Weekend trip to Cheorwon
Took a nice little trip to Cheorwon on Sunday with some friends and Mrs. Marmot. This is the Seoul neighborhood of Pyeongchang-dong, as seen from Mt. Bugaksan’s Palgakjeong Pavilion. Yep, it’s the iconic Nodongdangsa—the former Cheorwon headquarters of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party of Korea—a battle-scarred, Stalinist skeleton and a poignant memorial to the horrors [...]
Winter palaces / Travel & Photo Links, Feb 5, 2012
We had some snow and cold weather recently in Seoul. Sadly, I didn’t get much time to photograph the snowy scenery, but I did run over to Deoksugung one lunch hour to shoot the winter-white palace. I was hoping the snow would last until Saturday, but alas, by Saturday morning, much of the snow had [...]
Bukseong Pier, Incheon
Incheon’s Bukseong Pier (북성포구) is a pilgrimage site for Korean nighttime photographers. At one time, Bukseong Pier was home to a major fish market and, accordingly, a pretty busy place. In the 1980s, however, most of the action moved elsewhere, and the area fell into decline. It’s still got a massive timber mill, though, and [...]
Bukchon blizzard
If you live in Seoul, you’ve no doubt noticed it’s snowing outside. Getting home won’t be fun this evening. Take care on the roads tonight, everyone.
Banghwa Bridge, all lit up and nowhere to go
While I was shooting Incheon Bridge last night, one of the other guys there was showing off on his Galaxy some of the shots he’d taken the night before of Banghwa Bridge. Due to government energy conservation policies, they no longer light Banghwa Bridge up ever day, but they do turn on the lights on [...]
Incheon Bridge at Night
Since I was a little kid, I’ve loved bridges. I suppose growing up in Long Island has much to do with this. Long Island, after all, is the kingdom Robert Moses built, and New York City, of course, has the greatest collection of bridges of any city in the world. Korea, too, has its share [...]
Seoul from Namhansanseong Fortress
Ordinarily, the observation deck near the West Gate of Namhansanseong Fortress is one of the best places to photograph Seoul at twilight/night. Last night, though, it was hella windy, which not only made it terribly cold and unpleasant, but also produced a good deal of camera shake even with a tripod. PS: Would a circular [...]
New Year’s Day atop Mt. Taebaeksan
They don’t call it the “Great White Mountain” for nothing. One of my goals for this year was to take in the first sunrise of the New Year from atop Mt. Taebaeksan (1,567m), one of Korea’s most sacred peaks. When the weather is right, the summit offers breathtaking views of rising sun, silhouetting the peak’s [...]
A cup of tea at Yangsu-ri
One of the many nice things about living in Seoul is you’re never more than an hour’s commuter train ride away from somewhere much more relaxing. Last weekend, I finally had a sort-of-free Sunday, so I broke out the camera and hopped on the 5:30 train from Cheongnyangni to Yangsu-ri to catch the sunrise from [...]
Photo and Travel Links: Dec 2, 2011
Myeong-dong Intersection, taken from undisclosed vantage point that you’ll never guess. See it in glossy in the December issue of SEOUL. And with that… This is one beautiful shot from one of my favorite places in Korea, Gyeongju’s Mt. Namsan. This is what we need in the tourism literature. Speaking of Gyeongju, here are some [...]
Jongchinbu in red
This is me trying to be artistic, trying being the operative word. I was guiding a tour of Bukchon on Saturday when I came across this lovely red tree in front of the old Jongchinbu at Jeongdok Public Library. So lovely it was, in fact, that I went back Sunday afternoon to photograph it and, [...]
Autumnal Hues at Deoksugung Palace
I ran over to Deoksugung Palace yesterday during lunch to photograph the autumn foliage before the ginkgoes become totally bare. The sky was a bit hazy and grey, unfortunately. Of course, I look out the window today, and the sky is full of billowy white clouds, as it always is the day after I go [...]
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