Starting Fresh in Seoul
 

In what might be the most abrupt transition from one thread to the next, fresh from Havana, I present Seoul, South Korea. Back in May, I left for a summer abroad, primarily to work on a school project in Dalian, China. Due to the proximity of the two cities, nearly all flights from the US to Dalian connect in Seoul. Having never been to the city, I decided to leave a few days earlier and check it out before I traveled on to China. On a side note, in April I decided to upgrade from my Canon 7D to the new 5D mk III.

Seoul felt like a smaller, less established Tokyo; modern box architecture and no super-tall buildings. Hazy and bland from afar, intense color and detail up close. I was surprised at the amount of historic temples throughout the city; contrasting the old and new was a layup. The famous Korean BBQ lived up to its reputation. I cluelessly ate spicy pigs' feet using the point and guess method of food ordering. Over the next few months this would be my goto means of acquiring food. When I knew what I was eating, the food was superb. The whole Gangam Style craze had yet to hit and I missed the Gangam area entirely. Nearly every young person I saw was hooked up to some smart phone or tablet (maybe not too different from here). I think the Koreans will be the first race to achieve cyborg status. The subways cars were filled with techno-zombies, all plugged into and staring at their smart device.

Some highlights - N Seoul tower at night, killer city lights shots; Buddha's birthday at one of the Buddhist temples, all the bright lanterns; the newish Cheonggyecheon stream - lots of cool lighting for the new camera and building 63, best spot to see the haze of Seoul.

This will be the first of many threads for my Asian Saga tour (any Clavell fans out there?). Starting in South Korea, I'll make my way through China, into the North of India and finish off with a surprise ending. New tour, new city, new camera.

I was going to select some kpop for the music but couldn't find any that didn't make me want to smash my speakers. So I went a darker route. Enjoy!

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That's it for stop one. Next, onto Dalian, China.

Wow. The amount of color in this set is making me dizzy.

Pure class again by OKU.

WOW! You're photos are amazing! Thanks for sharing. :D

Epic!

Can I say it?

Good food for the Seoul! ;)

I remember when that stream was an elevated expressway. Seoul has come a long way in making itself more vibrant and clean in the past two decades.

Awesome set as always.

I'm looking forward to more.

Really great set!

Seoul is just like a smaller, less established Tokyo. Just don't ever make the mistake of saying so out loud to a Korean.

First time I went to Seoul, they were in the process of taking down that elevated expressway. I was there two weeks ago and it's incredible how much the vegetation has matured and filled in.

Love this. One of my all time favorites of your threads. I have to ask, and this may be a stupid question, but this image is altered, right?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8436/8...516e5caf_b.jpg

Damn I miss Korea after seeing this. They do such a good job making paths along those drainage water ways. Maybe all of the Koreans in LA could design something like this for the LA River.

Spectacular pictures and city!

Love your night shots. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain!:tup:

Those old guys have some style. Nice job. Again.

No soju? ;)

Sweet pics as always, man. I love how you captured different patterns around the city.

Amazing!

NF -almost went with Saturated in Seoul for the title.

Illith Dude - All the photos are altered - contrast, levels, lens correction CA removal, straightening, etc. But yeah, I threw one of my shots on the screen:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/8...25d56ea9_b.jpg

Wondering if anyone would notice. Here is the original pic :)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7277/8...638ece38_b.jpg

I actually started making an animated .gif that would infinitely zoom into the screen but because the angles of the shot and the smart phone screen are off it would require some crazy attention to detail to distort each frame correctly so the zoom loop would appear fluid.I started making a spreadsheet to calc the math but then realized I had better things to do. Might still give it a go.

In fact, there is a lot more photoshop tomfoolery in this thread, the cloned temple guards, the patterned rainbow display with the silhouette of the trees. Bracketed shots at Cheonggyecheon to get still people and blurred water.

Lipani - What do you think I washed the pigs feet down with?

Freaking tight set. The new camera really makes a big difference. Money well spent IMO.

Yeah, it's a nice step up. Crisper details, better low light performance too.

Turns out I had nothing better to do :(

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8056/8...98275e4e_o.gif

Hot hot hot. Seoul always looks great.

Seoul just has.....uhm...... HEART. That's it.


Your water shots are sick. This looks like a level right out of Super Mario.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8440/8...cfa94ff0_b.jpg