Porvoo panorama

A month without meat (?)

A week ago, I decided to stay for a whole month without eating any meat at all. The first week hasn't really been any different from any other week really, since I have tried to be without meat earlier too.

The only thing I have noticed is how much more you have to think about what to purchase in the supermarket. I have also cooked my own food almost every day, since it's easier to compose vegetarian meals than to look for pre-made ones. Pasta with kidney beans, green beans, cashew nuts and onions is a nice completely vegetatian meal that's also quite inexpensive since the ingredients can be purchased as frozen or in tin cans. Fry everything until nice, and put a bit of chili sauce on it if you want to. It's also good with fresh cut rucola salad.

Many people have different attitudes towards meat, myself included. Before this experiment, I ate meat almost every day (which isn't good for you), and I don't know yet if this month will affect my eating habits later on in the future.

Editing your photos in Adobe Lightroom

I have been using Adobe's photo processing application Lightroom for some time now. I really enjoy the control it gives me over my pictures before I "develop" them. By developing I mean the processing of RAW format pictures. Using this format, the camera user gets the full range of image information from the camera (if it supports this format). Many times, the white balance or the exposure time hasn't been optimal; in these situations it's preferable to be able to modify these values later.

Some of the features in Lightroom include selective colour editing, image histograms (where one can brighten or darken shadows, compensate for too bright highlights etc.) Since my own camera has quite a high noise ratio at higher ISO speeds, I also appreciate the noise reduction feature (which surprisingly doesn't reduce too much details in my pictures). Photoshop's own Camera RAW-feature also has most of Lightroom's capabilities, but I prefer Lightroom because of it's excellent file organizing and labeling functions.

Lightroom can also (obviously) be used for regular JPEG processing, so more consumer-oriented camera model's pictures can also be enhanced with this software. However, if one has a camera with RAW capabilities I highly recommend using them when doing Lightroom editing.

Lightroom 5 introduced the new Radial Filter, which gives the user more control over specific parts of the image (for example the ability to bring forward certain details in an image and make other details softer).

Another important thing to take into consideration is your monitor. Usually, the monitor that comes with your desktop or laptop computer is quite badly set up from a colour perspective. Your monitor has the ability to be calibrated however, which basically makes the colours more comparable to how your pictures will look when printed out or viewed on other (calibrated) devices. I have used the Spyder 3 Professional calibrator myself, and noticed quite a big difference after calibrating my monitor (the colours are much warmer and looked incredibly cold prior to this process).

Stockholm and back

Last week, I visited the kingdom of Sweden, utilizing a discount coupon I received from a friend of mine. We travelled with Silja Line, a popular Finnish cruising company that constantly competes with Viking Line, another company. Personally, I don't find any of them particularly different from each other experience-wise, but I enjoyed the layout of this particular boat (Symphony). It has a so-called promenade deck in the center of the boat, consisting of several restaurants and shops; I got the feeling of a downtown shopping street.

Because we travelled on a Tuesday-Wednesday night, there weren't particularly many people onboard. However, we did only encounter one so-called "Walking Dead" (a person so intoxicated he/she has problems walking like a living person). The absence of drunks was actually quite relaxing, considering how many times I have witnessed stupid behaviour and sometimes engaged in it myself as well.

On a sunny Wednesday morning, our ferry arrived in the Stockholm Archipelago. We quickly purchased a (quite expensive) day-pass for the underground transit, and then continued into the Old Town. With hungry stomachs, the Pakistani restaurant Lilla Karachi seemed like a viable option. The promise of free beer and soda was compelling, as well as the price. For that small amount of money (around 7 euros), we got big servings of Tandoori Chicken and Beef Curry. The service was also fast and efficient.

Rolling further on full stomachs, our next stop was the Carl Larsson commemorative exhibition in Stockholms Nationalmuseum. A quite big variety of works were displayed here; as one of the most famous Swedish 19th century painters Larsson made quite a mark with his works. I noticed how many different styles and compositions this man was able to create; portraits of famous Swedish people and a few landscapes were all very interesting in their own way. I also enjoyed the many sculptures in the main entrance hall.

After this art lesson, our journey continued to Åhlens, one of the biggest department stores in Stockholm. That wasn't that interesting for me, since one can purchase the same products in Stockmann for example.

After a quite unnecessary trip to a fast food restaurant, our journey headed back to the ferry. I will definitely continue visiting Sweden in the future since it's a nearby and friendly location with my native tongue as main language.

Weekend visit to Sveaborg

Though I have work tomorrow, I decided to use my free Friday for a trip to Sveaborg, one of the most famous islands in the Helsingfors archipelago. It was my first time there in a few years, which made the trip very interesting with so many memories coming back. Me and my girlfriend went there quite late in the afternoon, though we originally planned to get there earlier. It was a very hot, sunny day which made the usually cold boat ride there much more pleasant.

Sveaborg consists of six separate islands, but is tightly knitted together by connecting bridges. The landscape is dominated by stone walls, a reminder of the island's days as a sea fortress. There are many hidden tunnels inside of these stone walls, which makes them an interesting future endeavour.

The grave of Ehrensvärd. Augustin Ehrensvärd was the creator of the Sveaborg sea fortress. This monument was designed by king Gustav III of Sweden himself.

We got very hungry after walking around the island for a few hours, so we decided to try out a local restaurant. I chose a hamburger meal complimented by cider, and No went for the meatballs (which were quite disgusting apparently).

Overall, it was a very nice experience to (re)visit this island, and I will definitely look into further exploration in the future.

Macro photography

Making wild strawberry liqueur

Last summer, I got acquainted with the art of making liqueur out of wild strawberries and raw vodka. It's a fairly simple process, but does however require a great deal of patience and time for the final production stage.

When making your own strawberry liqueur, you will need:

• -Freshly picked wild strawberries (about 0,30 L is sufficient)
• - 0,5 L Vodka
• - Sugar (according to taste)
• - A clean glass jar for the simmering process.

After that the ingredients have been collected, the first stage of production can begin.

Gently pour the fresh wild strawberries into the clean glass jar.

Pour the vodka on top of these, until they have been completely covered and the jar is almost full.

Close the lid carefully; leave it like this for at least a month.

According to what I've heard, the jar needs to be in "sunlight and moonlight" for the following month. 

The recipe I'm following is a traditional recipe from the Åland Islands. It is, however, possible to make this in a way that fits one's particular needs.