Autumn Rice Fields

Yongchon is not far from my apartment and I can take side roads there to avoid the maniacs in cars. The area is mostly rice fields and I rarely see anyone on the narrow concrete roads built for tractors and cultivators. It's a great place to ride my bicycle, enjoy the silence, and make a few photos.

Autumn is an especially beautiful time to be in the area. The ripe rice plants are golden-green and even the cut fields are photogenic. Most people head to the mountains to enjoy the autumn foliage, but I prefer to avoid the hiking crowd. Why would I go up the mountain with hundreds of noisy people when I can have acres and acres of fields to myself?

Raw Fish

 

Outside a raw fish restaurant, Sokcho

Some years ago, the faculty and staff of the middle school where I worked had lunch at a raw fish restaurant. Sitting uncomfortably cross-legged at a floor table with a bowl of white rice in front of me, I searched the many side dishes for something that didn't have any seafood in it. Although I tried to avoid looking at it, my eyes couldn't help be drawn to the fresh-from-the-aquarium fish lying on its side in a central platter garnished with leafy vegetables. The fish was intact, but its flesh had been thinly sliced to allow easy eating with chopsticks. Its round eye seemed to be looking straight at me. I felt guilty, even though I wasn't going to eat it. The young dimple-cheeked teaching assistant sitting across from me was also looking at the fish with her hands folded benignly in her lap.

'It looks so pitiful,' she said. When I grunted my assent, she took a sesame leaf from the platter and covered its face. Then she picked up her chopsticks and looked for the plumpest bits.

Beached Swimming Platform

 

Lighthouse Beach, Sokcho

I haven't been in Sokcho long enough to know if this is a swimming platform or a platform for something else. I may never find out because I avoid the beach and tourist areas during the summer. At the moment it's just a place for a small bird to have a rest.

Waves

 

Public Sculpture, Sokcho

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.

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.

Stepping Stones

 

Near Sokcho Lighthouse

Can't we all just get along? Yes!

 

Geumsan Village, Gangneung.

These chickens are usually in a small field with a number of goats. I guess the farmer let them out to eat up stray rice grains in the winter field. 
Its head is down, but there is a turkey in the group. I wonder if the chickens recognise the difference between themselves and the turkey. For that matter, do they see the goats they live with as anything other than slightly odd-looking siblings?

Packaged Food for Cows

 

Geumsan Village, Gangneung.

Mandu

 

Woman Selling Mandu (dumplings) in Central Market, Gangneung.

Winter is probably the best time to visit Korea if you are interested in street food. Sweet potatoes and chestnuts roasted in barrels, pancakes stuffed with brown sugar and cinnamon, fish-shaped pastries (bungeobbang) filled with various sweet pastes, stir-fried rice cake in sweet-and-spicy sauce, boiled fish paste on a stick (sounds gross described in English, but is delicious), stuffed steamed buns, and dumplings. On a cold day, the steam rising from food stalls draws in crowds of hungry people and the occasional photographer.

No Parking in Front of Field

 

Hoesan Neighbourhood, Gangneung.

This plastic jug probably came from the restaurant next to the field. Someone put Xs on it to indicate you shouldn't park on the narrow concrete road. Someone else thought it would be a good place to put an empty tonic drink bottle so it would become Someone Else's Problem. It's not littering if someone eventually takes it away, right?

You go your way, I'll go mine

 

Downtown Gangneung Shop Window