Hermit Hideaways

I took this set last year for the Pentaport Rock Festival. Good times. A friend of mine organizes the festival every year so I was able to scoop up media passes that put me right up at the front for the Chemical Brothers. I’ll likely be going to see Travis on July 26th. Here’s the rest of this summer’s line-up.

Nikon’s new plug-in looks killer. Called ‘Silver Efex Pro’ it’s compatible with both Photoshop and Aperture. I even got a demo with the email the other day. I’m especially liking the ‘State-of-the-Art Grain Engine’ - a nice little addition that allows users to mimic the silver halide process and create the highest quality black and white images possible from scanned or digital colour photographs.

The photo below was taken by German photographer Jurgen Muller. Great stuff.

I have always liked Apgujeong. Last night found me swinging by to snap a few pics for a new article I’m hammering out. The area never fails to surprise or amaze me.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will be hosting their 4th event toward the end of July. This time around, a select group will get to travel to the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The event is open for everyone. Simply visit the link and apply online.

I have been on two KTO tours, both to Jeollanam-do and Gangwon-do, and I must say they were pretty insightful. They truly are a great way to get out and see those hard to reach places in Korea that you don’t normally get to explore on larger scale tours.

I have been meaning to get here myself, and Shim’s Image of Korea piece stirs up that desire even more after looking at his set today. Amazing work.

Pretty hard to keep it under wraps when arguably the world’s best camera muscles up their top end line of DSLRs. After a flood of speculation, it was made official - the D700 will be hitting stores soon. Yesterday, in Amsterdam, Nikon Europe let it all out of the bag.

I was out the other day scaling through the backstreets of Seoul near 광희문 (Gwanghuimun Gate) and couldn’t resist snapping this common summer street scene.

Little more news on the Nikon front regarding the D700.  

Took a quick walk through 피맞골 (Pimatgol) this afternoon and wove my way over to Jogyesa Temple. I converted a few shots to monochrome. Sort of a new, grainy look I’m working on.

Worth waiting until Christmas? Not sure. But I flipped out when I saw this latest article on Ken Rockwell’s site this morning announcing a possible D700 release. Don’t be fooled by the numbers though, according to Rockwell, you’re not getting all that much more muscle besides ‘much better high-ISO performance and a green light to buy even more expensive ultra-ultra wide lenses.’  Frankly, given it’s $3,300 price tag, I’d wait for the D400 or ante up and grab the D3 as it’s far superior in speed.

Read some more news of the leaked brochure on Wired.