Interview With The 2022 EPA Category Winner of the Year
Interview With The 2022 European Photography Awards Category Winner of the Year – Petri Damstén
 
Naked Dame
My son and his classmates had schoolwork to make a fair stand to sell something. They wanted to sell naughty cookies, Xmas calendars and such and “hired” me as their graphic designer and photographer. So Xmas-themed ad we did.
 
Group Yopparai
Bunch of guys renting a cottage once in a while to hang out together. I got a job taking a group portrait. There was a nice place outside to take one. The wind was so cold that we didn’t want to be there more than was absolutely necessary. The photographer might have been under the...
 
How I Move – Sari
– “I can photograph you with the green Škoda for this series.”– “No, I prefer the electric bike.”– “Well, that’s fine as well.”That was the conversation with my wife to get her to be part of the “How I Move” series. I wanted the water behind the bike to be smoother. It was simple enough,...
 
FIDC 2021, 8th Kuopio salon graphics
FIDC 2021, 8th Kuopio Salon: Poster design and video graphics.
 
How I Move – Henna
Another image pair for the “How I Move” series. Horses are a bit trickier to photograph in this style. While he was a good sport there is always a little movement between frames like it would with humans too. Takes a bit longer in post and have to use different techniques for layer blending but...
 
Autumn Images
These images are from this autumn, taken with three different cameras (Fuji GFX 50s, Nikon D850, and iPhone 13 Pro). I wanted to test new Lightroom features, so I edited images from the harbour only in Lightroom. The new masking tools are a huge improvement and enable quite a complex editing without photoshop. I also...
 
Fool for a king
Something a bit more conceptual for the last image from the self-portrait day shoot. The crown and the tophat are mine, but I made the tophat look like a hat from the mad hatter in photoshop.
 
Black Tears
The idea of the makeup came after taking this image. I just thought that it needed some extra. I found joker makeup images that I took in 2013. I then added that makeup to this image, and it looked much more like my kind of image.
 
The Fly
I have seen these portraits with a clear grid reflection on sunglasses. When I found these big round black sunglasses, I decided to give it a try. The image immediately reminded me of a fly, so naming the image was easy. I rarely make monochrome images, but I think it suited this one well. It...
 
Self-portrait
I took one passport photo, and since my home studio was open, I took some self-portraits. One thing I tested was how this 110mm lens looks wide open. It is incredibly sharp, even in f/2. The second thing I tested was the automatic eye detection for self-portraits. It worked well in smaller apertures, but it...
 
How I Move – Kari
I was going to continue the “How I Move” series earlier, but the pandemic got in the way. But I think now is a good time to continue this project. For a first new pair of images I photographing Kari and his Triumph. If you want to join in the series there is more info...
 
Outdoor portraits
A bit of different style of images this time. These were taken in Vuorilampi, Kuopio, Finland. Great place for a walk in the forest and some photographs.
 
Zipper Pulls featured in DIY Photography
DIY Photography: Personalizing My Bags With Killer Zippers
 
Macro Keyboard
I wanted to test how Expresskeys EK-84 custom keyboard works as a photoshop macro keyboard. It was not as easy as I initially thought. I ended up writing some python, photoshop javascript, doing some woodworking and drawing a bunch of icons in Inkscape to get it where I wanted. All the code and files can...
 
Overhead pole
I wanted to have an overhead pole over the work table, where I can hang things like safety equipment and painted stuff. I also added a simple camera mount there so I can take photos and video from the top-down perspective. 3MF files for the 3D printed parts can be downloaded here. They are made...
 
Personalizing my bags
When one of my zipper pull broke, I thought, “well, that’s not a big deal. I will just add some paracord to replace it”. I like the saying from Mythbusters: “If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing”, so just adding paracord was not an option. I wanted to personalize my pull and add...
 
Sword on the Wall
I have been longing for a long sword for a long time, just to display it on my wall. I will be using it as a prop in some photoshoots too. Cross-guard of the sword has two loops in it, so I thought I could use towel hooks to hang it on the wall. It...
 
Drawer
We got rid of the old bookshelf which was mainly made from chipboard, but there were some birch wood and drawer bottoms to save. As a summer project, I thought that I make a drawer for my current desk. I wanted to use salvaged material as much as possible. All 3D printed parts can be...
 
Cable Relief – laptop
I already have cable relief for the camera and wanted to do something similar for the laptop.