NORMAL LIFE: The Weekend In Oulu

It all started about four months ago. I was chatting online, when a photographer from Oulu (500km north of Finland) started a discussion aimed at taking professional photos of me. Having told him my vital statistics (we were talking about sports), he assumed I had a body worth capturing on camera. I am far from toned, I explained, but kept him engaged in a discussion more focused around my own interest in digital photography.

We swapped email addresses and kept the communication going, later on resulting in an invitation to attend an informal, three day photographic workshop. At first, I thought the guy was loopy, a potential mass murderer, but after alot of discussion, it was so obvious that photography was his thing (he even had a really professional website to prove it) and a mentor in the arena of photography really was what I was looking for.

I accepted his invitation, booking the flights (accommodation was provided) and, before long, I was checking in online for the morning's flight. After a restless night, I woke up at 6am, showered and dressed and was out by 6:15am. Bree and I sat quietly during the car journey, neither of us yet quite awake. By 6:50, I had dropped off my bags and by 7:45, the 100-seat Finnair Embraer 190 was in the air.

Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of sitting next to a fat guy whom, everytime he moved, meant that I moved too. Such was his mass. I was fortunate, however, to have a window seat and halfway through the one-hour flight, I glanced out of the window to see a rainbow encircling the sun (what do you call that, a rainbow halo?) while listening to Ian Van Dahl's 'To Fall In Love'. Magical!

I landed at the tent constituting Oulu's rain-drenched airport (10C), even smaller than Tampere's Pirkalla airport. With just two jets on the tarmac, the luggage came shuttling through on the converyor belt and I was just in time to catch the Number 19 bus to Oulu's town centre. As instructed, I got out of the bus just after seeing the Stockmann's sign and waited for Kimmo, my host, to arrive.

Once we arrived at his place and I dumped my bags, we took a cab to the studio, some five kilometers from the town centre. Armed with spare batteries, memory cards, my new Canon 450D and some inspiration in the form of a powerpoint presentation I had prepared, I sat down with Kimmo and Jouni, another amateur photographer.

Before the arrival of the first model at 11am, the three of us reviewed the presentation of images I had compiled just to get our creative juices flowing. Our first model was Mert, a camp-as-Christmas seventeen year-old wannabee model. Admittedly, he had the face and the next couple of years could potentially bring forth the physical attributes associated with a top model. One quarter Estonian, one quarter Turkish and half Finnish, his genetics comprised to remind of the suave Hispanic type.

Two images stuck in my mind with this model. Brad Pitt posing for Tag Heuer with Jonathon Rhys Meyers posing for Biotherm (see below).


Combining these two images with Mert was always going to be a challenge. First of all, he was seventeen and, secondly, we were in a studio whereas the inspirational images had been taken using natural light. The resulting image, however, blew us away and it seemed we had, indeed, gotten off to a good start.

My photography of Mert

During that day, we had taken hundreds of pictures, mainly using an over-exposed white backdrop to really separate the subject from the background. It was great, know that with the right equipment, I could actually achieve photos of a great standard. The evening was spent having dinner at Rosso, dessert at McDonald's, a walk with Kimmo along the waterfront and an 'early' night around midnight. It had been a long day.

DAY 2

After grabbing breakfast from a nearby supermarket, we took a cab to the studio. As we ate, we reviewed the powerpoint presentation for more inspiration. Our first model of the day made an appearance just before lunchtime, the very eye-pleasing, masculine hunk of a man, Jarno. Thirty-four years of age, Jarno is a fitness instructor who also spends his spare time working out. No wonder the guy is in such great shape. With just four years between us, however, it was amazing how much older he looked, but who cared what his face looked like with a body like that, eh?!

When he first came into the studio with hit skin-tight Nike shirt, I have to admit that my blood pressure went up a bit, but we went quickly to work, positioning the lights, taking readings with the light meter to get the correct aperture for the scene. Inpiration came from two places: an image I found on a Gay personals website as well as a picture of New Zealand rugby player, Jonah Lomu (see above). The results didn't blow me away, but the combination of lighting and his tan, tattoos and compliance made Jarno very easy to work with.

My photography of Jarno

The second model of the day was twenty-one year-old factory worker, Pekka. A brief discussion revealed that Pekka liked swimming and cycling and this showed in the tall fella's physique.

