Day Eighty-Seven

I hardly ever take my camera with me to Taekwondo classes, not wanting to drag it around with me. But yesterday, Cara convinced me to bring it along. Unfortunately, she ended up being too sick to go to the class, but bringing the camera ended up not being a total disappointment. I managed to get this lovely shot of our female master.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 2500

Day Eighty-Six

When Grant came to visit me from South Africa, he did not come empty handed. He brought me a gift that he had commissioned an artist in New Zealand to draw. I have been very homesick recently, and looking at this picture tends to remind me of what I am going back home to in three months time.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 160

Day Eighty-Five

Cara is leaving! This makes me uber-sad. Saturday night was spent saying goodbye to her and two of my other friends, Jacques and Sheelagh. While I am upset to see Jacques go, I know that I will probably be seeing him back home in the next few months. I have never been particularly close to Sheelagh, and while we have shared some good times together, the person that I am really going to miss the most is Cara! That is why today's photo is dedicated to her. This is her and her friend Josh at Pearl Jam, saying goodbye.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 3200

Day Eighty-Four

I decided to go out with some friends on Friday night. Photography in clubs proved to be rather more difficult than I had anticipated, especially when I was not all that keen to use my flash. However, I did manage to get this shot before I decided to put my camera away. I quite like the light reflecting off the glass even though the ISO is far from perfect and makes the photo rather noisy.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 3200

Day Eighty-Three

The sun has been beautiful over the last few days. I think that it has something to do with the cold weather, but when it comes time for sunset, it glows a brilliant orange. This makes for some beautiful sunsets, and I managed to capture one with the flags near my house flowing in the wind on Thursday.


Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100

Day Eighty-Two

Having really struggled to find photograph subjects over the last few days, I came across these lanterns outside a restaurant near my house and decided that they would just have to do.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100

Day Eighty-One

It has been absolutely freezing recently, particularly at night. What this means is that when you walk outside from the warmth of heated apartments and schools and such places, you can see your own breathe. I thought this would make a good photo, and Amy agreed to help me attempt it. It didn't work out quite the way I had hoped, but I did get this rather fun photo of Amy putting in her best effort.


Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 200

Day Eighty

When I don't know what to photograph, I tend to find things around my apartment to photograph. On Monday I looked around and saw the deck of cards that has been plaguing my existence (basically I keep standing on them). Whenever I see cards, I think back to my high school days when Alain, Rachel, Richard, Gina, David, Natasha, Hayley, Greg and I used to sit around in the Hebrew classroom during breaks playing President and basically acting like the insane people that we were. So today's photo is of cards.


Shutter Speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO: 100

Day Seventy-Nine

I am a looooong way behind with my photo updates, and while I was very tempted to just shove them all into one blog, I have decided to divide them up purely because it is the simplest way to do it. So here we go, starting with not last Sunday but the one before.



On Sunday I went to dinner at Neil and Geri's house. While I could have taken photos of the marvelous meal that I had there, I neglected to bring out my camera during the meal and was forced to find something photographic on the way home. I stumbled across this gate with the street lamp and neon signs reflecting off its surface and decided that it would have to do.

Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 3200

Day Seventy-Eight

On Saturday I got an early start and was out of the house by 7am to get on a bus to Jeollanamdo. Some friends had invited me to join their church group on a trip to Mt Kangcheon and the Bamboo Forest nearby. Not wanting to give up on what would probably be the last photogenic opportunity of the Fall, I grabbed my camera, layered myself silly and climbed on the bus for the three hour trip. I took tons and tons of photos on the day, but this is the one that has gotten the most praise. I wasn't all that impressed with it myself, and I did a lot of playing with it - darkening shadows, adding highlights and finally adding some saturation. This is certainly not the most natural shot of the bunch, but as editing is a part of the photographic process, I thought that I would be completely honest about how it was made. So here it is:

Shutter speed: 1/200
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 800

Day Seventy-Seven

I teach an after-school class once a week on a Wednesday, and while I used to dread these classes in the first semester, I have been thoroughly enjoying them this one. The last lesson went so surprisingly well (they were learning grammar, so I expected the students to be completely disinterested) that I thought my week couldn't get much better. Then I go a card, a picture and a chocolate heart from one of the students in my class. It was the sweetest thing, and so today's picture is of the note that she wrote for me. For more about the note and why I got it, check out the blog that I wrote today here.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 200

Day Seventy-Six

I decided to go out for a drink and some dinner with a friend of mine last night. We ended up at Pearl Jam chatting to some of the older locals that I have never met before. By local, I mean that they have been here for a good five years at least. We had some good food, some good drinks and some good conversation, and tonight's photo is of my new American friend, Kurt.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 3200

Day Seventy-Five

I got home from Taekwondo tonight and decided to wander down the streets for a few minutes. I remember something that I read right when I started reading photo blogs, and that was that if you cannot find something to photograph, look up. I did this when I found myself under a tree, and this was the photo that emerged. I quite like the streetlamp in the background actually and think it adds something to the photo.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 2000

