October 6, 2012. Classic Korean

An old temple for scholars, now just a tourist site. In great condition and with vibrant colors, and oddly filled with praying mantises... is that not a coincidence?

October 5, 2012. Walking Down the Old and New

I waited a long time for this alleyway to finally clear up. Hahoe, an old folk town we toured this weekend. On the left we see a stone wall and on the right a (badly) restored one. This led down to a 300 year old tree where people write wishes on little strips of paper and they tie it around the tree. Anyway I just found it a pleasant, classic looking alley so it was worth the wait.

October 4, 2012. Dirty Lines

Despite the city's name you will find little soul in the thousands of identical apartment buildings that characterize Seoul. You have to take those dirty back roads where people who have character and work hard have made a home. It's easy to get lost in the disorganized maze of random chunks of brick, block and metal that many call home, and to top it off run crazy power lines with seemingly random direction, like a spiderweb used to piece the houses together. Yet this is how I want, and will remember Korea by.

October 3, 2012. Subtle Appearance

Decided to throw together a brief photoshoot this evening since I had nothing for today. It's always good practice too. We wanted to try something new so Yvonne did some Gothic makeup, and I spruced it up a bit in photoshop. I still find "studio" photography (not really a studio, just my room made into a makeshift one) hard, so I'd really like to get feedback on this one.

October 2, 2012. Impatient Young

Two bikes, two very different purposes.
I take the subway.

October 1, 2012. Lights and Toys

I got to play with my friend's tilt-shift lens, and have some fun. It's a lens used more seriously for architecture, but more creatively for slicing focus. Instagram wasn't the first to do it eh!

September 30, 2012. Places Worth Going

Click Me!

Took a hike up another mountain today, but for the sunset, and tried something more ambitious. This is an HDR panorama, made from 4 shots with 6 exposures each (total of 24 photos). It was a lot of post-processing work, and my computer wanted to just get up, flip me off and never come back. After a lot of combining and teaking, and A LOT of waiting for things to process, I have finished my first HDR panorama. I am quite proud and see myself doing this a lot in the future. The results are certainly superior, the details from light to dark and colors preserved. We had a great sky tonight, clear around the sun but full of textured clouds to be lit up when it fell low.

I opted to put this photo on flickr.com because facebook and blogger don't produce the best quality, a quality I could not pass up this time. Enjoy!

September 29, 2012. Where We Go In A Hurry

In Korea, the products you buy dictate your social status, and often are only purchased for that purpose. For example, the oven: nobody bakes in Korea. They don't make cakes or cookies or baked turkey, none of that, yet if you have an oven in your house it means you are well off. They more often get used for storage and I wouldn't be surprised if nobody really knows what they are for.
Cars are somewhat like this. Public transportation can be troublesome during traffic hours and after midnight (because it is closed), but it's fast and reaches almost every inch of Seoul. Cars, on the other hand, are always available and take you wherever, but there is no parking. Seoul has a general lack of space, and most people don't own cars anyway, so businesses much rather use any space they can for people than cars. Even if a car got you there quicker, then, you would spend more time looking for parking and save no time in the end.

September 28, 2012. Tough Tar

After the rain is a great time to shoot. An even layer of water covering everything creates reflections and gives dimension to otherwise dull surfaces. I like this dark, hard look from the road, like something is lurking around the shadows, deciding the best time to jump you. Above you power cables stretched like the silk of a spider's web, trapping you inside.
Actually, now that the heat is gone, the rotting smells are starting to go away too, and I'm starting to like my alley again.

September 27, 2012. Room 708

Maybe it's just a classroom, maybe a mad scientist's lab. Maybe the building is on fire, because someone has gone mad.
I love shooting toward the sun. It creates great drama, but it pushes the camera to its limits, and facebook too. The subtle detail in the darks always gets crushed but its really hard to get people off facebook!