Shooting Shangri-La in Korea: Anatomy of a single picture that took all night.

A couple of days ago I spent a good part of a lonely night on top of a mountain shooting the stars at Ilbungsa Temple ( 일붕사 ). For the first time in my life I tried my hand at a multiple exposure (nearly 300 in this case) star trail shot. While out there all by myself, with nothing to do but listen to my camera steadily clicking away, I started writing this blog entry in my head...here it is (FINAL IMAGE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!!! :) ):

*click* The shutter closes and the mirror slaps down. In the next blink of an eye, the information collected by the 21 million pixels on my camera's sensor are transferred to the memory card. Photons are instantaneously converted into memories. *click* The mirror flips back up and the shutter opens, welcoming a whole new flood of photons from millions of light years away.

*click* The metallic sound of the camera is at complete odds with its quiet, serene surroundings. Minutes go by without a single other sound on top of this mountain, where my camera is trained on an absolutely stunning  Buddhist temple, with a generous sprinkling of stars for the background. Aside from a handful of frogs swimming in the pond surrounding the temple and a few birds in the distance, I may as well be the only living thing left on the planet. *click*

*click* Suddenly, a sound unlike any other I've heard breaks the silence. It makes me grip the flashlight in my left pocket and my silly little BB gun in my right pocket. It surely won't kill anything, but hopefully it'll deter most things that live in Korea, a country blissfully devoid of the type of creatures I'm used to inhabiting the Westcoast Rainforest back home: cougars, bears and other unsavoury characters. This voice, however, sounds like a Velociraptor. Not just any Velociraptor...but one that's pissed off because its dinner is cold and after a hard day's work of terrifying smaller dinosaurs, it had come back to its lair and found his mate with another Velociraptor. I assert my presence by clearing my throat and stomping my feet. Yeah, that ought to scare the mouthy bastard. *click*

~~ Other parts of the complex, taken a few days before:~~

*click* I check my phone to see the time. It's 10:15 p.m. The camera is showing space for another 200 shots on the card (wildly underestimating the 273 I'd walk away with), at around 31 seconds per shot, this puts my initial estimate and getting out of there at just after midnight (though the last frame will actually be shot at around 12:45 a.m.). As an added bonus, the phone is showing no signal. Perfect. *click*

*click* I take stock of my equipment. Camera, tripod, BB gun, backpack, flashlight, phone, extra batteries for everything that runs on electricity, two bottles of Mountain Dew, a can of Rockstar Energy drink, a couple of granola bars and an extra hoodie, in case the one I'm wearing isn't enough (spoiler alert: it won't be). Damn...forgot my toque. *click*

*click* My reluctance to leave my camera (sitting at the edge of a pond for good measure) is overpowered by two things: One, I have to pee, and two, I need to do something other than stand around for the next 2+ hours. Going no further than within earshot of my camera, I explore my surroundings. *click*


(Here's what my camera was seeing every 30 seconds):

*click* My roaming grounds include a sort of courtyard built between the buildings of the temple and the little bridge connecting the temple and dry land. With exposures taking 30 seconds, I know I can freely walk around even into my own pictures. As long as I don't stop anywhere and keep to the shadows, I won't show up in the picture. *click*

*click* I praise my brain for not believing in ghosts, zombies and King Kong. Immediately thereafter, I curse my brain for bringing up the subject. *click*

*click* At the halfway point I do two things: Put on the extra hoodie - apparently mountaintops start getting cold when you start nearing midnight - and I relax and do a little celebratory dance, congratulating myself for sticking with the program so far. *click*

*click* As if sensing my newfound inner peace and wanting to ruin the moment, the Velociraptor roars again. I can hear it moving through the hills. Based on its quick, fluid and silent movements, I'm guessing it's some sort of a gigantic bird, like a crane. Judging by its voice, this particular bird does steroids. And has a sore throat. *click*

*click* I explore my surroundings a little more and find a cute little babbling creek, and scores of frogs happily swimming around the pond. A bird with massive wings - perhaps my Velociraptor - whooshes overhead and sets up camp in a nearby tree. *click*

*click* The counter on my camera is starting to near zero. Despite my thorough enjoyment of the process, it's a welcome sight, seeing the number of remaining images go from triple digits to double and finally into the singles. *click*

At last, I get the message that's rarely welcome by photographers: "Card Full." I pack up my belongings, take one last look at this infinitely peaceful sight and begin my trek down the mountain.

