One of the best things a photographer can have is a happy and returning client! So I’m going to write a few blog posts about interesting assignments to one of my returning clients, SBM Fastwood. This is part one: photographing the Oodi library and the Citizen’s Balcony.
Fastwood is a specialist timber focused company from Tallinn, Estonia. They contacted me the first time in November 2018. The company had completed an interesting project for the Helsinki Central Library Oodi in Helsinki. The project was a rooftop deck, ‘Citizen’s Balcony’, made of Accoya wood. Fastwood needed me to photograph the deck for their marketing purposes.
Oodi library, opened in December 5, 2018, was designed by ALA Architects and the structural design was made by Ramboll Finland. Oodi is a great example of the fantastic architecture in Helsinki. I’m a big fan of ALA Architects, so I was very happy to photograph the library to a new client.
What is Accoya wood?
Accoya is sustainably sourced wood, which undergoes a non-toxic acetylation process that modifies it permanently more durable for outdoor use, such as cladding, decks, doors, windows, gates, furniture and bridges. It resists rot, withstands the elements, and remains strong as well as dimensionally stable.
The wooden floor of the deck was treated with Teknos Woodex Aqua Woodoil, a natural oil that protects wooden surfaces from moisture and soiling and diminishes cracking. Tinted oil protects wood from UV radiation of the Sun.
Sometimes winter means too much snow
My client needed photos of the deck in a good weather and no snow on the deck. Easy in Finland in the middle of winter, right? Well, not quite. Snow isn’t usually a problem with architectural objects, but since a deck is a vertical structure, you can’t even see the deck material properly when there’s a layer of snow. I visited the site the first time in January 2019, when part of the deck was covered in snow. Luckily, in February, the snow was gone, so we acted fast and agreed on the date when the weather looked fine.
Photographing the Oodi library
I met my client Marco in the library on Thursday morning. We had a good chat, and he gave me a briefing. We moved to the 1100m² deck, which offers a great view to the city! It looked like a good place to spend some time in a nice summer afternoon. Nonetheless it was February and the temperature was around 3 °C. From the deck you can see lots of great architecture from the mid-1800s to these days, such as Sanoma House, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Parliament House, Helsinki Music Centre, Villa Hakasalmi, Finlandia Hall, and Töölö Bay around the Kansalaistori Square in front of Oodi.
It took me only an hour to photograph the deck. It was a relatively easy assignment, since I didn’t have to mind about other people at all. The deck is not open to public during the wintertime. I used my main workhorse camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark III, with 24mm tilt-shift lens and 14mm, 20mm, 50mm and 70-200mm lenses, and a tripod. The light on the background buildings changed completely during the shoot. When I started photographing, sky was only partially cloudy, and the sun illuminated the buildings on the background. Only half an hour later sky became completely overcast. Overcast light isn’t a problem and sometimes lower contrast works well in many images.
When Marco and I were happy with the results, we had a little chat and said goodbye, I packed my stuff and headed back home. To me, it was only a 15-minute walk to where I lived then. I imported the photos to my Mac using Lightroom and made all the backups before editing. We got 23 useable images, much more than needed.
You can find more images of the Oodi Library here! In part two of this blog series I’ll be covering another project with Fastwood, this time in Riga, Latvia!