Day Seventy-Four

Once again, I was stumped for a picture today and it was way too cold to go outside, but I am determined not to let this photo project pass by the wayside, and ended up taking one of me with my glasses. Hardly anyone has actually seen this phenomenon because I hardly ever wear my glasses, but things have been getting a little blurry lately, particularly when I am at the computer, so I have taken to wearing them at home. So, here is today's photo of a bespectacled me.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1000

Day Seventy-Three

I love visiting my friend, Amy. She has the most fascinating collection of objects, and on my visit today I was shown a hand-painted bottle of Saki that she had brought back from Japan for her boyfriend before he stopped visiting her and she had no choice but to dump his unappreciative ass. In any case, the point of this story is not the stupid Korean boys, but the Saki. I thought that the bottle was amazingly beautiful and had to make it today's photo.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 640

Day Seventy-Two

While Saturday's photo showed the beautiful Autumn colours, the more obvious aspect of Autumn is often ignored. Autumn marks the end of Summer, the end of warmth, the end of the green lifeforce that is nature, and while the season tries to hide this by luring us with beautiful oranges and yellows, if you look closely you will find the more morbid death of plants at the same time. I have been walking past this plant for a week and it's leaves are starting to look freakishly like clawing hands desperately trying to grab hold of the people passing them. It's a kind of freaky image, I know, but that's what I get from it, and so that is what today's photo is of.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 160

Day Seventy-One

On Saturday, I was in a taxi on the way home when I looked out of the window and saw the rows and rows of beautiful trees lining the street. So I asked the taxi to pull over and got out right then and there and started to walk the rest of the way home. It wasn't far, but it was well worth the small amount of effort that I put into it. I got some beautiful Autumn shots, and this is the one that I have chosen to share as Saturday's picture.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 200

Day Seventy

Last night I went out to dinner with my friend Jack and his friend Inny and after dinner, when we were looking for something to do, Inny suggested getting a photo taken. Now, I am used to the kind of photo machines that we have back home, but this was something else entirely. You choose six themes, some backgrounds and then, once the six photos have been taken, you go around the back and graffiti them in any way you like. Then they are printed onto sticker paper, sealed and you can cut out and share them between you. So, the photo for today is of last night's photo taking experience.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 100

Day Sixty-Nine

A couple of months ago, my friend Mel was doing a self-portrait week/month in her own 365 day project. She took this photo, and this week, when I had no clue what to do for Thursday's photo, her effort inspired me. And so, this photo was born. Kinda risque, but I like it.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: 3200

Day Sixty-Eight

I have been really useless about uploading my pics this week. Unfortunately, I have also been pretty useless at taking them. I woke up on Thursday and realised that I hadn't taken a photo for Wednesday. While I could let this ruin my project, I decided instead to let today's photo be one that I have been working on all week. I have been having serious problems with Photoshop and trying to get it to do my panoramas. Either it takes forever (and by forever, I mean at least 45 minutes) or else it won't let me save it. I heard rumours on the internet that this was because it was too big, and so I decided to try again this morning with files that have been resized to quite a large extent. And it worked. So here is my panoramic effort, taken on Tuesday and worked on everyday since then.

Shutter speed: 1/500
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 1000

Day Sixty-Seven

Not wanting a repeat of yesterday's rush for a photo subject, I decided to bring my camera with me to school today. On the way home, I brought it out and started snapping away. I took a wonderful panoramic, but photoshop is refusing to co-operate with me at the moment, so I decided that this photo will have to do for the moment. Most playgrounds at schools in Korea are not wonderful grass wonderlands, but sandpits. This is a photo of me walking through the high school's 'playground' on my way back home. By the time I got home, by the way, my hands were just about frozen. Going to have to wear gloves from now on.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 100

Day Sixty-Six

Yesterday was another fail of a day as I arrived back home from Taekwondo and realised that a photo of the day had yet to be taken. I scoured my room for something to photograph and my eye landed on my shoes waiting at the entrance. I quickly lined them up and snapped this shot. Back home, I was not much of a shoe person - I tend to get one pair and wear them until they are in such a state of disrepair that they cannot possibly be worn anymore. Here has been different and I find myself with a bit of an abundance of shoes, though some are still more worn out than others, as you can tell.

Shutter speed: 1/20
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO: 3200

Day Sixty-Five

On Sunday I headed with Neil, Geri and Ross to Lotte World, which is basically the Korean Disneyworld. We had an awesome time there, but the queues were a tad ridiculous. In any case, this was the first ride that we went on - the Adventures of Sinbad.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600

Day Sixty-Four

Saturday saw me staying at home the whole day and even though I was invited out on Saturday night, I really wasn't in the mood. However, not leaving home all day left me with few choices for photo subjects, and I ended up taking this very boring photo of my potpourri. Sorry for the boring subject.

Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 2500

Day Sixty-Three

Friday night was the giant Halloween party at Buzz, and I went out for dinner with Geri, Neil and his co-worker before hand. We decided to go for dinner at Hungry Eyes which meant getting to Buzz pretty early when dinner was over. While we were waiting for other people to arrive, Geri and I started on a minor photo rampage and Friday night's picture is of Geri photographing my awesome drink of awesomeness.

Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 3200