Please CLICK HERE to purchase the above picture as a print or phone case.

Thanks for reading,
T

Tongyeong: From marching under the sea to soaring above the mountains...

I've written about Tongyeong. Several times. And guess what? This likely won't be my last post about this city, which is one of the many little gems along Korea's south coast. Why? Because I'm running out of ideas. Nah, just kidding...because Tongyeong is an amazing city! For a place that has fewer than 150,000 people, it has an incredible variety of attractions. I've written about its harbour, beaches, and sea-side walkways. However, there have been two things I have never explored until last weekend: The roughly 2 kilometre long cable car and the 500 metre long undersea tunnel.

Let's start with the tunnel. In itself, it's a little underwhelming: It's merely a half kilometre long concrete tube with poor lighting, reminiscent of World War II movies. However, when you think about what went into the tunnel and where you are, it's pretty cool: It was built about 100 years ago. The workers literally parted the sea, dug a trench, made a tunnel, then let the sea go back to its original place. Finding it is an adventure in itself, as both ends of the tunnel are in nondescript neighbourhoods with very little fanfare (just a few modest signs) pointing to its existence. It's not the world's most exciting place to be, but kind of cool knowing that you're walking under the sea...plus, here's a concrete tunnel that's something like 5m wide, 4m tall and 500m long with zero police, guards, etc, and free admission. Guess how much graffiti is on its walls? Zero. Nothing. Nada. Not a single pen mark. Pretty cool, Korea...pretty cool:

Now...to the cable car! I got there about two hours before closing and was told that, due to the massive number of people, they had stopped selling tickets. Disappointed, I told them that I had driven from the faraway magical land of Changwon specifically for their awesome attraction. So, the attendant ran off and came back with a ticket. Again...well done, Korea. You're making this whole "I should leave and move back to Canada" business rather difficult. The ticket, as usual, is laughably cheap compared to what similar attractions charge back home: $5 one way, $8 both ways. The ride was nice and smooth, and you share a little glass cage with 7 other people...one of whom, in my case, was tickled pink about sharing the ride with the white boy from Canada:

The views up the way are nothing short of breathtaking:

Once you're at the top, you can go to the roof of the building that houses the machinery for the cable car and be greeted with an expansive view of the mountains at your feet, little fishing villages, the sea and the islands beyond. On clear days, apparently Tsushima Island (part of Japan) is visible!

Then, you can trek along a fairly extensive network of boardwalks and stairs to different peaks along the mountain to a dozen or so little viewpoints:

Not only is the walk good exercise out in the fresh air and sunshine, it leads you to a variety of cool views...like these of downtown Tongyeong:

All in all...an awesome little day trip to Tongyeong. My only complaint was the hazy sky...thanks to pollution and Yellow Dust from China. But...you can't win'em all, can you? So, if you ever want to bum around southern Korea, definitely check out this little city and hit up the cable car...just make sure you go nice and early!

Random song suggestion: "Girlfriend" by Bachelorette...awesome song, very different from what I usually listen to, but a great track!

That's it from me for now...I'll be back with more soon!
T

 Here's one more for the road:

The TriStar of Daegu: One of my least favourite Korean cities climbs a step up the ladder!

So it's been no secret that the South Korean city of Daegu has never really appealed to me. I've been there half a dozen times and, while nothing bad has ever happened, each time I returned I regretted the effort. The city, up until now, lacked charm and individuality. It seemed that the entire city was little more than a sprawling, lower-middle class concrete disappointment.

However, yesterday, I finally found something worth checking out in Daegu!

It was a gorgeous sunny and warm spring day (I can't help but gloat...while Europe and North America have been dealing with a "spring" that thinks it's the middle of winter, I'm cruising around in a t-shirt with the windows down in Korea).

So, a friend and I headed for Suseong Lake in the south-eastern corner of the city. This lake also has some cool light and fountain shows in the summer that I want to go back for!

