As always I am pleased to see your photos and commentary on Korean architecture and I too am looking forward to an eventual book from you.

Since this topic is no longer just a side hobby for you but is emerging as one of your core interests and is possibly related to your future career directions, I think it is time for you to get serious about professional quality architectural photography, and that means mastering perspective controls, squaring up vertical and horizontal lines, and sometimes using a tripod. I know that you use Nikon equipment and I’ve been meaning to call your attention to a new bunch of perspective control Nikon lenses. Here is a review and introductory tutorial on the use of one of these, the 24mm:

http://www.luminous-landscape......4_pc.shtml

These lenses are not cheap… except in comparison to using the alternative, medium format or large format cameras with lenses on bellows that allow tilts and shifts. But if you think of a good PC lens as a lifetime investment and important career tool then it is in fact quite reasonable.

With your passionate interest and impressive accumulation of knowledge in Korean architecture, I think it would be a shame if you didn’t take the next couple of steps you need to produce architectural images that the publishers of professional architectural books and magazines and museums would be willing to use. You are not there yet, but you are within striking distance. Keep at it and good luck!

I was watching a Discovery channel program about Tainan City, and I remember watching the section on Japanese colonial architecture in awe. The Taiwanese were actually proud of their colonial architecture. The Taiwanese they interviewed were like, “Yeah, the Japanese came here and built all these pretty buildings for us.” For me, as a guy who goes around shooting photos of the same stuff in Korea, it was amazing. Things are changing in that more and more people are beginning to appreciate that era’s architectural heritage, but even among people who admire the buildings architecturally, few feel thankful to the Japanese for building them (not that they should, IMHO). Of course, as you point out, in the case of Taiwan, the Japanese benefit in that the Taiwanese can compare them to the Chinese, which might make the experience under Japan seem considerably more pleasant than it ordinarily might.

PS: If you like pics of colonial architecture in Korea, there’s a lot more where that came from:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68558939@N00/sets/

Got any collection of photos from Taiwan?

I like going around Taiwan and getting pictures of Japanese stuff. Sadly, much of it is being lost, especially the interesting buildings in city centers. But if you tour in out of the way places, you can find old boundary and survey markers…

Michael

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/nikon/d40x/

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....-of-daegu/