drop me a line using the form below or on the ABOUT page (you’ll find the link above). Feedback and comments welcome!