PhotoStories : Oulu City Pictures : Oulujoki riverside

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Oulujoki riverside

Welcome to Oulujoki riverside! The river starts from Oulujärvi lake running northwest towards Gulf of Botnia. Just before exiting to the sea it runs through Oulu city between city center and Tuira neighborhood.

There are few photos from the final meters of Oulujoki riverside in this page. The river has a same kind of meaning to the citizen as the sea has, providing a place for outdoor activities and being as a some kind of connection to nature.

The river have had a valuable importance to the agricultural industry in the past. In addition of providing pure water, the river has been a communication and transport route for the people in that age. Modern people has a heritage of living next to the river, more and more in purpose of having a place to relax and spend free time.

There are may history books about places and people in the range of Oulujoki river. Unfortunately I haven't read any of them, but I believe that people having their roots somewhere in riverside have thousands of stories about the river. Let's just hope that at least few of those stories have ended to those history books.

Last summer (2001) I was once again having a walk along to the river when I met a man who was rather busy with his fishing rods (photo on left). After placing couple of rods to the ground fixed holder, the man seemed to be less occupied and free for a chat. We talked couple of minutes about his hobby and Oulujoki river. Unfortunately I was a little bit outside from fish tricks, but it was quite interesting to talk about the meaning of the river to him.

Here are few photographs taken around Oulujoki in different seasons:

Summer

Here are few boats laying on the beach in the summer of 1999.
       This area is quite popular for outdooring, because of it's large greenfields, long paths next to the river and so on. You can see lot of people walking and jogging for example with dogs. Bit of countryside feeling down there. Behind that place I took this picture is a bridge which I use almost everyday when I drive to the work. I have seen those boathouses so many times that I had to try to photograph them.
       That summer day was absolutely beautiful, and the scenery was as picturesque seen in live as in this photograph.

I was once again at a walk at Ainolanpuisto park during the very last moments before sunset. There were quite many city ducks and gulls resting at a small bay.
       At a background you can see the block houses of Tuira. This picture reminds me the last summer vacation days...
One Sunday when I woke up there were massive fog in town. I took several pictures during the morning hours, but many of them were spoiled because drops of water on the lens. I was little bit pissed off when I saw the results.
       Well, here is one succeeded photograph over Oulujoki near city center. The apartment building behind the river is called Joutsenkaari. It was actually under construction when took the photo in autumn 1999, but thanks to the fog you can't see any cranes.

Autumn

The autumn colors in 1999 were terrible at least in Oulu, so this picture is actually quite ugly.
       I only like this photograph because of one detail, the boat on the river.
       The walking path is part of long and interesting route next to the Oulujoki river.
While taking this photograph I was about to fall to water, because one of the tripod legs was actually in water and suddenly it gave up.
       Technically speaking this photographs demonstrates couple of problems: Firstly, it's hard to get the DOF (Depth of Field, the area in focus) good enough. If you examine the skyline of the trees at background, you can see how they are little bit out of focus.
       Secondly, it was quite late and therefore lack of light (or high contrast between the bush and sky) caused the sky burning out (it has very little details, almost white).

Winter

This is a well known old bridge called Rautasilta.
       There were ca. minus twenty degrees of Celsius! The river was still running and sunlight was glinting nicely from the fog above the river.

This frame was taken in the very same day than the previous bridge picture.
       Those apartment buildings behind the river belongs to Tuira neighborhood. Some of them are designed by famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Some people dislikes them, some likes them (as I do).

This photograph was taken near Tuira beach.
       Ducks are living here through the year so running river is quite essential to them, but I guess it's still uncomfortable to swim in water below zero degree!

I especially like color tones in this picture. It's looking quite the same as in that day I took this photo.
       It is hard to imagine people swimming and taking sun in this very same beach in summertime... that's what I like Finnish climate, really different seasons.

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