Hey everyone!

This "blog" has been actively in use for a year now (in blogger, in tumblr it's 2 years) and over the course of that time I could see that people didn't really care for my photos. According to blog stats, that is.

To be perfectly honest, it has brought me down a bit in the past.
Why I needed (at least) some re-assurance that somebody somewhere occasionally did look at my photos? Why would that have to matter even the slightest? That's hard to say, my best guess is that I just wanted to know that I was doing something right and becoming better at my hobby.
Sounds really vain, I guess. 

The truth is, leaving active membership on deviantART had a huge part in going unnoticed and I knew it perfectly well. I have been a member there since 2005, and there have been times of complete devotion to this site on my part. For years I was inspired to take better photos and build a larger group of devious friends.

About 1.5-2 years ago it felt like I couldn't handle the site anymore. It was taking up too much of my time and it wasn't about art anymore. It was becoming too "you :+fav: me, I'll :+fav: you" - granted, I've never actually been part of such a deal per se but I did feel it was an unwritten rule in *some* cases.

I felt it was necessary to turn my back on praise that might've been dishonest. And now I'm here, complaining about not getting enough attention :D
Well, the thing is...at this very moment I'm not upset about it anymore ("...it has brought me down a bit in the past").
If anything, it made me realize that I'm just not that good.
Yup, there, I said it. It's not something I'd like to admit but it's the truth. I always knew it, even acknowledged it to myself, but simply chose to ignore that little voice in my head.

My harsh reality is that I don't take spectacular photos, sometimes they're completely against every rule in the book.
Sometimes I fall in love with a scene and want to translate it to a photo, but I. just. can't. make. it. work.
Although I do shoot in manual, my settings were/are somewhat questionable at times.
Oh, I could go on and on with the list.
And therefore I can't blame people for not visiting this place (other than photoshop/lightroom downloads). Hell, I wouldn't bookmark it myself.

Recently, I've tried having a more open mind in taking photos. I still have a long way to go, but at least I've made some progress.
As said before, I got quite used to posting mainly for myself, so I didn't notice that I had received some feedback on couple of my recent posts. It felt nice to see that somebody liked my stuff and actually took the time to comment (I am guilty of not doing it sometimes).

Huge thanks, the feedback was very appreciated and it really means a lot to me!

Kalevi Keskstaadion/stadium of Kalev. A huge flea market was held there
that day. The fog was really quite thick and low, the city looked absolutely
beautiful.

A mushroom, Macrolepiota procera I believe.
Taken in Metsakalmistu (a cemetery) near the grave of my
grandfather. It was quite strange, I had never seen them growing there
before (plus, they were enormous).

Tallinn Music High School. A hallway that connected two houses once. I have no idea what happened. My grandmother
used to work there as a maths teacher in the 90s and I sometimes went to work with her, so I know this hallway lead
to the cafeteria (I still remember the smells! It was wonderful, great memories) and I'm guessing it was the part of the
school. I showed this photo to my granny and she confirmed the cafeteria part, but added that she knew the other wing
(in a very poor shape, more photos to come) was actually for a music academy? There isn't much info, so everything is
kind of hazy to me. The main building of the school was nice and renovated, though. I am really hoping they don't
demolish this building. Fingers crossed!

Laitse railway crossing and platform (built in 2009-2010, making it the new one. Old/better platform was destroyed the same year).

Some photos from this spring. Between Mustamäe and Õismäe.

In Laitse.
Clouds, clear area in the shape of an arrow. Never seen anything like that
before. It was like somebody had wiped through the clouds with a clean
towel.

And again, near the Laitse railway crossing. The sunset was beautiful.

*Download* Lightroom presets: The Zoo & Dapple

Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2b4tdtpwxyypes3

A choir of kittens

I expected to post very often during the summer...but as you can see the activity here has been pretty much non-existent. Since I wasn't able to get a summer job, I wanted to spend more time outside (instead of sitting inside and doing nothing).
And so I did:

Firstly, I picked up roller-skating again. Thankfully, Tallinn has built quite a lot of roads for bicycling/jogging/etc. and it really has been a joy. I now have a wonderful connection to the bog of Harku (Harku raba) which is close to my home but used to be a hassle to drive up to (lack of decent roads). So while an obscene amount of drivers are mad at Tallinn for creating lanes for public transportation basically out of thin air, I've really enjoyed the direction where the city's support for sports is headed.

Secondly, I decided to educate myself and start reading more books. It's a shame that I haven't really read that much after graduating from high school. And it was years ago *shudder*. The last book I read was in spring and it was about crimes that have shocked Estonians ("Ajaroimad: kuriteod, mis vapustasid Eestit" by Heino Tõnismägi). It was pretty good, real people talking about real and gruesome murders/crimes.
Since a certain book (fifty shades of this, that and blergh) had been making headlines in the media, I decided to give it a go. I ended up reading all 3 books. It took me about 4 days, so I am glad that I haven't wasted too much time on this series. My thoughts? Bad literature was bad *Oh my!*. The first/best review on goodreads.com pretty much sums up what I thought of it.

And lastly, there is always something to do in our summer cottage. Lately, I've really enjoyed being there because a stray cat gave birth to 3 kittens, and they all live next to us (our neighbour's attic).
Their mother can be seen here http://kairits.blogspot.com/2012/06/nature-mobile-shots.html and strangely enough, none of her kittens look like her.

She/he (I personally think it's a 'she', based on how she acts) is my granny's favorite. She is the first one that I was able to catch :)

Again, I believe this little one is female. We call her "the Dame" because she is not amused by "common foolish
things" such as chasing a toy. But when the Dame does want to play, she gets all grumpy and annoyed when she
can't catch the toy prey (and/or falls ungracefully). She's also my mother's favorite.

My granny's favorite. All shots taken after a "gaming" session, so she was pretty tired (and muddy).

Portrait photos. On the left is my mother's favorite and on the right is my favorite :) I believe this one to be a 'he'.
He is the most energetic fluffball I've ever seen, so fast and brave. I call him Lapik, which should
translate to Dapple or something like that. Unfortunately I don't have that many photos of Dapple
(and the ones I have are usually blurry because of the speed of him).

A nice way to drink milk.

I took a bicycle and went for a ride to the Old town. This is
taken somewhere near the Kultuurikatel and Linnahall.

The school of Valdeku street. It was half-way demolished this year because it hadn't been used since 2009. At least they kept the main building...
It's a Soviet decoration (a 5-pointed star; flags; a book and a globe, I think) at the very top, for those who are unfamiliar.
*A texture is used on the left one.

The main entrance and facade of the school in its full glory.

Not particularly a very exciting image. Just the reflection/curtains/trees of an evening sky in our summer cottage.

And a July must-go-to Vasalemma. I took plenty of photos, just haven't
had the time to sort them. More photos will come, this is the only one I
had "prepared". It's also almost the same spot/angle where I took a photo
in Vasalemma last year -
http://kairits.blogspot.com/2011/09/shameless-repost.html

Of course, no post would be complete without music.
NB! I have some Lightroom presets lying around and I'll be uploading them in the next week or so.

Snowy white - Bird of paradise