Basic Stuff
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 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 and we were married in July 2008.

Sports
Like I say on the front page of this site: I've become somekind of an outdoor (sports) enthusiast. I'm filling my spare time with running, orienteering, rogaining, kayaking, skiing etc.etc. It's such a long story that I've created a separate page here. 

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 - if I'm not orienteering or kayaking or something - we often drive to my familys summer cabin about 75km away. 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 forest. 

Travelling (and mountains)
Ireland has captured our souls and we allways seem to return there. Like I told before, we got engaged there. We also  flew there to buy our wedding rings, there was a band playing irish  music at our wedding and we didn't forget Guinness either... During our trips I'm also photographing Ireland with an exhibition in mind. 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 have been the Skellig Islands, climbing Carrantuohill (Devil's ladder) and Mount Errigal etc. 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. 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.

Photography
I've been photographing actively over 25 years, mainly as an amateur but I've also done a bit of freelancing. But I have a separate page of that stuff, so please read it from here. 

Parasailing
Just in case you found your way here because of parasailing - a short update on my status on that field also: I used to be involved in parasailing activities all around Finland. I was a parasail operator trainer, but mainly I operated parasails myself and competed in parasailing accuracy. My wife and I had a parasailing accuracy team and we got a couple of victories from national competitions. In the year 2001 and 2002 we came home with silver medals from the national championships, 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 and after that worked as the Chief of Safety. Few years ago I realized that I have too many things to do and 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. I might still fly some day, but at this point I believe that my active days are over.

 Work (the boring stuff...)
Oh, almost forgot -  I also do find time for a dayjob, believe it or not... 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 on those fields, 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. 

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.