nannasalmi horsehair jewelry: Photographer of the Week

I have always been very interested in animals, especially horses. As born in sixties here in Finland, the idea having a pony of my own was an uthopie. But I never stopped wanting one. I got to go to the riding lessons, though, and spent all my time at stables. In the country I cared and groomed Finnhorses, in the harness racing events I groomed racing horses and with a girlfriend of mine I went to test ride ponies for sale - just to get on a back of a horse.

In the college I had to concentrate more in studies as I wished to become a vet. It all went well and I started my studies in the university to become one. With my first student loan I bought a Finnhorse. Quite soon I realized that I would like to live in the countryside and suddenly the amount of horses started to accumulate.

And other animals.

And children.

2 x white and fluffy

So now I am a mother of four children, live in Nurmijärvi and work as a veterinarian here in Klaukkala. At home I have had horses for over thirty years, sometimes more, now less - only ten. Two of my children have ridden very actively, also competing with Shetland ponies, big ponies and horses. For the other one of my children horses became a profession, my son Ville Vaurio works as a trainer of dressage horses in Germany and also as a coach here in Finland a couple of weekends per month.

I have bred Shetland ponies, miniature Shetland ponies and Finnhorses and we have seen more than 50 foals to be born. Nowadays only a few mini Shetland pony foals are born at our stables and for riding we have Icelandic horses.

Icelandic horse

Icelandic horses

Shetland ponies

So I´ve been quite busy! When the children, one by one, moved away from home I had more time for my own hobbies and discovered photographing. First I was more interested in processing images, for me it was like a coloring book is for children, but I had to learn to take pictures to process. I also needed pictures for the website of my stud farm.

An ordinary pocket camera wasn´t enough any more and I bought my first DSLR camera and it totally went out of my hands... I went to courses three nights a week and spent all my free time learning to photograph.

I still do photograph a lot, almost every day, and I love to participate workshops and courses.

Mostly I photograph horses, but also people and other animals in milieu, and in my little studio children and dogs, too.

Girl with huskies, workshop with Elena Shumilova

White reindeer in Lapland

Iceland.

I´m crazy about Iceland.

It´s a paradise for a photographer and I wish I will have a possibility to live there for a year and just to take photos. I visit Iceland several times a year, riding and photographing.