A Day of Royalty

I can tell as Lwando got into my car that he’s excited.
“Lara,” he announces, his broad smile filling his face and extending to his eyes, “this is Nonkosazana.”
The name flies from his lips naturally, easily. I blink back at him, trying to bring up the courage to attempt the pronunciation myself, and they can see my unease, but rather than taking offense, they giggle to themselves, a shared secret amusement at my English-locked tongue. It reminds me of the giggles that I used to hear in class whenever I spoke Afrikaans in my overly-English, bordering on British, accent.
“But you can call me NK,” she says with a grin, and I smile back, relieved.
“It means Princess,” Lwando informs me, and it strikes me how appropriate that is. She looks like royalty in her cream dress, her hair haphazardly plaited and falling elegantly down her back. Lwando’s princess.

I start driving to our house, and I chit-chat with Lwando in the front about work and life in general, while NK sits in the backseat, silent, taking everything in. We arrive five minutes later, and I walk them through the house, letting them greet Grant as I open the studio, and then leading them into the garden and the garage beyond it. 

I close the door behind them and darkness fills the room, engulfing us in its shadows. I turn on the lights, one at a time, and can feel the heat of them instantly. This will need to be a quick one – hot days are not conducive to long studio sessions. The two of them stand in front of the camera, uncertainly, and I take my place behind it, smiling at them reassuringly before my face is hidden entirely.

And so it starts.
“Look at me.”
“Look at him.”
“Back to back.”
“Change places.”
“Stand up.”
“Sit down.”
“Smile.”
“Kiss.”
I feel like the puppetmaster, pulling on strings as the photos come together perfectly, as I had pictured them in my mind.

After half an hour, I shoot my last studio shot, and turn off the lights. The relief is tangible, flowing from them like sweat.
“How did you find it,” I ask NK nervously. She has been so quiet that I do not know what to think. I don’t know her well enough to tell if this is her personality or if she is uncomfortable. I wait in anticipation, but am not left waiting for long.

"Fun!" She sounds surprised, and I'm taken aback. "I was expectinng it to be so serious!"

I laugh at the thought of a serious photo session.

"What would be the point of that? No one would see your personality!"

With the formalities over, it is time to move our session to the Botanical Gardens for a little more fun. Here, I can tell that both Lwando and NK are in their element. There is no need for direction as NK jumps from bamboo branch to bamboo branch, forgetting about the camera for minutes at a time. This is not acting, not posing, this is who they are, and this is what I love. Soon they are stealing kisses at the fountain, for themselves more than anyone else, their laughter filling the air as I fade into the background.

  

         

 And as the afternoon finishes with a stroll by the river, I realise that I haven't stopped smiling since they first got into the car - Lwando and his princess, a young couple and their closeness.

Day 112

I decided that today's photo had to be of the snow. I could have put one up of the snow falling that was taken from my school, but instead I decided to put up this one of the little snow covered zen garden and bonzai tree up the road. There is reason for the high ISO - it is called silliness. I raised the Aperture to cut off some of the overly bright sunlight that was coming in, but forgot to change the Shutter speed and ISO. Thankfully, I think it still turned out okay.

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: 9.0
ISO: 3200
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II

Day Ninety-Four

I woke up on Monday morning feeling like death, but not enough so to justify skipping school. Instead, I rolled myself out of bed and prepared for a long day. As I shuffled out of my apartment, something caught my eye, and I ran back into the apartment and returned with camera in hand. Yes. That's right. SNOW!

Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 250

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 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-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 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-Two

On my way to Shinae this afternoon, the sun was setting so beautifully that I couldn't resist taking my camera out. Unfortunately, I was in a cab and by the time I got there, I was in a concrete jungle and couldn't manage to take a shot. Luckily, knowing that this would probably happen, I managed to snap this on the way. I quite like how it ended up with the background being a great deal more in focus than the foreground and the combination of colours.

Shutter speed: 1/40
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100

Day Fifty-Nine

One of my friends from back home was complaining tonight. "Where are all of your fall photos," he asked, and it dawned on me that I haven't been taking complete advantage of the season. Part of the reason for this, of course, is the time that I tend to take my photos. However, I decided not to let that stop me, and tonight's photo, though far from perfect and a tad blurry because of the wind rather than camera shake I feel, is of the Autumn leaves in the park.