First...the lake, which in itself is pretty cool. Nestled at the edge of the city, it provides you with a great view of the city's tall buildings, and yet it seems like you're at least a little bit in nature. There's a walkway that circles the lake with tons of Koreans - mostly families and couples - taking advantage of the nice weather and strolling or riding bikes around the lake.

There are tons of things to do, including a small amusement park with rides for kids and swan boat rentals for the older crowd. The lake - which has a cool little island in one corner - is inhabited by some decent-sized fish (easily 50cm in length!), geese, ducks and swans! The atmosphere is awesome...everybody seemed to be happy.

Then...as I was sauntering around the lake and enjoying my camera setup for the day - Canon 5D Mark II with the little 40mm 2.8 STM Pancake on it...seriously...it's a brutally sharp and incredibly fun combo to play with!! - I saw it. But it couldn't be. No way. I mean...what would a full-sized passenger jet airliner be doing in the middle of a park in Daegu?

Well, apparently the plane - which looks like a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, but please correct me if I'm wrong - has been converted into a cafe! Now...this combines two of my favourite things: 1: I love unique buildings...and 2: I love machines...and have a special fondness for airplanes!

The inside of the cafe - which is run by Massa Coffee - looks very cool and was surprisingly uncrowded! Looking from the entrance door toward the cockpit:

Looking the other way:

Near the back of the plane, they had constructed a mostly glass sitting area that looks over the wing and the fuselage with a great view of the lake, the city beyond it and some mountains in the distance:

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore more of the city (though we did walk around randomly for another hour or two in some ho-hum, but not altogether unpleasant neighbourhoods on the way back to the bus terminal)...but I'd definitely recommend Suseong Lake and the airplane cafe to anyone visiting Daegu! I'll be back this summer when the fountain shows start up and let you guys know how that is!

That's all for now...except...I'm back with another musical suggestion. Even if you don't like dubstep (and especially if you do), check out Bassnectar's "Timestretch"...it's easily the most awesome dubstep track ever laid down, one I think I'd like even if I wasn't into the genre! 

Y'all take care now and stay tuned...I'll try to toss up another blog in a couple of days! 

T :)

Tiny nation #2: Macau

When I was a kid, Macau intrigued me because that's where my favourite toys (Matchbox cars) were made. More recently, however, it sparked my interest for better reasons: I love tiny little states (it's basically a city with its own languages, government, currency and borders...how cool is that?!), and the idea of having a little slice of Portugal in the middle of Asia is too amazing to miss out on.

Quick disclaimer: I apologize for the lack of pictures...my hard drive crashed and I lost everything. Thankfully I have all my Hong Kong/Macau pictures backed up on an external in Canada, but it'll be over a year until I get to them...so, I only have one or two pictures to share with you right now.

So...I got to Macau via a cool hydrofoil boat from Hong Kong...they leave every half an hour or so, cost 20 bucks and take an hour...back home, something like this would leave every 6 hours and cost three times as much. Once you get to Macau, you have to check in with immigration (even though technically both HK and Macau are part of China, they're self-governing and thus have their own borders)...I went to Macau twice, which meant a flurry of stamps, filling up a page and a half of my beloved passport.

Once in Macau something profound hit me: It's soooooo much quieter than Hong Kong! It's like a sleepy little town. I definitely wasn't expecting that. My first day there, I got there at around noon and it was all quiet with just a handful of people milling about...I walked the casino district, and set about wandering around. There are some really interesting things there...it looks like Macau's fortunes have declined in the past few decades. A gigantic modern statue (some sort of "Welcome, Outsiders" statement) is slowly decaying in an abandoned part of the harbour not far from a playground even the kids with cans of spraypaint have grown bored of. It's pretty interesting.

It's also immediately obvious that Macau (despite it being a world-class destination for gambling) is much less affluent than Hong Kong. The parade of Ferraris, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis is replaced by sensible Hondas and Mitsubishis. Designer suits give way to classy, but distinctively more affordable clothing.

