On the August 23rd I at last got to know with a sport which has fascinated me since a friend of mine told me about it many months ago in the army. He too is into fixed gear bikes and in addition has worked as a bike messenger in Helsinki back in the days. (Note: I actually photographed him a while ago riding a busy street on his fixie in Helsinki. See the photo in the end of this post!)
Bicycle Polo is a team sport similar to traditional polo, except that bicycles are used instead of horses. There is 3 players on each team and you may not touch the ground with your feet or you must go and “tap out” by riding to the mid-court and hitting either side of the court with your mallet.
We were playing in a court right next to the centre of Helsinki, in Hietaniemi. There was about 30 persons playing and watching the games in total.
View Helsinki Fixed in a larger map
The fixed gear bikes are ideal for this type of playing by the way, as with them it is very easy to “track stand” in a single position for example. When you’re totally in control of your bike with your feet only it’s a lot easier to concentrate on steering and waving the mallet with your hands.
Jump on this article to see the rest of the huge photos I took that sunny afternoon! (+ the photo of my friend Toni Aikasalo riding his badass fixie) Bike polo photos are taken using a Canon EOS 5D camera and objectives ranging from 50mm to 135mm.
Oh, and if you’re in one of the photos, feel free to share it on your Facebook profile for example, but be sure that the undersign is visible or add a caption “Julius Koivistoinen photograhy – http://juliusphoto.yhet.net” to the image. And don’t forget to comment or at least hit the Facebook’s like button at the top of this article. Thanks! 
I just fell in love with street photography again. I’ve been photographing the streets of Helsinki and went on a trip to Saint Petersburg where I documented the local people with my camera a lot too.
Or it might just be the camera particularly which is creating such a thrill in me.
For a long time I’ve been drooling after the Canon’s EOS 5D especially due to it’s full frame sencor and the advantages brought with it and the camera’s slim body also. So I finally took the plunge and got that camera body of my dreams!
A comparison between images taken on Canon EOS 350D and on Canon EOS 5D
(Thank you Marja for being such a lovely model as always!)
Some of you might be thinking why didn’t I invest on the new 5D mark II instead, but I just don’t need all the features it has, so it would have been waste of money to me. I’ve been using the old 5D at work for a long time already so I knew what was the perfect choice for me.
One more thing before I let you to jump on the photos taken in St. Petersburg. I want to address my love towards the Canon EOS 5D + 50 mm prime lens combo by showing the following three images of one photograph. The images don’t just come out outstandingly sharp, but the focal length is just right on a full frame sencor. It is not too tight nor too wide, just perfect!
Canon EOS 5D, 50mm f/1.8: 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200
The first image is the photo uncropped, the last one is a 100% crop.
Ok, here they are (click the photo below). Please enjoy the gallery and maybe even leave a comment considering them here. Thanks!
Remember how I made that promise of publishing some tasty reenactment film photos way back in this post? Well wait no more because they’re here! Thanks to Väinö for borrowing the camera and lens (which front focuses though as you can see from the photos) and Janne for scanning the original slides into a computer-friendlier format. Enjoy!
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