David M. Byrne
Well-Known Member
Hello once again,
First off that heading, weeks 17-25, isn’t a typo; it’s just me coming right back to the present. Let me explain.
Those attentive RPF Mave On The Move (MOTM) followers among you might have noticed that I’d fallen behind with my entries, filing entries for weeks 9 through 16 well after the images they contained were actually captured. The reason for this was New Zealand; a beautiful country no doubt but spending days in a campervan touring it, coupled with its lack of consistent internet access, meant filing regular entries there didn’t happen. Couldn’t happen. Those very attentive RPF MOTM followers among you might have noticed - & kudos if you did – that there was a long gap between the filing of entries for weeks 8 & 9, meaning I’ve been playing catch-up ever since I filed that week 9 entry. But now, I’m happy to report, I’m right slap-bang up to date. It’s August 27th 2012, day 175 of the trip, & I’m coming to the end of a 9-week stretch in South Korea. In two days’ time I’ll be on a flight to Colombo in Sri Lanka where I’ll be resuming MOTM in earnest. But before I go there to be photographically challenged by Sri Lanka I’m submitting this entry, a single entry covering weeks 17-25, days 116-175, of the trip. One might think that a single entry covering 63 days would house a wealth of images... but they’d be wrong. For the majority of the time here I was tending to old work commitments (it’s why I’m here) so I didn't get much of chance to take pictures. Actually, I only took the camera out on the streets of Seoul three times shortly after arriving in the country, spurred on by the purchase of a few new lenses & my desire to test them out. Shortly after that I was out of the city & in work mode… & my camera in sleep mode. So this entry is basically just an entry of some images I shot on the streets of Seoul on three different outings in late June & early July. This isn’t your typical MOTM entry. That said, if you like people-in-the-street shots then hopefully you’ll see something here that you like. If not then be sure to check back here next week when I’ll be filing my first post-Korea entry from Sri Lanka. Oh, & in real-time too.
Picture 104, Day 117 – Puddle Reflections, Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea. June 30th 2012
Korean summers are muggy, very muggy. This summer just happened to be the hottest on record so any rain that fell this summer was especially welcomed (it clears the air you see, if only for a brief period). This is one of the very first pictures I captured with my new Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, having just purchased it a few hours previous. I was getting a feel for the new lens while having a bit of fun with the reflections in the puddles in a lane in the Itaewon district of Seoul, a popular expat/foreigner hangout.
Picture 105, Day 125 – Summer Heat, Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
I knew exactly how hot the 2012 Korean summer was on this day, a day I took to the streets of the affluent Gangnam district of Seoul armed again with my 30mm Sigma & wide-angle lens. I took this picture of three girls crossing a pedestrian crossing having watched others go before them & noticing how the reflections of the sun off the reflective walls of a nearby skyscraper added to the scene.
Picture 106, Day 125 – Marlboro Man, Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
I was sitting outside a convenience store tying to cool off when this guy came and stood not too far from me. A few discrete shutter releases later and I had probably my favourite capture of the day.
Picture 107, Day 125 – Subway. Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
One final image on this day as captured again with my 30mm Sigma was this 1/15sec exposure captured from ground level of activity on the platform of Gangnam subway station.
Note: You can find all of the images captured out & about in Seoul on this day as uploaded to the ‘Seoul Street’ entry of my Photography Blog.
Picture 108, Day 129 – Rainy Junction, Jongno, Seoul, South Korea. July 12th 2012
My final outing in Seoul before I left the city for work elsewhere was a spot of night time photography in the rain in the Jongno district of the city. This quarter-of-a-second capture at 10mm of people crossing a busy traffic junction in the rain was my favourite capture of a fun night of people watching.
Note: You can see all the images I captured on this night as uploaded to the ‘Seoul After Dark’ entry of my Photography Blog.
What’s Next?
Sri Lanka, as I mentioned earlier. But let’s not worry about that for now.
What I’d really like, now that I’m 25 weeks in, up to date with entries & about to embark on the next leg of the trip, is to get some feedback - any feedback be it critical, constructive, etc. - from the RFP community on this MOTM feature of the site. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the entries, something you’d like to see, a kind of image you favour… anything really. I plan on filing these entries for at least another 10-12 months and fear their format, regardless of their content, going stale so any suggestions to keep this content fresh & interesting would be much appreciated.
Apart from that I feel now would be a good time to highlight recent improvements I’ve made to my online home, davidMbyrne.com. While 9 weeks working in Korea didn’t offer up many photographic opportunities I did find the time to improve my site, including my MOTM travel page, a page I set up to chronicle this journey (the page contains, amongst other things, links to all my previous RPF entries). I have added an itinerary section to highlight where I plan to visit, & thus file entries from over the remainder of the trip. Take a look at it, see where I plan on photographing & let me know your thoughts, suggestions, been-there-done-that hint & tips etc. Any feedback would be much appreciated & would hopefully give me some ideas beyond my own.
