Seorak National Park and Shinheung Temple

 A couple of weeks ago I put Ektachrome 100 into my F6 and made a visit to Seorak National Park with the goal of photographing the temple there. It was a great day for it; overcast, but not too dark. My talent as a photographer can certainly be cast into doubt, but there is no denying that the E100 produces great colours and tones.

Every roll of film must have a picture of a pet on it.

On the way to the temple there is a cable car that goes up to one of the mountain tops. This is an old one on display that's been painted in green and yellow. Much better than the grey of the cable car currently in use.

It looks like there used to be a tree in this ring of stones. I hope another one is planted later.

Historical temple buildings and main halls of worship are usually painted in the five colours known as dancheong. Administration buildings and the buildings that house monks or nuns are usually unpainted. Both are beautiful in their own way. 

I saw this woman enter the Samseonggak (三聖閣) to pray. I waited ten minutes for her to come out and pressed the shutter button when I saw her put her hand on the door frame for support. I cropped the photo scan in computer to get a better framing.
   A samseonggak is the building in a Buddhist temple where native Korean deities are worshipped, including the bearded mountain god who is always depicted with a tiger by his side.  

The main entrance to the temple. Again, cropped to 5:4 ratio to get a better picture.

That's it for the first roll of two I bought. I like the film a lot, but the whole time I was using it I couldn't stop thinking about how expensive it is. That caused me to slow down and think carefully before pressing the shutter release button, but I still only got six keepers. A small fortune for each frame. And I'm not working these days. Maybe I'll start using slide film again when I'm making some money, but I should probably stick to digital for now. Or use a cheaper product like Portra when I'm tired of pixels.

Space Between Buildings

 

Between Two Buildings, Jungang Street, Sokcho.

For those of you who care about such things, I used the Classic Negative simulation on my Fujifilm X-T4. I couldn't see the point of the simulation when I first tried it out, but it's pretty good for snapshots when out and about. It is supposedly based on amateur films from 'back in the day' (ugh), but none of the photos I have from long ago have colour casts like the digital simulation. Maybe it's supposed to look like expired film?

Shed and Hill

This landscape appears to be the result of the large forest fire a couple of years ago, but also the victim of commercial and industrial works.

Burnt Ground

 

Yeongnang Lake Area, Sokcho.

Geumgang Large Bridge

 

As far as I know, all bridges in English are called Something Bridge regardless of size. In Korean, bridges are called Something Bridge or Something Large Bridge. Fine in Korean, a bit awkward sounding in English.
   What natural-sounding term could you use in English to name a large bridge? D' Dirty Big Geumgang Bridge? Girt Big Geumgang Bridge? Or something similarly silly. What about Great Geumgang Bridge? That suggests an architectural marvel and Sokcho's Girt Big Geumgang isn't that special. I guess Geumgang Bridge will have to do.
   The bridge has a bicycle/pedestrian path on both sides and I was on the eastern path when I made this photograph on my iPhone. I was on my way home from the supermarket and I didn't have a regular camera with me. Luckily, the phone camera is fine for small prints and monitors. The photo got cropped a little when I straightened it, but nothing important got cut. I had to clone out a large spot at the top of the frame in Lightroom. I thought it was a clump of pocket lint on the lens, but it turns out that something has gotten inside the phone. Or the sensor is damaged. Ugh. I'll either have to stop using the phone for photography or make sure that all my pictures have something black in the top part of the frame.
   Anyway, I like the picture and hope you do as well.

 

Life Preserver Box

 

Life Preserver Box, Yeongnang Coastal Road

These boxes and warning signs are just about everywhere people might be swimming or climbing on coastal rocks. I wonder how you activate the light on top of the life preserver box. Maybe it automatically comes on when the box is opened.
   The sign says that this part of the coast has been designated a danger area and you are not allowed to enter. There is a hefty fine for doing anything to the equipment. Nothing about not making photos, so I'm fine.
   I'm pleased with this picture for a couple of reasons. One, I think the composition is pretty good and I like the colours. Two, I tried photographing this scene several times after coming to Sokcho and couldn't get any result that I was happy with. Using the 5:4 format on my Nikon D850 helped, I think.

