Christmas in a far-away land...

Spending the holidays away from your family and best friends is always a bit of a bummer, especially when you realize that it's become the norm, rather than the exception. As of this year, I've spent three out of the last 5 Christmases thousands of kilometres away from "home."

However, this year, unlike the other two, I wasn't trapped at work, listening to the police scanner blurt out suicide after suicide call (how's that for a depressing thought on December 25th?).

This year, I have to admit, I had a lot of fun, and can happily say that, short of spending the holidays at home, this is as good as it gets, thanks in a huge part to the awesome people I'm surrounded by in Korea.

On the 24th, it was a gorgeous sunny day (let's be honest, they're all gorgeous sunny days in Korea...I bought a new umbrella over a month ago and have only used it once), so I decided to grab the camera and the telephoto lens and head to the Gimhae International Airport just outside of Busan to see if I can snap some pics of airplanes. My good friend Dawni decided to join me, so we made a little trip of it. Sadly, I couldn't find a suitable spot and the air was really hazy, so I didn't get a single decent shot, but I got this for you guys. Remember how I always say that 99.9% of cars in Korea are black, white or silver, and they're pretty much all Kias or Hyundais? Check it out...the airport parking lot..how pathetically boring is this???

After that, we headed back to Samgye, where Tom and Liz organized an awesome foreigner carolling session! For an hour or so we stood outside grocery stores and cafes (about 20 of us, some dressed as Santa!) and singing our joyful hearts out and collecting money for charity. Many Koreans simply ignored us, but some were genuinely happy to see us, yelled "Merry Christmas" and took pictures of us. I have an absolutely horrendous voice (in the past I've been asked to stop singing in the shower and rushed off the stage at the noreabang - Korean kareoke), so I generally don't sing in public, but being part of a big, happy group was a ton of fun! In addition, it was cool to revive an old tradition that has all but died in the West, in Korea.

On Christmas day - another cold, but gorgeous clear, sunny day - I talked to my family on Skype (gotta love modern technology...I remember when I was a kid "videophones" were the stuff of science fiction!), and headed out for a motorbike ride (thanks Ross, for lending me the ol' trusty Daelim!). It was a great day to be on the road, especially because on Sundays traffic tends to be extremely light (most people are either in church and/or recuperating from Saturday's soju binge haha). Then we had an absolutely awesome Christmas potluck at Ross and Nicole's.

It's interesting to celebrate Christmas so far away from family in a country that does very little for Christmas (gifts are not generally exchanged and for the majority of the population it's simply another day)...but with the right group of friends, it feels pretty dang right!

And, best of all, my family is awesome and they're leaving the tree up and the presents wrapped until I get home in 3 weeks....that's right...3 more weeks and I'll be home...whoopee.

Okay...back to my all-important job. Right now all I'm doing is watching Tom and Jerry with the kids...tough life! ;)

Cheerio,
T

Bright Planet Art: My dad's awesome new business...check it out! :)

Greetings, faithful readers!

Today I'm going to do something I haven't done on this blog: give some free publicity to a business. However, in my defense, this is a business I thoroughly believe in, and not just because it's my dad's!

My dad, Pal Virag, has always been interested in astronomy and he's always had a good eye for art, whether it was drawing or photography. Years ago, shortly after we moved to Canada, he started a mobile multimedia education project called the Travelling Astronomical Education Project, which brought information and unparalleled visuals to schools across British Columbia, Canada. Despite being a huge success with students and educators alike, a lack of funding forced my dad to cease operations a few years ago.

While running the show, he created countless scientifically-accurate (but self-composed) images of everything from spaceships and astronauts above earth (usually you only see one: astronaut taking pictures of the spaceship, or the spaceship taking pictures of the astronaut), to views one would see from distant planets and moons; ones no human or spacecraft has yet landed on.

The shows were filled with pictures like these: (note the two astronauts on the moon...no such picture exists, since they only ever took pictures of each other, yet this one is 100% scientifically accurate):

Or Canada In Space (again, obviously no cameras were standing by in mid-atmosphere to take pictures of the Space Shuttle launching)

Anyway, his self-composed pictures were a huge hit, and "Space Art" pictures, while popular, are not readily available, so he decided to see if he could fill that gap by starting his own Space Art company.

And thus Bright Planet Art ( http://www.brightplanetart.com ) was born. The one departure from his previous images is that these are much more Utopian (depicting a brighter, happier future) and not always as scientifically accurate as the previous compositions, in order to be more visually appealing.

As of a week or two ago, his first run of pictures went up for sale (they can be ordered in sizes ranging from postcard-size to massive ones fit for covering a wall in a living room...on either paper or canvas, wraps, etc). Having them finally go on sale (click on the "Order" tab at Bright Planet Art )  is pretty exciting news in my family as we're all hoping the business will take off. Hopefully the current Christmas season will give sales a boost!

