Film Photography in Finland Through the Seasons by Kalle Ryökäs

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Photographing different seasons is a creative prompt we don't often think about. Being from a country that has a running joke of having two seasons which are hot or hotter, I am envious of places that have spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Kalle Ryökäs (@ryokas) showcases Finland through his photography, capturing the different seasons through his nature, landscape, and urban photography. Living in a part of the world where there can be almost 24 hours of daylight in summer or complete darkness in winter, you can see in his photography both stunning lowlight shots and beautiful naturally lit scenes. Today we meet Kalle Ryökäs and learn more about how he adapts his photography to the changing seasons.

Greetings and welcome to Lomography Magazine! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how you started your photography journey?

My name is Kalle Ryökäs. I'm a 38-year-old part-time photographer & roadie, and a full-time engineer student from Turku, Finland. I suppose my photography journey started when I got my first disposable camera at 10, but it took more than 20 years before I really started to take steps on that journey. I did combat sports in my teens and twenties, but I had to quit them due to constant injuries which created this huge void and amount of excess energy without direction. Then I created an Instagram account as a joke. After a while, I started to take some landscape photos with my phone, edited them in the app, and got positive feedback. This created a loop of me doing it more and more and I think it started to fill the void. I also obviously enjoyed the process of shooting and editing, so it wasn’t done all just for the likes.

For some reason, I was heavily drawn to night photography. I’ve tried to find a reason for it and it might have something to do with the feeling of being an misfit for most of the time. Anyway, quite soon it appeared that my phone couldn’t handle my desire for darkness so I "had to" buy a mirrorless camera in order to realize my visions, and then things got a lot more serious. When it comes to film photography, I never cared for the perfectly exposed, crispy clear, and over edited Instagram aesthetics, so getting into film was most likely an inevitable part of the journey. I procrastinated with the idea for quite some time so it wasn’t until last year that I cleaned off the rust from my parents' Minolta 5000 AF battery sockets. This year I’ve done almost all of my non-commercial shooting on film.

What kind of gear do you usually use?

For film, I mainly use Canon T90 which I bought because of some misbelief that it would get the most out of my FD lenses that I owned. Regardless of its unstable electric nature it's a good camera and doesn't come with a hipster vibe which is a huge plus. I also use the Minolta 5000 AF every now and then. For digital stuff, I shoot with a Sony A7RV.

How would you describe your style of photography?

I suppose it's contrasty, hazy, and moody. I started with just low light and fog stuff, but lately, I’ve shot more and more in bright sunny weather as well. I'm also trying to get into portraiture which is quite a challenge for someone with poor people skills.

What is it like shooting film in Finland?

It's contrasty. You either get a lot of light during the summer or a lot of darkness and greyness during the winter. I suppose that shooting low-light photography for me works also as a way to cope with the darkness.

We have four vastly different seasons here, and as I'm relatively new to film I have a lot to explore.

Shooting film in low light and on snow is very challenging but through your photos, you prove otherwise. What are your strategies when dealing with difficult lighting situations?

I got a lot of practice and feel for low light with mirrorless cameras so shooting film in low light came somewhat easy. I take advantage of the Canon T90 light meter which is really accurate at giving a decent exposure. I also occasionally use my phone's camera to get an idea of what a good exposure could be. 800 ISO film is pretty much a must at least when shooting handheld. The hardest thing for me is getting the focus right because of the small and dim viewfinder. So far my strategy (if I have the time) is to pull focus back and forth while doing rapid minor up and down tilting with the camera.

This way I can see if there are distortions in the lines that I need to focus on. There might be better ways, but I still haven't found them. For handheld shots, I just keep the aperture as wide as possible and shutter speed at 1/45 or even slower. T90 is quite a heavy camera and I also have somewhat steady hands so the images usually come good enough this way if the exposure was right. When shooting with a tripod, I pretend to be a serious photographer by measuring the exposure values of the highlights and shadows and adjusting accordingly, but so far, it’s been more like trial and error rather than scientifically measuring value.

For daylight snow photos I try to measure the exposure for skin tones or something that is not snow and adjust accordingly. When in doubt I check with the camera of my phone how the exposure will turn out.

Compared to shooting during winter, is shooting in summer much easier?

During summer I don't have to worry about the weather or clothing as much, so in that regard its way easier. But I think that once you have understood the exposure it really doesn't matter if the conditions are bright or dark as you can always adjust accordingly. I suppose I don't have any specific tips for summer shooting as the light meter of the camera does all the heavy lifting for me. I think that at least for me the most important thing is to keep my eyes open and see how I feel about the scene, is there something photo-worthy or not.

Our summers are long as the sun is only gone for a few hours where I live; so it never really gets dark and the light during the nights is mesmerizing. If I had no responsibilities I would most likely stay up all night every night during the summer. For winters it's the opposite, at worst we have the sun above the horizon for a few hours while it is complete darkness in other parts, especially in the north. More often than not the whole sky is covered with clouds, so it's just grey for those few hours. But when the sun does show up in the winter the light is really nice as it's basically golden hour all day because the sun doesn't get too high. It sure does get cold from time to time but that's part of life when your country is located partially in the Arctic Circle. Last winter my Canon got damaged in -20 Celsius, so I think this winter I either avoid shooting film below -10 Celsius or get a fully mechanical camera.

Your skill with lowlight photography is evident as you were even able to capture the aurora. How were you able to achieve this on film?

I've shot auroras previously with digital and thought it would be cool to see how they might look on film. We (and the rest of the northern hemisphere) had exceptionally strong auroras this August so to capture them I drove away from the city lights to the countryside. To put things in perspective that's a whopping 15-minute drive. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that one shouldn't go above the shutter speed of 15 seconds in order to maintain the form of the aurora, so with that in mind I captured them with a 24mm lens with an aperture of 2.8. Using an 800 ISO film.

How's the film community in your area?

It’s surprisingly good for a relatively small town. Though there have been some bankruptcies and rundowns of labs in recent years you can still get your film developed within a day or two. Also, besides buying film from labs you can order it to be delivered to you by the local Doordash in case you’re busy.

Is there a photo that you are most proud of and why?

This photo reminds me of the 90s point-and-click adventure games. Though I haven't played them in a decade or two I think they are the second biggest source of inspiration for me besides movies.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I think the big allure of shooting film for me is to see how modern things would look in my childhood. For the first 18 years of so of my life the majority of photos were shot on film, so that "film look" is ingrained in my brain as the way a photograph should look. So for example its thrilling to take photos of the sport of MMA on film, as it didn't even exist in my country back in the early 90s. Or taking photos of the night sky or other low-light conditions. Those things obviously existed back then as well, but you didn't see such photos on anyone's home albums, only in magazines or other professional mediums.