And yet...as much as I liked Hong Kong, I loved Macau. HK was great...no complaints. But...it was a bit sterile. It was a place that was modern, fast, busy, flashy, expensive, and it knew it was all of that. Macau, on the other hand, had something HK lacked: Charm. It was a very charming place. From Macau Tower sitting seemingly pointlessly in the middle of nowhere to the Portugese buildings, it was a thoroughly warm and accessible place devoid of any kind of pretentiousness.

Tucked away between the water and a residential area - seemingly completely out of its element - is the Macau Tower:

As with Hong Kong, the smog was a major bummer. It doesn't show so much in this picture, but I have a shot of the tower casting a shadow through the smog...it's crazy! I was going to go up the tower, then I realized it was pointless...I'd just see a washed-out, milky expanse.

Of course the major attraction - for me, anyways - in Macau was the architecture. A Portugese colony for centuries, Macau's official buildings, churches and even a fort and lighthouse were built in the European styles right down to the patterned cobble-stone streets.

The mixing of cultures and influences is even more apparent here than in Hong Kong. Cobble stone streets lead to temples and there are parks where yellow Portugese-style buildings look across ponds to face red, Chinese-style pagodas. It's really cool. What's more is that if you look up, you'll see expensive high-rises to your left and crumbling tenements to your right. I don't think I've ever seen so much diversity so close together in my life!

Another interesting thing about Macau is you can pay with Hong Kong dollars everywhere, but you get change in Macau dollars...it's really interesting at first. (They're roughly on par and the two currencies are tied to each other...the HKD is a bit higher, so it works out a tiny bit better for them).

That's it for now...I'll update this in a while when I get my pictures up! In the meantime...here's a panorama shot from an old nunnery! The crazy building that gets bigger near the top is the Hotel Lisboa....and of course that's Macau Tower off to the right...thanks for reading!

To the colonies!!! Heading to Hong Kong...

Hong Kong and Macau have always intrigued me. Hong Kong because it always seemed like the busiest place on the planet and Macau because Matchbox cars (the treasures of my childhood) were made there. More recently, however, I've become enamoured with tiny countries. There's something cool about a place the size of a city having its own government, currency, borders, etc. So, on my way home (to Canada) this winter, I decided to check out two of Asia's little jewels: Hong Kong and Macau. This entry will be about HK...I'll do a subsequent one about Macau as well. :)

Before I start, I have to apologize for the lack of really good pictures...my hard drive crashed before I could edit the majority of the pictures...I just started doing the panoramas when it crashed. I do have all the files on a backup hard drive in Canada, but I won't get to those for another year and a half or so).

Random picture to get us started:

My first introduction to Hong Kong was the awesomeness of expats...a friend of a few friends, Danielle, whom I've never met prior to this, had offered to let me crash on her couch. Faith in humanity: restored. She was an amazing host, and she lived in an awesome part of town, Wan Chai, which is close to most of the exciting stuff on Hong Kong Island.

For those who have never been, HK consists of two areas, the "mainland," and the island. The mainland is a little rougher, though not downtown Detroit rough. It's also the place where a lot of the foreigners aggressively trying to sell suits hang out...spaced about 10 feet apart. The mainland (Kowloon) side is also where most of the hostels are...according to most reviews I've read, they're a less than stellar experience, I'm glad I got to miss out on them.

Another random shot...I'm starting to get into street photography...really enjoying it:

Anyways...Hong Kong. Hong Kong is amazing. It's beautiful, generally clean, warm (in the middle of January I spent my days in a T-shirt all day, and got a sunburn), busy, full of life, classy, etc. It's also incredibly affluent. Short of Dubai, I'm not sure I could think of a place where there are so many Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Rolls Royces per square metre. For a car geek, walking around there after the blandness of Korea (the land of silver Hyundais and white Kias), no walk through the streets was boring. I even saw one of my all-time favourite cars in my favourite colour: a pearl orange Tesla Roadster (the world's first true production electric supercar!).

