Rainy Morning at Sokcho Harbour

 The rain brought the temperature down enough that I felt comfortable leaving the apartment. There is a covered area where people can wait for the cable ferry and it's there I had a tin of cold coffee, wrote in my journal, and made a few photos of the harbour.

Cable Ferry to the Abai Village Island

Seoul Cameras

I’ve whined about the weight of my SLR and DSLR cameras to friends in the past, but for some reason I thought it would be a grand idea to bring my Nikon F6, several primes, and rolls of film and packs of batteries to Seoul in the middle of summer when the temperature gets up into the 30s with humidity levels of 80-90%. And all the concrete in the city doesn’t help either.

I got through half a roll of film just after arriving before realising that I didn’t have the energy to walk around the big city with a large camera. I would be too miserable and tired to bother pressing the shutter button. And I’m sure I would rush my photos so I could escape to my hotel room or an air-conditioned café or convenience store. And that would be wasting film.

So after a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant, I jumped in a taxi and visited Digigate, an authorised Nikon dealer in one of Seoul’s camera shop districts.

I had an idea of what camera I wanted but held and tried out a number of models anyway while I was in the shop. The full-frame mirrorless cameras were not much lighter than my SLRs and the lenses are quite large. The Nikon Zf is smaller than the others, but it didn’t feel good in my hands. And it takes the same large lenses as the other FX cameras so that wasn’t an option. It’s quite expensive as well. The Z50II, on the other hand, felt very good. It has a deep grip, it isn’t heavy, it’s small, and the zoom that comes with it as a kit collapses when not in use. I liked the camera the second I picked it up. Another good thing about the camera is the built-in flash. Great for backlit subjects and interior snapshots. The price was good, I got a discount for paying in cash, and I left with a great travel camera. I even got a free Nikon mug!

The first photo taken with the new camera

Even though I had a new camera suitable for travel, a Korean summer is a Korean summer and it was too hot to do much photography except for an hour or so in the morning.

I was taking a picture of this wall when three workers showed up to take away the construction materials. Nice timing.

I composed the picture and waited for people to walk into the frame. The left statue is too close to the edge of the frame, but there was an ugly, distracting wall I didn’t want to include

The alley near my hotel had some dodgy-looking bars in it. Pinky.

Insadong Neighbourhood. Because it’s a tourist area, there is a lot more colour than other places.

Insadong again. Too bad all city streets can’t be this nice.

Dumpling restaurant. Wide angle + APS-C sensor = deep depth-of-field

I think this man protesting against lay-offs at Korea Telecom was here last winter

The Z50II has a lot of features and I haven’t spent enough time with the camera to learn how to turn most of them off. I want the camera to be out of my way when I’m trying to make a photograph.

Although I have to admit Auto Mode with animal detection focus is quite useful

The End of June The End of July

Munam Harbour

 I've finally caught up to the end of June with my photo editing. I want to review my keepers for another week or two and then send them off to get printed. And then edit that pile of photos.

This will be my last post for a while. On Monday I am going to Seoul for four days to have a hotel staycation. I'll probably make a few pictures, but it will be too hot and humid or pissing down rain or all at the same time for much of that. I'm not sure what camera to take. Maybe the Minolta X-700? It's light and that's important for miserable summer days. I could take the Nikon F6 or the D850 for higher quality, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I'm tempted to just use my phone, but it's old and I sometimes have to smack it against my leg to get it to focus. So that's probably not a good idea.

See you in August!

[Edit: I've more or less decided on the F6 with black and white film]

The last part of a roll of Portra 160

 To use up the last half of a roll of Portra 160 film, I went for a walk along the coast and then around the village of Yongchon.

This was the third attempt at the composition. In my failed attempts I cut out too much of the seaweed in the bottom left, I suspected the horizontal dock line wasn't straight, and I cut off the top of the boat on the right. Shameful, but I finally got what I wanted.

A less interesting but not bad version of the above picture with just one boat.

This tractor is used for raking the beach and for pulling fishing nets together.

The sign on this empty piece of land says the area is constantly being recorded by CCTV.

Yongchon Village. I'm not sure the darker green of the tree stands out enough against the lighter green of the rice fields.

Almost home. This massive wall is holding up an apartment complex. It makes me quite nervous, to tell the truth.

I love the look of film, but I'm not sure I have the computer skills to make scans look good. I'll have these printed soon and then I'll be able to judge better.

All taken on the Nikon F6.

Joyang Archaeological Site Park

Another attempt at making a picture of a thatched roof and a green fence

 

Sangdomun Village

 

Propane/Butane Tanks for Cooking

Stairs Leading Up to the Levee

Athletics Field

Old Man Passing By

Sangdomun (Upper Sangdo) Village is a great place to take a walk and relax because it's on a city bus route, there aren't a very large number of tourists, the people are friendly, it's quiet, and there are lots of cats. I especially enjoy the picnic tables by the athletics field. I usually stop there to write in my jounral, review photos (if using digital), and have a tin of coffee.

Elephant Man

 

I like this photo of the man with the elephants on his shirt, but it's just going to live on my hard drive forever and ever because of the mistakes. The thing that irritates me most about the photo is how his cap in connected to the black car in the distance. This could have been avoided if I had stood on my tippy-toes (not easy) or if I had stepped slightly to the right. Stepping to the right would have also taken care of the second thing I dislike about the photo - the close distance between the bicycle and the utility pole.

But there are things I like about the picture. The woman on the far left didn't get cut off by the frame. That was just luck because I didn't notice her when I was making the picture. I did notice the car going through the intersection and timed the photo so that it would fit neatly between the frame and the pole.

And I like the man's shirt.