WTF?

 

Why The Film? I'm not working and film, especially slide film, is extremely expensive. Obviously I've contracted one of those zombie diseases that takes control of your brain and forces you to make online purchases. I should disconnect the Internet before I end up with a large format camera delivered to my door.

Maybe not. I've just got the urge to use film again, even if it's just a few rolls. Partly because I want to see the world as it looks on film, and partly because I've been making too many pictures recently. Not as many as the guys who go out with their finger taped down on the shutter release button, but more than I really want to go through on computer. And a lot of those photos are a result of me being careless and making tiny adjustments from frame to frame. I want to force myself to be thoughtful and deliberate before pressing the button and the high price of film guarantees that I will look twice or thrice before I get the camera to go click-whirrrrr. Or clickzip in the case of the F6.

I'm going to use the F6 for slide film. Not because it necessarily gives better results than the F100, but because . . . I don't know. I like clickzip. And maybe the larger size of the camera will slow me down just that little bit more. Important when every frame costs nearly 900 Won, not including shipping and development. 

   I won't be using my Minolta X-700 for anything. It's hard to see everything in the viewfinder with my new glasses, whereas I don't have that problem with the Nikons. Also, the fastest shutter speed is 1/1000 of a second and that was a problem when I was last out on a sunny day. The shutters on the F100 and the F6 both go to 1/8000 of a second.

Anyway, I enjoy using film from time to time and I hope I don't waste too much of it. I always have the compulsion to use up a whole roll of film when I'm out, even if I don't see anything that interesting or the light is bad. That compulsion has led to a large number of wasted frames. Wish me luck and restraint . . .

(Just as a matter of interest, I took the two photos in this post with my iPhone and imported them into Lightroom, where I applied a Kodak E100G film simulation to them. Okay, maybe not that interesting.)

Sleeping Cat, Twice

 

Heavy

 

Apartment Construction, Sokcho

I am reasonably skilled at composition, but I don't think I do such a great job of conveying feeling. Mostly my pictures are about form, and I've heard them described as 'cold'. But I think the light and the placement of the elements in the frame describe how I felt when I made the photograph. This kind of apartment blends in well with its surroundings in a place like Seoul or Busan, but in a small city like Sokcho it squats oppressively upon the landscape and mind.

Tiled Rooves

 

Thirteen hundred years ago, the capital of the Shilla Kingdom was Gyeongju, and it was admired because all the houses and temples had tile rooves and not a bit of thatch was in sight. You can still see many tiled rooves in Gyeongju thanks to government grants and money from tourism. 
   These houses are next to the council office in my Sokcho neighbourhood. The tiles look good if you squint, but they are made of plastic or some similar material and come in sheets rather than individual pieces. Real clay tiles are too expensive for the average Joe/Kim to afford, but I'm not sure plastic tiles are more attractive than thatch or asphalt shingles. On the other hand, at least it looks traditional.

Stepping Stones

 

Near Sokcho Lighthouse

Encroachment

High-rises are going up all over Sokcho. The one going up in front of my apartment building will be over forty stories when it's finished. Across the road another tall building is going up. Tower cranes are the prominent feature of the cityscape. Behind my apartment is Dongmyeong Catholic Church. Besides being an attractive stone building, the church sits on a hill where you can look down over the harbour and see the sunrise. It's something of a tourist attraction. I like it because it's not made of concrete and polished granite. There are benches on the grounds where I can sit and relax quietly.

But as you can see, there are buildings going up around the church. The clang and bang of construction is present all day long. Silent prayer must be quite a challenge. The church has put up signs saying that they are not opposed to development, but they are opposed to so many high-rises going up all over the city and destroying its charm and heritage.

I agree with them. People come to Sokcho to see Seolak Mountain and the sea. They build tall apartment buildings to get a good view of them. In a few years, the only view will be of people in other high-rises looking out the windows. The sea and the mountains will be hidden behind concrete.