Jere Satamo
Wedding Photographer
Finland and Worldwide
"I've been a full time photographer now for eight years and there will be so many years ahead."
At weddings I’m often asked how I became a wedding photographer? Well, it all started as a hobby a few (a few, it was in 2008!) years ago when a couple I knew asked if I’d take their wedding photos. Obviously I already had a background in photography, but not a clue about wedding photography in particular. They had seen some of my work but not one wedding photo. I was totally stressed out about the upcoming big day, but they liked the result. On the wedding day itself I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I might have imagined and in the end I found it a very interesting and fascinating assignment.
Thus my career as a wedding photographer began and I’ve now photographed around 350 wedding couples. I still find the assignments interesting and am downright passionate about documenting these great events, where I get to work with people. It’s the best part of the job and it says a lot that I always find myself smiling as I post-process wedding pictures. They convey authentic human emotions, reactions to various situations and the general spontaneous atmosphere of the joyous event.
A few words about
myself as well.
I’m originally from Oulu, now settled in Turku, a 40 years old father of two great kids. The floor boards of my roughly 100 year old house are also scuffed by two Italian Greyhounds, Uma and Milda.
As to hobbies, in college I was an enthusiastic ice hockey player but that career was cut short by injuries. Around the same time I took my first photography course. We developed our own photos from black and white negatives in a dark room and that’s what truly ignited my interest in photography. While living in Oulu I also did a lot of snowboarding and I still miss the powder snow living in Turku. My grandfather and his brothers were avid photographers as well, so on some level this is an inherited passion. Also cycling plays a big role in my life nowadays and as you can see, my instagram feed is also filled with bike photos. Mostly I like to ride mountain bike, but also longer trips with my gravel bike pleases me.
I get along well with people and as I always emphasize to my customers, this is entirely a customer service profession. It is extremely important, as I photograph children or newly weds for instance, that we are on the same wavelength – this ensures the best possible results. I continually strive to perfect my craft and that’s achieved only through practice. Not that the 18 month long vocational photography training and subsequent qualification wasn’t useful, but the best tricks of the trade have come from other photographers in my field as well as from various workshops. Naturally there are instances where I dig the artificial suns out of my bag when needed. I’m in no way afraid of using the flash and am proficient with that equipment as well, but I do strive first and foremost to photograph situations with the available light sources.
Feel free to contact me and I hope to meet you soon!
// Jere
