On Saturday morning, I dragged Raswan to Coex with me to attend the Seoul Photo and Imaging Show at Coex.  I had pre-registered us a month earlier, and didn’t have to pay the 5000 won entrance fee.  This ended up being a good move on my part because once we arrived around 10:50 am, the lines were already long.  There seemed to be a line with 40+ people, and an empty pre-registered line.  I had printed out our online confirmations, and within minutes of handing it to the front staff, we had received our name badges.

Of course, this wasn’t what my badge really said.  It had my name and university on it.  Upon entering the doors, you immediately saw booths for the big boys: Nikon and Canon.  Most of the big vendors gave out bags with their logos on them, stuffed with brochures and catalogs for their products.  Some of them also gave away those “things” that dangle off your cell phone - nothing to get truly excited about.  Still, people were lining up for these bags as if they had free filters, photographic paper, or at least something useful.  To me, it seemed like a game to see who could collect the most junk.

As an prosumer photographer, I found the event to be just “okay.”  Upon entering, you could see what a male dominated hobby this was.  Not only did these men have cameras, they had CAMERAS.  They were big, long, and I had to constantly dodge these lenses as they neared my head.  So, the men were taking pictures while ALL the models were females draping over one thing or another.  This is not the beginning of a feminist rant.  I just found it boring taking these model’s pictures.  They were paid to look pretty, stand relatively still, and look in everyone’s direction at some point.  It’s much more interesting to get a good picture of someone being natural, laughing, or doing something unexpected.  In the beginning, I found that I was pushing into these male crowds to take pictures of these models too.  After awhile, I realized I was only taking their picture because everyone else was clamoring to take their pictures.  This is how I felt after awhile: bored.

What I really wanted to do at the show was try out some lenses, because I’m hoping to make a purchase within the next month.  Of course I can go to Seoul and try out used lenses, but I was hoping to play around with some there.  Bart told me that unlike here, you can try out all kinds of new lenses in Japanese camera shops.

I didn’t take many pictures, but you can view the rest of these photos here.

Through the Flickr blog, I signed up for Photojojo’s Photo Time Capsule today.

“The Photo Time Capsule digs up your photos on Flickr from a year ago, choosing the ones that are most interesting (most views, comments, and faves), then sends them to you a quick email. I’ve been using it for a while, and it’s amazing how nostalgia-inducing getting a little time capsule every couple weeks has been.” — Amit Gupta, Photojojo

I immediately received an email and was pleasantly surprised by the photos.  It really jogs your memory as to what you were doing a year ago this week/month.  Last year during this time included Pocky sticks, Myeong-dong with Allison, chicken on a stick in Itaewon, and grilled chicken in Chuncheon.  Boy, I was busy!

Taken in Seoul, Spring 2007.  One forklift lifting another one.

I probably watched about five hours of Lightroom tutorials today, and I’m not even halfway through the series.  I’m learning a lot, but it’s just really time consuming.  I started working through a batch of photos I had uploaded to Lightroom before leaving for the Philippines, so that’s finally done.  It was our staff Christmas party in Suwon in December.  You can see the entire album here.

Speaking of Suwon, I’m heading there to immigration early on Tuesday morning to renew my visa.  I was told doors open at 9am, so I’m leaving here at 8am, even though it’s only 4 subways stops away from me.  Waiting at immigration is like waiting at the post office or DMV, you know you’ll be there a long time, so you might as well get there early if you can.  Hopefully I’ll beat the rush, but if not, at least I’ll be near the front of the line.

We arrived in Kangneung a little later than expected because Readon woke up late, and we were behind schedule by about two hours. One we arrived on the East coast, we made Seorak-san our main excursion for the day. Our first stop was some temple on the way to Yangyang. As you can see, I’m not good with remembering things.

[Check out the entire Flickr album HERE.]

After a short stop there, we made it to a small lighthouse on the coast. Lo and behold, what did we see along the path?!

A few years ago, a photographer snapped this photo of us at the Yangyang Salmon Festival, and it has been used ever since for advertisement for the festival.

We then took the backroads to some “famous” restaurant for lunch. By the looks of it, I’m on a dongdongju binge. By binge, I mean 2-3 cups.

Unfortunately, Ras didn’t fully understand what we were having for lunch. Cold noodle soup is actually one of the few Korean foods he dislikes. It tasted good, but I personally prefer hot soups too.

Outside the restaurant were beautiful rice fields. It’s harvest time.

I had forgotten my lens cap in the restaurant and ran back inside to retrieve it. While I was gone, Ras snapped this photo.

“Oh no! Raswan, watch out! The creepy serial killer in the back seat is about to slit your throat!!!!”

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