Homecoming

Having taken several thousand photos since first getting my camera and feeling more confident in my photography abilities, I thought i'd take a more narrative approach to this blog to tell a story behind some of the photos to make my subjects have more meaning.

I also wanted to talk about some of the creative approaches and reasoning behind what I've shot. I find that talking myself through the process of photography will help me understand later on what I knew as a beginner. It's kind of like that homework assignment you got in the 6th grade where your teacher made you write a letter to yourself talking about your dreams and who you were. 10 years later, upon opening that long-forgotten letter, you are probably embarrassed to see what you've written but at the same time have a glimpse into memories that  may have vanished from your consciousness from years of alcohol addled adulthood.

Cindy
f/5.6
1/8 sec.
ISO 800
55 mm

Upon first walking into my California home, I was greeted by this lovely 12 year old Amazon Parrot. Her name is Cindy. You can imagine my surprise as she squawked, "안녕!" So I gave her an "안녕!" right back. Not only has my mom has apparently been teaching this ornithological wonder how to properly greet someone in Korean, but Cindy can sing "아리랑" as well. However, it's not very pleasant.

More pictures after the jump!

Graduation Photos

I was asked by my cousin to take my camera to his graduation at Korea University in Seoul to be his professional photographer for the day. Here is a sample of the pictures that I sent him that day.

Cousin on Right, Friend on Left

What graduation photo isn't complete without throwing of the caps in the air?

Mafia from Korea University

63 Building, Yeouido

Well, it's the 63 building. I saw it everyday from my classroom in Sogang so I thought it was high time to get a closer look. It was taken around 5:30PM near sunset.

F-Stop: f/5.0
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 34.0 mm

Seonyudo Park - Revisited

Haven't been about taking photos recently so i've spent a little bit of time fiddling around with Photoshop. I've retouched two photos to improve the color and some other stuff. Here are the results...

I suppose a little cropping and some color correction goes a long way :)

Retouched photo

I got the photo from 오랑대 retouched and an added name marker from a friend :)
Props to him and here's a plug: http://shingiru.net/

설날 - Chinese New Years and others

I spent the last weekend at my cousins house who lives near Olympic Grand Park in Songpa. I was able to take a few hundred photos over the course of a few days and now i'm feeling well acquainted with my camera. I now feel a little more confident handling my equipment and hope to continue my journey as a photographer. Here are a few photos from Olympic Grand Park, my New Years food and some others!

More pictures after the jump!

Seonyudo Park

My first day of shooting takes place at Seonyudo Park in Seoul. It was cloudy and about -10C. Wasn't quite sure what I was doing but I thought it'd be fun to go out and just start shooting anything. I was shooting in A dial the whole time and messing around with the exposure settings and the F-numbers. Every shot was taken in 100 ISO as I thought there was sufficient amount of light to not increase the ISO numbers.

Pictures after the jump.

First Post

This is where I will put photos shot by myself. I'm a complete beginner with taking DSLR photos and am learning as I go along. I will use this blog to track my ability as a photographer and hope that someday I will be able to master the basics and feel confident about what makes a good photo.

I have a Nikon D3000 with the stock lens. I don't know about lens sizes or types or anything of that sort. I have a basic idea of what aperture is and white balance. If someone could point me to some online resources on how to take photos, editing, etc. I would greatly appreciate it! Criticism and critique also very welcome. Also, I don't know a lot of photography vocabulary so be gentle.