This time, one source of inspiration came from an advert for Davidoff aftershave I had found on the internet. Using oil and water to replicate the Davidoff scene, I was a bit disappointed by the result. We had used a sofa when, ideally, he should have been lying on the floor. But that brings another load of problems with it with regards to positioning of lights and cameras.

The second source of inspiration was a Hugo Boss advert where a model was engaged in horizontal lunges of a kind. Pekka patiently got into position and, while the finished result may not have had the glow I wished for, I was happy with what I could achieve with my limited knowledge of Photoshop.

My photography of Pekka Just as Pekka wrapped up his session, Milla comes into the studio. Milla is twenty-four years old and is studying dance at the local university. When I formally introduce myself, she spoke very pleasant English. It was very easy to work with her, suddenly taking on the role of stylist, photographer and set designer all at once. It was such fun!

Inspiration came in the form of a classic Kylie image, perhaps one of my favourite of all time. The image was the cover of Kylie Minogue's album, Light Years. Super-imposing Milla's image onto a decent background was always going to be a challenge, but I didn't think that far ahead. I just wanted to see if could capture her femininity the way Kylie's had been. Using an over-exposed background, we succeeded.

After Milla's ninety-minute session, we had both Milla and Mert in the studio and I had a brain wave. Mert is gay, Milla is gorgeous, but straight. Milla has just found out that Mert has cheated on her Jerry Springer-style by sleeping with a married man: let's capture the anger on camera, I suggested. We needed mood, some darkness with sideslights to capture the anger on their faces. And, by god, didn't we do well?The day's shooting had been an eye opener, covering subjects such as the basics of taking photos, classic ways of lighting, the use of reflectors and grids, diffused lighting with softboxes. We had also covered the use of lights and backdrops to create overexposed backgrounds. And, during the day, a very creative part of me had 'come out'. I now understood the difference between being directed and being the director: being the director suits me so much more!

It was nearing 7pm so we wrapped up, ordered a cab and headed downtown. We dumped our stuff at Mikko's place, then went to the local Chinese for dinner. Back at Mikko's, we had a sauna, followed by several cans of sweet, Finnish cider before heading to the only gay bar in the North, the infamous Bar Becksu in Asemankatu.

It was after midnight when we arrived and, to my consternation, La Viva Espana was playing. I was thinking: beam me up, Scotty! That kind of wiped out my enthusiasm for the evening if that was going to be a benchmark for the night's music. I was enjoying a sweet cider when a young 26 year-old guy had hit on me, much to the disappointment of the older photographer who fancied him like hell.

As we were talking, I realised (for the first time in my life) that I was actually the 'older one' and, for the first time, I actually felt like I was in my thirties, being hit on by men younger than me! I felt powerful, wise and strong, but unused to this kind of attention. Speaking fluent English (he had studied for a while at Exeter University in the UK), he laughed his way into my good books; for a Finn, I was shocked by his ability to talk and make jokes, his confidence. He was good-looking with cropped hair, dimples on both cheeks (like me), perhaps ten kilos lighter. I realised I was talking to Mini Me!

I told him I was partnered and he tried hard to hide his disappointment. Regardless, he wanted to talk to me, saying it was so good to talking to an Englishman. Gotta give him credit for trying. And for not giving up! We drank, chatted, exchanged email addresses: I will never forget Niinkömies - he was always asking 'really?'!

DAY 3

When I woke up the next morning, I was amazed how well I had slept given the twenty-four daylight that had been getting into my bedroom all night. The day was spent in the studio with Mert, taking very unimpressive photos. The fun part was now over: we discussed photography, image in general, capturing moods, how it can me improved/enhanced. We tried a double exposure exercise with Mert, where two of the same person appear in the same message which was useful to learn.

After lunch, it was time to take a cab to the airport. I thanked the other photographers at the workshop, hugged Kimmo goodbye, thanking him for the opportunity to learn and experience life in the studio. I chatted with the very social taxi driver the rest of the way, marvelling at how happy they were 'this far north'. He laughed, probably because he was paid to, but I didn't care: I was tired, on the verge of crankiness. I just wanted to check-in, get on that plane and sleep.

I suprised myself when I managed to get what I wanted. With no fat man sitting next to me, I fell asleep before the aircraft took off and landed as the plane bumped onto the tarmac at Helsinki one hour later. When I got home an hour later, my mobile phone beeped: one guy in Manchester had sent me a message to ask if I had decided to move back to England yet which, hello, had never been on the agenda. I wish my photographic skills were in demand as much as I was. Who knows, maybe they will be one day.