Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Korea Pictures

Guess what I finally got done? That’s right boys and squirrels, I finally got all 1000+ pictures I took in Korea sorted and uploaded to my Webshots account. In order to make surfing them easy for everyone, myself included, I have broken them down in to fourteen different albums. Below is a listing of all fourteen albums and a brief description of what they contain. Remember that these are the unedited photographs and I am still working on getting them properly oriented in the albums. Have fun!

1. Korea 1 – Wedding
Pictures of Charlie’s wedding and around the Dragon Hill Lodge.

2. Korea 2 – Insadong
A few pictures from a street in the Insadong district of Seoul.

3. Korea 3 – Korea House
Pictures from the Korea House.

4. Korea 4 – Seoul at Night
A couple of pictures taken in Seoul at night demonstrating the need for a tripod when doing long exposures.

5. Korea 5 – The Road to Sokcho
Pictures taken on our trip from Seoul to Sokcho. For the most part these were taken at a scenic overlook however it includes pictures of the Sponge Bob Taxi and some pictures shot from the road.

6. Korea 6 – Sokcho
This album currently includes a TON of pictures that should be in The Road to Sokcho album, but I have been lazy about cleaning it up. Maybe I will get that done tonight. Anyway, these are pictures from Sokcho, primarily of the market where we ate dinner, however there are a couple of around town scenes.

7. Korea 7 – Hawjinpo
These are pictures from the hotel we stayed at in Hwajinpo, which was really cool because we had to sleep on the floor and we were only a few hundred feet from the ocean. I slept with my door open so I could hear the ocean. Oh yeah, and heated floors kick all buttocks.

8. Korea 8 – The DMZ
Who thought I would ever have the chance to display the shocker to the North Koreans? Not this white boy, that is for certain. In all seriousness this was a very surreal experience which I will write more about later. And I ate ppondaegi here.

9. Korea 9 – The Road to Seoraksan
The trip from the DMZ to Seoraksan National Park took us back through Sokcho and through some interesting parts of the country.

10. Korea 10 – Seoraksan
I think Charlie referred to Seoraksan National Park as the Yosimite of South Korea. Having never been to Yosimite it is not a comparison I am qualified to judge, however I can say that Seoraksan had some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen. Also where else are you going to be able to hear a Buddhist monk chanting prayers as you climb to the top of a mountatin? If the DMZ showed the tragedy of Korea then Seoraksan showed the beauty.

11. Korea 11 – The Road to Seoul
Traveling from Seoraksan to Seoul was another beautiful trip.

12. Korea 12 – Gyeongbokgung
This is the main palace located in Seoul. Charlie’s cynical point about it was that none of the buildings in the palace were original as it had been completely razed by the Japanese. Regardless it was an awe inspiring place to visit and I want to go back to get some better pictures as I managed to mess up my horizon in several of these shots.

13. Korea 13 – The War Memorial
Pictures from the Korean War Memorial Museum. I did not take many pictures inside the museum as it is a memorial, however outside they have a rather large display of armored vehicles and aircraft from the Korean War as well as some impressive and heart-rending statuary.

14. Korea 14 – Seoul
Just some shots from around Seoul. Some during the day but most of them once again displaying the need for a tripod when shooting in low light. C’est la vie.

There is still more to come as I sort through the pictures and make a master set of pictures I think worthy of sharing, however I have no idea when that is going to happen. Also I will be writing more about my experiences over the next couple of months as I find time and inspiration. You can also probably expect one or two reviews of books regarding the history of Korea as I am fascinated by what little I learned while I was there and I am hungry to learn more. Till then I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the trip, cherry blossoms against the mountains in Seoraksan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is probably a dumb question, but are you going to print all of these out? i found a few that i like and was hoping to see the actual picture. what's the plan there, mister?

(you should probably email the answer to me, since i will undoubtedly forget to check this post for a response. you rock.)