Until next time.
David M
First off that heading, weeks 17-25, isn’t a typo; it’s just me coming right back to the present. Let me explain.
Those attentive RPF Mave On The Move (MOTM) followers among you might have noticed that I’d fallen behind with my entries, filing entries for weeks 9 through 16 well after the images they contained were actually captured. The reason for this was New Zealand; a beautiful country no doubt but spending days in a campervan touring it, coupled with its lack of consistent internet access, meant filing regular entries there didn’t happen. Couldn’t happen. Those very attentive RPF MOTM followers among you might have noticed - & kudos if you did – that there was a long gap between the filing of entries for weeks 8 & 9, meaning I’ve been playing catch-up ever since I filed that week 9 entry. But now, I’m happy to report, I’m right slap-bang up to date. It’s August 27th 2012, day 175 of the trip, & I’m coming to the end of a 9-week stretch in South Korea. In two days’ time I’ll be on a flight to Colombo in Sri Lanka where I’ll be resuming MOTM in earnest. But before I go there to be photographically challenged by Sri Lanka I’m submitting this entry, a single entry covering weeks 17-25, days 116-175, of the trip. One might think that a single entry covering 63 days would house a wealth of images... but they’d be wrong. For the majority of the time here I was tending to old work commitments (it’s why I’m here) so I didn't get much of chance to take pictures. Actually, I only took the camera out on the streets of Seoul three times shortly after arriving in the country, spurred on by the purchase of a few new lenses & my desire to test them out. Shortly after that I was out of the city & in work mode… & my camera in sleep mode. So this entry is basically just an entry of some images I shot on the streets of Seoul on three different outings in late June & early July. This isn’t your typical MOTM entry. That said, if you like people-in-the-street shots then hopefully you’ll see something here that you like. If not then be sure to check back here next week when I’ll be filing my first post-Korea entry from Sri Lanka. Oh, & in real-time too.
Picture 104, Day 117 – Puddle Reflections, Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea. June 30th 2012
Korean summers are muggy, very muggy. This summer just happened to be the hottest on record so any rain that fell this summer was especially welcomed (it clears the air you see, if only for a brief period). This is one of the very first pictures I captured with my new Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, having just purchased it a few hours previous. I was getting a feel for the new lens while having a bit of fun with the reflections in the puddles in a lane in the Itaewon district of Seoul, a popular expat/foreigner hangout.
Picture 105, Day 125 – Summer Heat, Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
I knew exactly how hot the 2012 Korean summer was on this day, a day I took to the streets of the affluent Gangnam district of Seoul armed again with my 30mm Sigma & wide-angle lens. I took this picture of three girls crossing a pedestrian crossing having watched others go before them & noticing how the reflections of the sun off the reflective walls of a nearby skyscraper added to the scene.
Picture 106, Day 125 – Marlboro Man, Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
I was sitting outside a convenience store tying to cool off when this guy came and stood not too far from me. A few discrete shutter releases later and I had probably my favourite capture of the day.
Picture 107, Day 125 – Subway. Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. July 8th 2012
One final image on this day as captured again with my 30mm Sigma was this 1/15sec exposure captured from ground level of activity on the platform of Gangnam subway station.
Note: You can find all of the images captured out & about in Seoul on this day as uploaded to the ‘Seoul Street’ entry of my Photography Blog.
Picture 108, Day 129 – Rainy Junction, Jongno, Seoul, South Korea. July 12th 2012
My final outing in Seoul before I left the city for work elsewhere was a spot of night time photography in the rain in the Jongno district of the city. This quarter-of-a-second capture at 10mm of people crossing a busy traffic junction in the rain was my favourite capture of a fun night of people watching.
Note: You can see all the images I captured on this night as uploaded to the ‘Seoul After Dark’ entry of my Photography Blog.
What’s Next?
Sri Lanka, as I mentioned earlier. But let’s not worry about that for now.
What I’d really like, now that I’m 25 weeks in, up to date with entries & about to embark on the next leg of the trip, is to get some feedback - any feedback be it critical, constructive, etc. - from the RFP community on this MOTM feature of the site. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the entries, something you’d like to see, a kind of image you favour… anything really. I plan on filing these entries for at least another 10-12 months and fear their format, regardless of their content, going stale so any suggestions to keep this content fresh & interesting would be much appreciated.
Apart from that I feel now would be a good time to highlight recent improvements I’ve made to my online home, davidMbyrne.com. While 9 weeks working in Korea didn’t offer up many photographic opportunities I did find the time to improve my site, including my MOTM travel page, a page I set up to chronicle this journey (the page contains, amongst other things, links to all my previous RPF entries). I have added an itinerary section to highlight where I plan to visit, & thus file entries from over the remainder of the trip. Take a look at it, see where I plan on photographing & let me know your thoughts, suggestions, been-there-done-that hint & tips etc. Any feedback would be much appreciated & would hopefully give me some ideas beyond my own.
Until next time.
David M
