Exploring The City Of Seoul
My day exploring the streets of Seoul continued. After leaving the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market I grabbed a quick bite to eat from one of the many street vendors and headed to Gwangjang Market. Once again a small misunderstanding between the ticket I purchased from the machine and the gate letting me pass postponed me from catching my ride. Luckily this time the man working at the station was able to help me out by letting me through and pointing me in the right direction.
Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market
I truly enjoy traveling and exploring new places but getting to your final destinations can sometimes be a challenge. Flight delays, bad seats, and layovers can make for some really long days. Recently I was returning to Portland from a trip to Vietnam and had a 14-hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. As I wrote in my earlier post Royal Guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace getting out of the airport is very welcomed and if you have enough time to enjoy some sights, that’s even better. On my previous visit I spent most of my time around the Gyeongbokgung Palace area. This time I wanted to explore some of the other parts of Seoul.
Royal Guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace
My day exploring the streets of Seoul continued. After leaving the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market I grabbed a quick bite to eat from one of the many street vendors and headed to Gwangjang Market. Once again a small misunderstanding between the ticket I purchased from the machine and the gate letting me pass postponed me from catching my ride. Luckily this time the man working at the station was able to help me out by letting me through and pointing me in the right direction.
Lingering Fog
Traveling on highway 30 back in to Portland the fog lingering over Sauvie Island was just incredible. I love the mystery fog brings to the landscape revealing just enough to draw in your imagination but leaving you with the question, what’s up ahead?
Photographs Not Taken
I recently finished reading the book Photographs Not Taken, the book is full of short stories about why photographers didn’t capture the moment and in some cases how it hunts them. It made me think about some of the photographs that I haven’t taken and the reasons why.
Endless Rolls
While traveling down a country road recently I came across a seemingly endless run of huge rolls of hay strewn throughout one fenced acreage after another. I pulled to the side of the road to scope out the best vantage points for shooting but everywhere I looked I found I would have to cross a fence or barrier of some kind and it got me to thinking.
Dilapidated Barn
Like every other landscape photographer I know I find it difficult to pass up photographing those stark, old, dilapidated buildings you can see on just about every rural back road in the U.S. I found this one on a recent trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. At least twice a day for nearly a week I would drive by this abandoned barn out in the middle of meadow.
Traveling Lite
As I had previously written in my post Inside My Camera Bag I’m in the process of changing my gear when I travel to a lighter and smaller setup. A couple of weeks ago I headed out to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a short vacation. This was another chance to test my "traveling lite" strategy and refine it for my next trip. I packed my FujiFilm X100S, XPro-1 along with the new 56mm f/1.2 and 10-22mm f/4 both by FujiFilm.
Dreamy Aspen Grove
For me, one of the more challenging things to photograph has always been a group of trees in the forest. When I’m standing there visualizing my shot the scale and beauty of my surroundings seem almost impossible to capture with a camera. My senses are overwhelmed. The phrase “Can't see the forest from the trees” comes to mind.
The Fujifilm XF10-24mm f/4
With the arrival of my new Fujifilm XF10-24mm f/4 R OIS lens I was very excited to get out and shoot some landscape photos. I attached the new addition to my Fuji X-Pro1 and got ready to hit the road. Over the last year I’ve been in the process of downsizing my travel gear and the plan is to use this lens in place of my Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens.
Inside My Camera Bag
Over the years the gear inside my camera bag has changed tremendously from the early days of one SLR, one lens, and rolls of film to a DSLR, a number of large lenses, a tripod, and a 17” MacBook Pro, and now it has changed again.
Etched in Skin
Last year I had the opportunity to photograph my friend Kari and her collection of tattoos that included fairy wings that cover a large portion of her back. Shortly after that session, she mentioned that she would soon be adding to her collection of body art. The piece is finally finished. It is a large and impressive tattoo covering the majority of her thigh where a skull, snakes, and colorful flowers blend effortlessly with the natural curves of her body.
Empty Places
Discovering new places and photographing them is one of the reasons I like to travel. On a recent trip to Kansas City, I spent a couple of days exploring the West Bottoms blocks of old downtown Kansas City and the area out around Kaw Point Park.
Motion In English Bay
Inside an Abandoned Nuclear Reactor Chamber
There’s something unnerving about a dimly lit building so you would think that entering the Reactor Containment Building of a nuclear power plant would really raise the hairs on my neck but strangely enough, all I felt was excitement. I wanted to get in there and I wanted to explore.
Art Deco House In Ferrara, Italy
Have you ever walked passed a house or a building that just left you with a feeling that something amazing or horrifying must have happened there before? Like a crazy lady with only a glimpse of who she once was left in her eyes, she draws you in without saying a word and you can't help wondering what lies beyond the facade. While strolling down an unassuming city street in Ferrara, Italy I came across this amazing Art Deco house hidden behind a tall old concrete wall like a fortress with only a wrought iron gate allowing a view.
Stay On The Path
The thick fog added a mystery to the already beautiful but haunting forest ahead of me. It reminded me of the fairy tale Hansel & Gretel. Stay on the path, the further you walk the more disoriented you become. Since I didn’t have a slice of bread with me to leave a trail I decided to just take a few photos and return to the car.
Battistero di San Giovanni
If you visit Siena you will likely want to stop by Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena). It is designed in black and white, the colors of Siena which symbolically link the Cathedral back to the black and white horses of the city’s founders, Senius and Aschius.
The Fuji X100S In The Studio
For this series of photos, I wanted to play off of the vintage coat and glasses by having the images look more like film photos and not digital photos. Keeping with the “vintage” theme I decided to take the photos with my X100S by Fujifilm and not the Canon 5D MKII, which is what I normally shoot within the studio.
