Hermit Hideaways

I shot this with my grandfather’s old Canon FT camera at Bongeunsa several months ago. I used a yellow filter which helps add a certain degree of contrast, producing more normal tonality for subjects illuminated by sunlight. I have a few more here.

A painful reminder, but an insightful account nonethless. Im Hun-Jeong’s photo essay is both visually horrifying and most certainly a rude awakening as to how ignorant mankind has become.

Found a really cool travel blog this morning at work. I just opened up an account. Apparently, it’s the largest of its kind, which means great exposure for us little folk trying to get our work out there!

To give you an idea of what’s already on there, skim through this Canadian couple’s set. They go by the name ‘Crazy Canucks’, and their photos are, well, outstanding!

Haven’t scooped it up yet? No worries, here’s the link to the PDF. Some nice pieces this month. They selected my shot of Yonggungsa Temple I took when I was in Busan during Buddha’s birthday celebration.

Robert’s report on Gongju is a good read.

I’m not a purist by any stretch, but I can’t help but scratch my head every once in a while at how some people mistake a camera’s limitations to mean justification for an upgrade. I find all the walls I’ve hit while shooting have led me to really get around and discover my options as opposed to fiddling around hopelessly in a rut, scoffing the machinery. This probably explains why I still haven’t retired my D70 - the very model that’s now harder to come by as Nikon decided to discontinue manufacturing it. The aimless pursuit for the world’s mightiest camera, stacked in all its megapixel glory, remains, indeed, a mystery to me.

I shoot film with Canon and digital with Nikon. I’ve been eyeing the Nikon F6 in some second-hand shops around Namdaemun but haven’t grabbed it yet. I will post several samples of my Canon exposures a little later this week.

I also read a great piece on lens sharpness this afternoon.

Canadian photographer Derek Winchester needs very little introduction. Based in Suwon, he’s pretty active in the shutterbug community here in Korea. Go check out his work. It’s excellent. I especially like his martial arts set. Derek also contributes monthly to Seoul Selection Magazine.

I wrote about Seoul’s major palaces in this piece here I wrote for KTO. Most of the photos in this article were taken recently - a few are from earlier trips. I’ll never tire of Gyeongbokgung, nor Changdukgung for that matter.

I posted a few pics not too long ago from a recent jaunt to the southern coastal village of Jindo. Here’s the link to the article in which those photos appear. Despite the lengthy, eight-hour journey down, it was a very worthwhile experience indeed.

My recent article on Insadong and Samcheong-dong is up. The traditional teahouses of Insadong are really great to get lost in with a book on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Photos have always been portals to distant realms for me. Any chance to break free from the constraining monotony of daily ritual is always welcoming. The art itself is also very immediate. It’s what turns me on most about it. People either jump in to what you present to them or simply walk away never to return. One such photographer I discovered this morning hooked me right in. In particular, the photos from his ‘Concrete Window Series’ are brilliant. For me, they are infused with traces of Wong Kar-wai. For him, he was inspired by English photographer Matthew C.W.