• Julius Koivistoinen is a young Finnish student passioned about photography. He's mostly self taught but has already been working as a photographer for a couple of magazines published not only in Finland but worldwide, and his photos have reached to become the cover shots of those magazines for plenty of times. In addition to commercial work, he loves to work on personal projects and with smaller clients. Currently he's available for assignments near Helsinki and Lahti.
    Be sure to visit his portfolio and Flickr page!

    The one wheeled trend is hitting the streets

    • August 30, 2010 12:04 pm

    I bet everyone has been aware of the increasing number of single speed bicycles everywhere. But while visiting different cities around Europe I noticed that there were new, even more creative ways to commute around the big metropolises.

    Some of them are even landing to the shores of our Northern country.

    A unicyclist in Basel, Switzerland

    Unicycles

    One may think it’s just one of those extreme sports which belong to circus. But when you actually think about it, a unicycle is almost as small as a pogo stick, it gets you around faster than walking and is a great way to improve your balance.

    It’s definitely a great way to get more socialized plus fixed gear enthusiasts love you for it too!


    A unicycle spotted in a metro in Helsinki!

    Even my good ol’ pa decided to give it a try and has started practicing the unicycle. Here’s me packing his unicycle into my courier bag:

    Kick scooters and roller skates

    These are the devices I loved to ride in my childhood – but then they just disappeared! Luckily they’re now making a comeback a little by little.

    The funny thing is though that not just the kids are riding them to school as back then but again, working citizens use them as transportation from home to the market or to work…

    Older woman took a stop with her kick scooter in Hamburg


    And of course

    Single speed bikes with Bianchi bodies in a flea market in Berlin

    As I mentioned already the single speed cycles and fixed gear bikes have taken over the streets once and for all. I’ll be writing about it more in depth later though, as the phenomenon is worth an article of its own. :)

    Fixie riders in Paris

    Today is 195 days left

    • December 27, 2009 1:06 am

    Still alive and kickin’, bros!

    Here’s something I’ve been anxious to put together for over a half a year because I haven’t had time for it until now. I hope you like it! :)

    Doing this for my country from Julius Koivistoinen on Vimeo.

    A stop motion video of a haircut done in summer 2009 just before my departure to army for a year.

    Thanks to Marja Milistver and my mum and dad for helping me out with the shooting! Vampire Weekend is guilty for the amazing music.

    Me and – my brother in arms – Touko
    This is what you get when you become bored while being on duty

    An old doodle of myself. Drawn using a mirror … I’m putting this here to motivate myself to draw more often

    Working on a cover

    • June 16, 2009 2:47 pm

    Few weeks ago I was photographing the collerctor’s cover photo for a Finnish airsoft magazine Softaaja. Our models Stefan (on left) and Janne were dressed up as post-apocalyptic scavangers inspired by the Mad Max movies and the Fallout game series. Stefan likes to describe himself as a cat hunter and Janne is a sand warrior.

    Post-nuclear war themed photo shoot from Julius Koivistoinen on Vimeo.

    Keeping the light simple was a good idea this time as the models were interesting enough in my opinion. One big light source comes with a very natural look while it’s still very pleasing to the eye also.

    Even though we shot these in the afternoon it still was quite bright outside. That is why I chose to use a silver reflective umbrella as it’s the most efficient light modificator when used with my small 430EX strobe units. In addition I like the little rougher light coming out of the reflective umbrella compared to a shoot-through brolly as the light doesn’t scatter as much. I had two strobes instead of just one pointing in one umbrella so that I could turn their power a bit down to gain a faster recycling time.

    The photo is taken with a Canon EOS 5D camera and a EF 17-40mm f/4L lens which is a combo I love. The strobes were triggered wirelessly using a ST-E2 transmitter.

    Here’s three details from the image seen above:

    The equipment those guys are wearing is epic. Self-made armor based on a hockey harness, real ammunition boxes and the outsoles of shoes, leather clothing, vintage sunglasses from the 50′s, laser protective goggles,  self-made shoulder guard with chainmail and a steel plate protecting the heart (I made that, actually!), self-made pistol holster and the list goes on.

    Underneath are two examples on the images that were used as reference while building up those layouts. Just to give you a clue what I’m talking about.

    Screenshots from the early episodes of Fallout game series

    Photo from the movie Max Max 2: Road Warrior starring Mel Gibson

    The following photos are random snapshots from the same photo shoot. Just a neat little bonus to all of you hungry for backstage imagery. :)

    Final results