photo a day #153 - red candles
6/01/2009
photo a day #149 - new years on nami island
1/01/2009
i decided to do something different this new years. i headed to nami island to take photos. i headed to the island on wednesday and returned thursday afternoon. i got about half a dozen good photos during the trip. it was really cold though, which i didn’t enjoy too much. at night the island was really quiet. i ended up sleeping most of the night, waking up for midnight, and going back to sleep. at 5.40am i tried going out to do some low light shooting, but the whole island was pitch black … so i gave up and went back to bed … lol. overall, though, it was a good trip. i’m glad i went.
photo a day #142 - buddha sparkling
28/12/2008
craig has been in korea for nearly two weeks. so far we’ve had a bit of fun and hung out together. mostly, it was good to catch up with him, since i haven’t seen him in three years. on saturday night, craig and i headed out to coex to photograph the huge buddha statue at bong eun temple. we headed out around dusk and climbed the hill behind the statue. we got a few shots and went back down. i’ve already been to this spot twice, so last night’s shoot was mainly for craig’s benefit.
the rubber chicken will be in korea for another week before bouncing out to hong kong on his way back to oz. actually, the korean weather has got the best of craig, and he’s been sick for two days. hopefully he’ll start feeling better so we can enjoy the last week of his stay.
the highlights so far have been corn, chatting and joking randomly, running away from people who start random converstations with us on the subway “hello, are you from siberia?”, corn, listening to hockey games online, braving the cold to shoot at night, corn, and various other musings.
it’s been awesome to catch up …
update
22/06/2008
so, i got my girl, and i got my job, and i got my gold tooth, and i got my life. things aren’t perfect, but they’re cruising along nicely for the moment. i’ve been wrangling with banks in preparation for next year. i’ve finally found a bank that will give me an international debit card and a credit card. they also have high interest savings accounts, so i’m in the process of moving all my money over to them. monday or tuesday that should all be done.
yesterday i had my gold crown put in … finally. i had to wait while they remoulded the filling. when i went back to the dentist yesterday the filling was perfect and they cemented it in. it feels a little strange, but it’s very comfortable. after that i headed to cheonan to meet up with ryan. after a mixup at the bus stations, we finally got together and headed to gakwonsa temple. the temple was really awesome. the grounds are quite big and at first we couldn’t find the big sitting buddha. however, we were standing in front of the main temple and i looked to the left, there amongst the trees was the top of the buddha’s head sticking out. we wandered around for a few hours and got a lot of shots. the weather was poor, so the shots aren’t as good as i had hoped. however, we liked the temple and buddha, so we plan to head back there in the future, when we can get blue skies.
today is washing day. i’ll probably end up chatting to senor culo, wash and clean my apartment, curse netherlands for losing to russia, edit photos and relax.
bong eun sa buddha
7/05/2008
big buddha birthday bash
6/05/2008
had a marvelous weekend with my mate ryan. he arrived in town on saturday afternoon and we immediately headed to namdaemun. he was going to buy a lens, but decided not to. i spent a little bit of money on a flash unit. after that we headed to coex and straight across to bong eun temple. ryan and i spent the late afternoon and evening at the temple, capturing lots of great photographs.
ryan’s lens broke, so he dropped big money on a new lens … then that night we went back to my neighbourhood and drank some really nice dark beer.
sunday we got going early and headed straight to insadong. the buddhist festival began at midday but we wanted to catch the monks before the crowds arrived. we photographed the monks during prayer and even saw the young monks, who only made a brief appearance. i didn’t get any good photos of them though! 
we noticed that the lanterns were set out in the shape of a lotus flower, so i had the idea to get a photograph from a higher angle (to capture the roof and lanterns). so ryan and i went into a nearby building, got the elevator to the roof, and took some great shots. the view was pretty sweet, since the blue house (korea’s presidential house), gyoungbok palace and jogye temple were all in view.
we bumped into an american girl who was in seoul for the day, and was lucky enough to have found herself in insadong to catch the festival. we also met another girl who is an israeli journalist doing a month long story on south korea. i caught up with a few other friends and members of my photography club.
ryan and i wandered up and down the street for most of the day, looking for photos … at about 6pm the rain started and we took it as our cue to head home. although we missed the night parade, i wasn’t particularly worried. i saw it last year with steve! 
back in my neighbourhood, again, we had samguypsal for dinner and drank more dark beer at the same bar. after the two of us knocked back 5 litres of beer, it was time to wander home and get some rest.
on monday morning ryan headed home. my internet died, so i did some editing and went to a pc room to play warrock all afternoon. i went home, watched golden compass (which isn’t a bad movie) and got some needed sleep.
the last two days are the most active i have been in a long time. it felt good to get out and stretch the legs. i wasn’t as tired as i thought i’d be either. so it gives me hope for my pathetic fitness levels.
i have a bunch of photos. i posted some to flickr and i’ll post some to my blog tonight when i get home.