Well, to be short I'm a photographer, parasail operator, paddler, runner, orienteer, rogainer, backpacker, mountain biker, ireland-fool... 

Basic information
Let's start from the beginning: my full name is Juha Suokas. I first saw the daylight in 1975 in Lahti, Finland. It was a great place to grow up, a relatively small town (in world scale) with lot's of pure nature, lakes and forests around. I nowadays have a house of my own in the same area, at a place called Hollola. You can see an aerial photo over here. 
 

Family   
I'm living with my wife Sanna. We first met back in 1999 at a photoclub meeting that I hosted at the Lahti Polytechnic. Our first date was actually a backpacking trip to a forest lake - only about two kilometers from where we built our own house in 2004! We got engaged on top of Croagh Patrick in Ireland in 2001, on our first trip to Ireland. We got married in July 2008 , and we bought the wedding rings - you guessed it - from Dublin. And there was of course a band (Ants in the Pants) playing irish music in the wedding.

Ireland, travelling and mountains
The green island has captured our souls and we allways seem to return there. During our trips I'm also photographing Ireland with an exhibition in mind. We can't explain the magic, but people do say that it's impossible. Only those who have been to Ireland (and I'm not talking about Dublin, I'm talking about Donegal, Mayo etc.) can understand... We've mostly travelled in the west (Mayo, Connemara), north (Donegal, Ulster) and southwest (Kerry). But we've also been to Dublin a few times, driven thru the middle of the country , been to Kilkenny and the south etc. Some highlights (just to mention few) have been the Skellig Islands, climbing Carrantuohill (Devil's ladder) and Mount Errigal, relaxing at Bunbeg, visiting the tragic town of Derry etc. We have been thinking about renting a house in the west for a few weeks just to stay in one place a bit longer. And don't get me wrong - although the west has captured our heart, I still enjoy a pint of worlds best stouts at Porter House, Dublin...

We also travel to other places. Together with my wife or alone I've visited over 20 countries, the furthest being Australia. These past few years our trips have had one thing in common: usually our summer holidays are spent close to some mountain range. I'm an eager mountaineer, but unfortunatelly there aren't real mountains in Finland. So I like to plan our trips so that I can visit a peak or two on the side...In the summer of 2009 we spent a week in Seefeld, Austria - and you really can't wish for more if you happen to like the Alps...The best peak on that trip was Hohe Munde, a bit over 2,5km peak that stands over the Seefeld-Leutasch valley.

Nature 
Nature in general has an important part  in my life. I seem to get involved in all kinds of outdoor activities...  During the weekends we often go to our summer cabin on a lakeside about 75km from home or drive to meet my parents in law who live on an Island in Meri-Pori (on the sea). Or we go parasailing, or abseiling from some local cliffs, or maybe we just pack a gas stove and go cooking in the woods. My mom and dad are propably responsible for my feelings towards nature.. When I was a kid, they were the ones who took me to the forests, near and far, and gave me a burning desire to walk along those soft trails, to see the unspoiled nature, to be one with the nature.

Sports

I've moved this bit to a separate page here. 

Photography
I've been photographing actively roughly 20 years and I ocassionally publish my work. But I have a separate page of that stuff, so please read it from here. 

Parasailing
Just to make sure that I don't have too much spare time, I'm also actively involved in parasailing activities all around Finland. I used to train parasail operators, but now I mainly fly people with parasails and I compete in parasailing accuracy. And all this I do with Sanna. We have a parasailing accuracy team and we have a couple of victories from national competitions. In the year 2001 and 2002 we came home with silver medals from the national championships - and after a few years of trying we finally won the national parasailing accuracy Cup in 2002, and the finnish national championships in 2007. I was the President of Finnish Ascending Paraschute and Kite Association (FAPKA) for a few years, now I'm working as the Safety Chief. Thanks to being too busy with other things, I'm spending less and less time with parasails, and I thinks pretty soon I'll have to make the decision to leave parasailing behind. I can't really say I'm  an expert if I don't fly regulary.

 

Work (the boring stuff...)
Oh, almost forgot -  I also do find time for a dayjob, believe it or not... So. What do I do for a living? I have a bachelor's degree in engineering. During student years and after graduation I worked as a researcher at Helsinki University of Technology Lahti Centre. Working there gave me the skills and knowledge in 3D-modelling, rapid prototyping and design. I've since worked for a couple of companies, but for the longest period as a Project Manager at a bus and train interior lighting company Teknoware. I was resposible for Mediterranean countries and Australia. I really liked the company and the job had it's highlights (like visiting Australia...), but I ended up leaving in February 2006. During the same year I was asked to become a part of a completely new product development company. So now I'm a co-owner of C-Advice Limited. I have somekind of an official title also, but I like to call myself 3D-wizard and a webmaster. 

But hey, that's enough about me. If you want to know more, need a photographer for some odd project, or for some other strange reason feel the need - please send email or call me.