Baltic Herring Market Helsinki 2009-2010

[Esox lucius]

I woke up early and went down to the harbor to enjoy one hour of rapidly changing light. Some before sunrise, some during, some after.

First, a 5-exposure panorama with the Nikkor 28mm f/1.4D

(yes, AF lens but it was manually focused ) One blending error and too tight crop; I need to re-shoot this Friday or Saturday morning. Panoramas really look much better on large prints than on a computer screen, I think.

1) a 5-exposure panorama with the Nikkor 28mm f/1.4D



Then, some Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AI-S photos. All are shot on full-frame (D3) and no cropping of image.

2) f/2, desaturated, lowered contrast (I misfocused, aimed at rope)


3) f/2, normal saturation, normal contrast (this time I nailed the rope)


4) f/2.8


5) f/2.8


6) f/4


7) f/2


8] f/2


Then, some Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI-S shots

9) f/2.8


10) f/2


11) f/2.8

[poilu]

beautiful light! great lens, superb results

[Rolf]

+ 1
Wow !!!

[PaulC]

Lovely. Great work.

[Nesster]

You caught the light and texture very well, I love the wooden boats, and HERRING! Thank you for the tour, I enjoyed it very much.

[Esox lucius]

Thank you everyone! I want to return Friday or Saturday morning for some more, I wish the weather stays as fine as today.

Later today is going to be quite a feast: herring fillets marinated with black currant (this year's prize winner, delicious!), herring fillets marinated with juniper berries, traditional marinated herring fillets, sweet dark bread, smoked herring, various marinated vegetables and garlic, smoked perch, salmon sausage, mushroom salad and my personal favorite; smoked eel.

[Orio]

Love the harbour lights, what city is it?

[Nesster]

[Esox lucius]

Orio: This is Helsinki, Finland. In panorama left building is UPM Kymmene group headquarters and right building is City Hall. This is one of many harbors, in Helsinki and nowadays used only for small sightseeing ferries, except for this week when it's taken by fishermen for the traditional (270 years or so) Baltic herring market.

[Attila]

Awesome series! Big Wow!

[larsr]

Toppen!

These are fabulous pictures that well depict this city! Well done!
Ville, maybe go for some daytime photos too - it would probably be interesting for others to see the buzz itself :-)

[kds315*]

Excellent shots!!! No wonder some of your work is listed on Getty images!!

Love the garlic gloves in glass (for the taste); too bad the herring is not shown...

In the last pic that white building has it a famous fish restaurant at the bottom (stages
leading down to a cellar)? I was there with my wife and we enjoyed it lot!!

[soikka]

Great shots.

[supahmario]

[voytek]

Champion pictures. My respect.

[patrickh]

Magnifico.



patrickh

[Esox lucius]

I am overwhelmed by the feedback from this forum. Coming from so many distinguished photographers I feel very flattered by the feedback.

[Nesster]

*sigh* makes me home sick. Nice kanerva. and photography.

[Farside]

I love pickled herring - especially in rollmops. Unfortunately the only supplier in this area bottles them with sugar - yuk!
Lovely pics of the harbour, very atmospheric.

[Esox lucius]

Stadin Silakkamarkkinat ie the Baltic Herring Fair, Helsinki Oct 3-9th 2010

The amount of fishermen attending is decreasing, as overfertilized waters, algy and incompetent governments are killing the fish. This year was record warm summer, which also affected negatively the catch.


I was quite let down by the fact that my trusted supplier of Baltic Sea delicacies did not attend this year. Anyway, I still shot some photos, though it was so damn crowded that I'm going to return some early morning this week for better ones. Also shot Ilford Delta 400 but I didn't expose the roll completely yet.

First: Nikkor 50/1.2 Ai-S. I have or have own every single Nikkor 50-something mm lens there is, and I think only the 58/1.2 Noct can do better bokeh than the 50/1.2 Ai-S (undoubtedly thanks to that extra 8mm of focal length).

19) showing the shape of the diaphragm at f/4



20) f/2.8



21) f/4



22) f/4


to be continued

[Attila]

[Esox lucius]

Voigtländer SL II 58mm f/1.4 Nokton

23) at f/5.6

[Esox lucius]

Voigtländer SL 90mm f/3.5 APO-Lanthar

24) f/8



25) f/8


26) f/4



more later this week

[patrickh]

Terrific Vilhelm - a wonderful tribute to your city



patrickh

[Orio]

Beautiful light, perfect compositions, stunning series.
The nocturnal/dawn atmosphere rendered perfecly.
And amazing performance by Nikkor lenses.

When I watch your pictures I feel really desiring a Nikon DSLR... sigh...