Unfortunately, HK is also home to some incredible smog. While it didn't bother my breathing, it was apparent in every single picture. This is the clearest picture I took of the HK skyline. On the left is the island, complete with the famous Bank of China building (the building with the 45* lines criss-crossing it)..the middle is the opening to Victoria Harbour, on the right is a little bit of Kowloon, the mainland...the shot was taken from a little harbour boat that's been operating between the island and the mainland for over 100 years. It costs about 35 cents to cross and takes 8-9 minutes. Gotta love Asia):

Other days, you were treated to a monochromatic view of HK's magnificence (if you look closely, you'll notice that the same traditional-style ship is in both pictures!)...by the way, the building in the middle is where HK was handed over to China in 1997.

Okay...since all the days have blurred together, he's a random list of highlights from Hong Kong:

- The world's longest escalators...it's a network of 800m (half a mile) of escalators taking you from one part of the city up the hill to another. It's really cool. They change direction depending on the time of the day to deal with foot traffic. I kept popping off to check out different neighbourhoods, then popping back on to continue my journey.

- Multi ethnicity/multi-religiosity. You can walk from a Buddhist temple to a Muslim mosque and then pop over to a Catholic church (many of which were built by the British long enough ago that they're architecturally interesting!) all within 10 minutes. And guess what...no one firebombs them. Many places in the world could learn a lesson from the way religions and races coexist in HK. I went into multiples of each place of worship and was welcomed with open arms at each and every one. Hong Kong was also the first place in Asia where I didn't feel special or different being a white guy. HK has great racial variety and, happy for me, that meant variety in food, which (unlike in Korea) included a wicked selection of veggie options.

- The people are absolutely amazing in HK. That is, the locals. Interestingly enough, most of the foreigners I bumped into seemed to have an air of self-importance about them. Wearing an expensive suit and rocking an iPhone 5 tends to do that to people sometimes. The locals, however, were very friendly, often stopping or going out of their way to help me when I was looking at my map, etc. Without a doubt, the highlight was when I was trying to figure out which exit I needed to take out of the subway and a boy - about 12 or 13 years old - came up to me and said "Hello. How may I help you?". Out of the blue. My jaw dropped. I told him where I wanted to go, he pointed me to the correct exit and was on his merry way. Well played, Hong Kong...well played. To be fair, though...they're apparently not very tolerant of wheelchair-bound scientists:

Random picture time: Fire hall with a classic red/silver Toyota Crown (every taxi is a Toyota Crown in that paint scheme) taxi:

- Victoria Peak. This peak overlooks the city and is home to a really cool cable-driven tram (that in places goes up an incline I swear is close to 40 degrees) that goes up the hill to a wicked lookout point. I spent a good 4-5 hours at least up there, going in the afternoon and waiting until it was pitch dark. The view of the city is magnificent, day or night. As is standard for Asia, the tram/lookout point admission tickets were very reasonable. None of the rip-off prices we've grown accustomed to paying in North America.

- The public zoo/botanical gardens. Again...North America could take a lesson here. HK has an awesome zoo (full of monkeys, giant turtles, ultra-rare birds, etc)...open to the public. It's just part of a park. The other part is a gorgeous botanical gardens. The sight of a beautiful and expansive garden with stunning modern skyscrapers is a unique and awe-inspiring one.

- Tsim Sha Tsui...TST is a neat place on the southern tip of the mainland, meaning it faces HK's true downtown: the island's north end. There are two ways to get to TST: via the efficient or cheap subway or the efficient or cheap cross-harbour boat. I preferred the boat because the views were beautiful, but the subway - true to every subway I've seen in Asia - was clean, safe, cheap and quick. I'm really going to miss the public transportation in this corner of the world. TST has everything from high-end shops to the Avenue of Stars, where Asian movie stars I've never heard of are immortalized on a beautiful waterfront walkway. The view of downtown from TST...Avenue of Stars on the left...

Every night at 8 p.m., the buildings in downtown HK put on a wicked laser show, best viewed from TST:

Speaking of nights....Hong Kong holds true to what I've seen in most of Asia (Japan, Korea, China, etc)...and you can feel completely safe being a foreigner walking around alone at night...gotta love that!

I was usually walking/shooting until around midnight most days...never an issue!

All right...this is HK in a nutshell...again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, I'll do an update in a year or so when I get to my pictures, I promise! :D In the meantime, I'll leave you with this. Shot in TST in Hong Kong...a tourist demonstrating proper posture during portrait photography: