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Sami Laitinen
@laitinensami
Landscape photographer based in Finland
Photography and traveling, which have been both my passions and hobbies for a long time, have now also become my job. My father was the one who casually introduced me to photography, which ended up to be a huge part of my life. I was probably 7 or 8 years old when he showed me an old film camera that he had gotten from his sister, who in turn got it from the family where she used to work for during her au pair years in Switzerland. My dad told me that he used to take photos with that camera and had in mind to buy more equipment and learn how to develop his own films, but that never happened.
"Life just took over, I reckon."
I was fascinated though. At that time we also had this basic point and shoot film camera and since I got so interested in photography I started to run around with the camera and take pictures of basically everything. Chairs, blurry shots of people and just random images with no purpose. For me they were the best ones, but my parents weren’t so happy about it since they didn’t want to develop them and pay for these kind of images every fortnight. Soon enough they realized that I was really into it so they bought the first digital point and shoot camera for our family.
I still remember when I first saw it. I had finished skating at the skatepark and was waiting for my parents to pick me up. When they entered the parking lot, I saw my dad pointing me at with this new camera. I was thrilled! I started to take more pictures and soon bought my very own camera with which I photographed lots of people and of course skateboarding. During that time, I skated a lot and it was only natural to take skate photos with a friend. I still skate, though not that much anymore, and I still shoot sometimes with that old film camera my dad had showed me when I was a kid, a Zenith-E M42 mount camera with Helios 44M 58/2 lens.
"It’s also because of my dad that travel caught my interest. He used to travel quite a bit when he was in his 20’s. He did bicycle trips to Lapland in Finland and a couple of Interrail trips around Europe."
The stories he told me about his travels got me hooked. I also wanted to experience how it felt like being almost without money somewhere in Europe and survive with that. I also wanted to see the Finnish Lapland. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that I went on an Interrail trip around Europe with some of my good friends and our backpacks. The trip really opened my eyes and broadened my mind. Later on I went to a couple of skateboarding trips with a bunch of friends to Spain.
My route went from New York to Los Angeles by train, bus and plane. I was so amazed how vast and diverse the country is and how different the cities are from each other. With that trip I also got an article published in Finland’s biggest camera magazine called Kameralehti, which is also one of the major camera magazines in Europe.
After that my travels have taken me to Paris, where I lived for a half a year, Africa, South-East Asia, Australia and United States for the second time. In Australia I spent almost a year, working and traveling. To leave everything behind and decide to move to the other side of the globe was the best decision of my life. During that year, I learned so much about my self, about new cultures and I met awesome people. Australia was also my dad’s dream place. He always said that Australia is a place to be and he had spent lots of time in Google Earth to look around what’s in there. I wanted to fulfill his dream and I managed to fly him over to Australia. We travelled three weeks in total, from Melbourne to Darwin, through the middle of the country.
"I saw how he genuinely enjoyed every moment even though the travel conditions weren’t always the best, and was just amazing to see my dad like that."
"Currently I live in Helsinki, Finland. Living here is something that is inside of me since I was born in here."
I truly enjoy having my base in the city I feel I belong, while traveling to other places, spending time in nature especially in the north. Finland is a country I am grateful for living in, with its clean air, lakes, forests, ocean, archipelago and Lapland for example. Lot of those things Finns take for granted sometimes, including me, but we should remember that those things are something to cherish. I don’t doubt that Finnish landscapes, especially Lapland, have influenced my photography as I really feel like I want to show the beauty of the country and what it has to offer. Lapland was introduced to me only in the recent years and when I went there for the first time it hit me right away. That place is unbelievable beautiful, pure and amazing. It has so much to offer because the area is so vast.
"And no matter what the time of the year is when you go there, there’s always something interesting to see and do."
"The tourism in Lapland has been rapidly increasing. Of course, it is a good thing also because it makes Finland more known and since many businesses there depend on tourism it is vital that it’s flourishing. However, nothing comes without a cost."
As in any travel destination around the globe, some tourists don’t care about the rules, regulations and the nature that much. Yes, the air is probably the cleanest and the nature the purest in the world, but we must remember that those are not obvious things. We must do everything we can to preserve this amazing place, maintain it as how we know it now and prevent damage as we see happening all over the world. This aside, when thinking about Finland as a travel destination Lapland is not the only place worth visiting. Firstly, anywhere you go around Finland, there’s forest that can be so exotic that we can hardly imagine nor understand. Helsinki offers natural experiences too and our archipelago on the coast and in the inland is also huge. We have the second largest amount of island in the world! There are so many other places to explore.
"My favourite spots to travel to in Finland other than Lapland are lake Saimaa area in south-eastern Finland and the area of Pirkanmaa in the south-west of Finland."
"Nevertheless, I believe each country has great things to offer if you just allow yourself to see it."
All my travels have made my photography evolve, adapting and using what the countries I was traveling through had to offer. What I always want to do during my travels is to get to know the culture of the country. I like to try to incorporate the culture into my pictures, conveying a message, and when I know the culture better it’s easier to achieve that. For me photography has always been a way to show to people how I see the world, that hasn’t changed since I started taking pictures of chairs with our little film camera to this day when I’m taking pictures professionally for various clients and in different countries. I founded my own company in spring 2018. I just had had a back surgery and I was kind of just floating around thinking what to do and I decided that I wanted to do something that I really love and enjoy doing. So I started working on my own company and until now I have been working for various clients from outdoor brands, travel and marketing agencies to outdoor events, taking photos and producing videos.
"The jobs I do really vary, but my aim is to always include travel and the outdoors so I can showcase the infinite beauty that our globe has to offer through photography and film."
"All these experiences made me grow both professionally and personally."
You wouldn’t be reading this story of mine right now if it wasn’t all because of photography, my passion for it and what it taught me along the way. From the time that it was my hobby to the present day that it is my work, it has opened so many doors in my life. I’ve been able to travel to places where I had only dreamed of and these travels have educated me probably more than all the school and studies I have ever been enrolled in together. Whether it were my bicycle trips around Finland, my hikes in Norway, traveling across Australia, seeing the sun rising over the Grand Canyon on my solo backpacking trip in the US or the peaceful moments relaxing at a small pier somewhere in Finland, feeling the warm air during midnight and admiring the flaming red horizon from the setting sun.
"All these experiences are equally valuable and I am grateful for all of them. Photography and travel made me who I am. For me, photography and travel is life."
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