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

Day Fifty-Six

(Only 300 to go)

On the way back from school everyday I pass what I thought was a flower shop in my street. It turns out that it isn't a flower shop at all, but is rather a Korean restaurant. In any case, they have beautiful flowers of all sorts outside the shop and these two caught my eye, so I decided to test out my macro photo-taking skills and get this shot of them.

Shutter speed: 1/160
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1250

Day Forty-Five

Tonight on the way to Taekwondo I saw a surviving rose. I don't that it will be around for much longer, and I am already started to feel sad that the beautiful flowers that I have been photographing over the last 45 days are quickly fading away as winter approaches. Anyway, I thought that it was an apt photo. It isn't a perfect composition, but it was the best that I could do while hurrying off for my yellow belt test (which I find out the results of tomorrow).

Shutter speed: 1/25
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 3200

Day Forty

Every day this week, I have walked past a house on my street and noticed these bamboo sticks outside of it. I have been wondering what on earth they are for, but more than anything I have been wishing that I could have my camera on me. Tonight I managed to get a snap of them. The light wasn't perfect, and the picture is a tad noisy, but I like it regardless.

Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 3200

Day Thirty-One

So yesterday was a day when I had absolutely no creative juices flowing through me whatsoever. It was my first day back at work and I had absolutely zero energy. I walked to Taekwondo (don't ask me how I convinced my legs to work) and took this photo along the way, outside Jess's school while I was waiting for her. The top sign is advertising Yongam Medical something or other, and it has been suggested that the bottom sign could be for a massage parlor. I have no clue and the subject of the signs is not the subject of the photo.

Shutter Speed: 1/40
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 2000

Day Twenty=Nine

As anyone who reads this may have noticed, colour plays a huge part in a lot of my photography. Today is no exception. Today's photo doesn't hold any real significance aside from the fact that I just happened to walk past these berries and thought they were pretty. So here they are.

Shutter speed: 1/200
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 320

Day Twenty-Eight

Today I went on a hike around Sandang Samsong or Sandang Fortress in Cheongju. I didn't know how long it was supposed to be and expected it to be an easy climb. I was wrong. But it was definitely a lot of fun, and while I did take a number of good pictures throughout the hike, I thought that this photo of the uphill forest path leading out into the bright blue sunlit sky was a perfect representation of the day. It was taken with 1/200 shutter speed, 5.6 aperture and 100 ISO.

Day Twenty One

Summer is definitely over. I walked to school this morning and even shivered a little when the wind blew. I have also started getting sick which is a sure sign of the seasons changing. One of the most obvious signs though is the gradual changing of the trees. A couple of weeks ago, I took a beautiful photo of green and red leaves on a tree outside my apartment. Today's photo is one of the remaining leaves on that tree. I converted it to black and white via Picasa. The photo was taken at 1/250 shutter speed, 5.0 aperture and with a 100 ISO.

Day Thirteen

The rain is calming, the weather is cooling and summer is coming to a close. This means a number of things, including being able to don the new jacket that I am uber excited about having bought, but most of all it means lots of peppers. They are all sitting on the bushes, nice and bright and plump, ready for the picking. They are everywhere, and I decided to photograph them before they go out of season and they are no longer begging to be photographed. So today's photo is of the peppers - a bush of red and green ones for a change - waiting to be picked. 1/15 Shutter speed, 5.0 aperture and 125 ISO.

Day Nine

I decided to take advantage of the weekend and take my photo of the day in daylight for a change. I went for a walk this morning and came across a whole lot of tiny butterflies fluttering about. I managed to capture a picture of one just before it fluttered away, and that is today's photo of the day. It was taken with a shutter speed of 2500, an aperture of 5.6 and a 3200 ISO.

Day Four

It hasn't stopped raining over the past few days, and while I usually find the rain completely depressing, today I have been finding it inspirational. I went out in a brief respite to capture some photos of the diamond-like drops covering the world. This single rose was the last thing I saw on my walk, and I couldn't stop myself from taking some pics of it. So here is one of them, taken with a shutter speed of 1/60, an aperture of 5.6 and an ISO of 3200.