Here is a sample of his pictures (on a personal note, I'm really stoked because his compositions, largely made from real images, use my photos rather extensively...for me, it's amazing to see where the things I saw in real life end up in my dad's imagination):

The current gallery on Bright Planet Art

These are just small resized versions of the originals, and the originals take countless hours (usually weeks) to compose, as his attention to detail borders on the obsessive.

Anyway, thanks for check it out and if you have a few minutes, please check out his website ( http://www.brightplanetart.com ) and if you like something, order it! It's one-of-a-kind art that'll be supporting the most amazing man I know. :)

Cheers and Happy Holidays,
T

The more I visit Busan, the more I like it...plus, terrorizing Miryang on two wheels!

Last weekend it was time to say goodbye to my old friend, the Canon G9. I've had it for about two years (after my G7 was stolen), and it's performed flawlessly. But, with Canon's introduction of the S100, I had to upgrade.

I found a buyer for the camera in Busan, a nice American girl, Danielle.

On the way to the bus terminal to go to Busan...gingko biloba trees losing the last of their leaves on a beautiful Saturday morning:

We met up, chatted for a bit about cameras and Korea when I looked out of the window of the restaurant where we met and whom should I see walking down the street, but my old pal Rachael. So, I bid adieu to Danielle and decided to follow Rachael around for no other reason than it was a beautiful day, I had nothing to do and I was in Busan...plus she's pretty spiffy company.

After she ran off to do her own thing I decided to head to Nampo-dong, the shopping district of Busan to poke my nose into some camera stores and wait for it to get dark, because apparently Nampo gets all lit up at night with Xmas stuff. Well, guess what happened at one of the camera stores? I bumped into my chum Richard. I guess I've been in Korea for a long time when I go to a different city and keep randomly bumping into friends...Richard is a huge photo nut as well (and a Canon guy to boot!), and his plans for the rest of the day were exactly what I had planned: Namely, to go to Busan's Yongdusan Park and waste some time up on the hill before it got dark, then take pictures of pretty lights at Nampo-dong.

Koreans love towers...fine by me, I think they're neat too...tower at the top of the park:

Love locks along the base of the tower...also popular in Korea...and fun with the 50 1.8:

A couple of old Korean guys doing what old Korean guys do best: play this cool little board game with black and white marbles and talk loudly on cellphones:

After that, we headed down the hill and checked out "Texas Street," which is actually the Russian district of Busan...complete with shops selling old Soviet film cameras, Russian writing and really, really scary-looking hookers. Pharmacy:

Check out the badass cop cars we get in Korea...

After that, we headed to Nampodong, where it was really crowded, so I didn't get any decent pics...but I thought this was kind of cool...meeting of cultures...

And Richard's Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-70L f2.8...taken with my trusty little 50 1.8 :)

And on the way home...I love public transportation in Korea:

The next day, I texted my chum Raines and we saddled up and headed to Miryang...we have both been there, but never with bikes, so we figured why not. The small city (about 100,000 people) has two rivers running through it, and both rivers are lined with neato bike paths we were hoping to ride. Somehow, we managed to completely miss all of that. Yup...we're that talented. We did, however, have a great time riding around town and making friends with the locals.

At a park still under construction I found some fun stuff to ride:

Raines and I also chatted with some kids, reminding us of how nice it is to live in a country where all sorts of paranoia have not made normal, innocent, carefree human interaction nearly impossible. We were in a park (part playground, as you can see from the picture above), and 3 girls, probably 5-10 years old, approached us to say hello...we ended up joking around with them, talking to them about where they were from, and generally having a ton of laughs and a genuinely great time talking to them in a mix of rudimentary English and Korean. In the end, Raines and I kept out-doing ourselves, giving the girls high-5s, then high-10s, and finally...high-15s.

All in all a fun time interacting with the locals...one that at home would have gotten us yelled at, lynched and possibly pepper-sprayed by the cops.

We kept on riding, finding a cool little city park with tons of exercise equipment, a mini city (little paved streets complete with lights, signs, etc where kids can ride their bikes and pretend to be cars...so of course we had to do it, ending in a crash at an intersection - in true Korean fashion - us yelling at each other, exchanging information and going our separate ways).

Raines paying up for the damage he clearly caused:

Another thing they love in Korea is blasting music or talk shows in parks...I'm not one for the talk shows (not just because I don't understand it, but because it's kind of annoying to have to listen to them yammer on when you go to a park to find some peace and quiet), but I kind of like the music, which is usually classical of some sort. Well, in Miryang, they were playing actual country music. No idea what was up with that, but it was the perfect background music for two idiotic white 30-year-olds doing tricks on their bicycles...check it out...I jumped over my backpack at speeds approaching that of light!!!

Note that I had my rear light on. Safety first.

And that wrapped up my weekend! In the coming days and weeks, I have a ton of stuff happening...Rachael is going to leave us for about a week and a half to visit her family back in Yank-land (*sniff*), but she'll return with a new camera (S100) and a new lens (Tamron 60mm f2 macro) for me, and I'm buying another bike in Korea (yes, I have a problem...) more on the bike in a day or two!

Hope everyone's well! Talk to you soon :)
T