ideometric

Here’re some more photos from wandering around alleyways in Seoul. Whenever I start taking pictures of a wall or texture, everyone walking by suddenly gets real curious why the foreigner is so interested in some crusty poster hahah. That’s kind of the point, though.

These were mostly taken around Kungook university (건대).

Enjoy the beauty in the mundane, find the art in the everyday :] for fun I think I’m gonna self-publish a little book of photos, using Lulu or something similar.

A few shots taken while wandering around Seoul. Drawing lots of attention from curious people while taking these. The pictures remind me of Kayo Dot’s music, which I love.

“Tell me why world, unfathomable and good,
The beauty of everything is infinite and cruel.”

www.myspace.com/kayodot

I bought a Sigma 10-20mm F4 wide angle zoom. Here’re a few shots. Haven’t had much time to do more than snap shots.

I wanted the Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 – low light performance would be much better, and the Sigma is deficient there. But because of the exchange rate, the going price was around 750,000KRW. More than I wanted to spend. Oh well.

A few photos I took at school this week with the Sigma 30mm F1.4.

So I recently purchased a Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens for my D40X. I wanted a sharper lens, with a wide aperture to play around with bokeh. I’m still such a newb when it comes to photography, but I’m having a lot of fun messing around with it.

It’s so much sharper than my Tamron 18-200mm that I sold that lens today. I don’t really miss the zoom that much, and for longer range shots I can just crop and end up with an image that’s as sharp as the Tamron.

And the shallow depth of field is a lot of fun for isolating specific things in the image. Now I’m considering picking up a 10-20mm Sigma for wide-angle indoor shots, specifically for a cafe review project.

Photos taken at the 7th Annual Seoul Int’l Cafe Show

There were tons of people and lots of free samples at the Korea International Cafe Show and Barista Championship. I drank way too much coffee as anyone who saw me later that day can attest.

If you’re wondering what it’s like to see a barista championship, well, imagine going to a cafe and watching other people enjoy the drinks. It kind of sucks.

Luckily there was a concurrent Cafe Show and “Fancy Food Festival” to keep people occupied. These Japanese siphon brewers were quite popular. Big crowds enjoyed the spectacle and drama of coffee making that looks more like a science experiment. It’s too bad there aren’t any explosions involved. Someone should work on that.

Unfortunately none of the espresso really tasted that great. Nor did the coffee really stand out compared to what I’m used to in the States, or even from the better cafes in Korea. The water was always too hot, or the beans over-roasted, or the proportions wrong, etc. But at least they’re trying, and with this much interest one hopes that quality will spread as competitors up their games.

Best of all, everything was free. Either I walked past the ticket booth without realizing it, or they thought I was press because I put “writer” on my name badge and walked around with my camera.

Photo taken in Myeongdong (명동)

Dark alleys are my favorite places in Korea. The space between places where things are stored, stacked, pushed aside, strung up, hung out, layered and faded. Smoke breaks, back rooms, loitering, sketchy figures, trash piles and cabbage laid out to dry (this is Korea after all). The life sustaining exoskeletons of pipe and wire. The honest patina of street grime and peeling stickers advertising who-knows-what. I wonder how many people never let their eyes wander to the margins of the world they live in.

Photos taken around Samcheongdong (삼청동)

It’s almost winter in Korea. It’s a bit odd seeing the seasons change, and living without daylight savings time. The days are noticeably shorter, daylight recedes further each day, the trees have changed color and then shed their leaves, the temperature is dropping in sudden waves of harsh cold fronts.

Growing up in LA’s artificially perfect climes, it’s like realizing you live on Earth for the first time. Hi Earth. Nice to meet you. Nature? What’s that? Find the irony in having that revelation here in one of the world’s largest metropolises.

I like it.

Some photos from yesterday. Walked around the Han river near Yongsan before heading over to Hyewa for dinner. 63 Building was once the tallest building in Seoul. It’s got a popular observation floor up top with a view of the river.

I wonder what life is like for these guys who sit in a box all day. Especially the ones in the subway stations. That must suck.

This one is even spacious and open compared to some of the boxes that have only a tiny window.

The convenience man…living life in a box.

I went to the the Seoul Media Art Biennial at the Seoul Museum of Art yesterday. There were a lot of interesting pieces, and with three full floors for the show, it was almost overwhelming. Here are a few pictures I took during my visit. Maybe I’ll add descriptions when I have more time.

One of quite a few pieces using projectors. This was a bit surreal, as the light had the feeling of daylight, but without any window.

For this piece, air was circulating in a pipe as the storage medium for the data displayed on the screen.

You could upload data from your mobile devices via Bluetooth to incorporate it into the dialog between these two heads.

I was wandering around Yongsan, spending money on gadgets and drinking Vita500 with my friend Chris when we ran across these dudes. They were wearing helmets covered in LEDs, sitting next to what looked like heavy equipment of some kind, like some kind of special construction crew ready to do one of those obscure but essential tasks that keeps the city’s pulse steady.

Alas, no. Their awesomeness went several orders of magnitude beyond that. They were ajusshis from the future. The equipment turned out to be a sort of motorized skateboard, as best as I can describe it. See for yourself in the pictures.

One guy called himself Bulldozer. He customized their gear with with LED lights and other electronics. I asked if they ride in traffic, he says “No problem.” Another guy called himself Superman, and pointed to the lit-up superman shield on his backpack.

The best part: they let us ride them around. It felt like it could get up to 25-30mph easily. Something I’d consider trying to import back to the states. The used ones only cost ~$600.

Click any picture to see more shots on my Flickr page.

Above: Bulldozer

Army surplus. Must find sharks to test.