[PHOTOS] Korea trip Pt 1: Jeju Island

United States6173 Posts

July 30 2009 09:12 GMT

[EDIT] WHAT THE FUCK. Firefox seems to have decided to bleed out a LOT of color from my photos. They're all considerably desaturated...T_T. Just a disclaimer...wow. [/EDIT]

I know everyone loves picture blogs, and especially ones of Korea, so...

So as some of you may remember, I went to Korea to visit relatives and do a bit of sight-seeing about a month and a half ago. I stayed in Seoul at a relative's apartment. I also took many, many photos: More than a thousand over the course of three weeks. It may not seem like THAT many, but midway through my stay there, I got owned by water leaking through an umbrella. The only lens I have for my camera is not weather-sealed, even though my camera is. Water got to the AF motor, completely shorting it. I had to manual-focus every shot thereafter.

The photos here are a handful of the shots I took from Jeju island, a small island off the south coast of the peninsula. It is a fairly self-contained island. It has its own dialect, that honestly is incomprehensible to a normal Korean and sounds more like Chinese. It is also like one big hick island. It's an island of farms, horses and lots and lots of green expanses. Honestly, it's a beautiful place, but lacks in the people department. They're all Korean hillbillies and country people, so to speak.

The place had an amazing amount of character though, which I unfortunately did not get to capture. It was too hard to take photos of the towns and city and of the people there in general without auto-focus. So instead I just focused on shots of the more natural side to the island.

This is the family I traveled with. I'm the bearded dude on the left. Next is my aunt, my cousin, and my brother (both play SC as well).

The population density is very low on the island. There is only one major city which sort of feels like a mini-Seoul, but the rest of it is very spread out and has a country feel to it.

I experimented on this one. Because of how featureless the sky was (see photo above this one), I tried adding some vignetting. I think it got overdone a bit, as I was having trouble setting it up (fresh install of PS on a new comp), but it definitely makes the photo a bit more interesting.

Another photo of the coast.

Rocks. And part of a building.

Jeju was formed by a volcano, which is currently inactive. A lot of the shore is just rocky volcanic cliff after cliff.

Tourism is apparently fairly big for Jeju. This was some place they apparently did events and festivals or some shit at. I don't remember, but it made for a decent photo.

After seeing the coastline, our next stop was a forest reserve. This is me dicking around with my camera.

The reserve had trails set up like this. It kind of felt like cheating...like not a real hike, but considering how fucking hot it was, I let it pass.

This is a mushroom farm inside the reserve. They grow mushrooms off of those logs.

A wild mushroom I found later.

A random concrete sewage thing that I thought would make for a good photo.

Rocks in the forest next to a paved trail.

Good lighting makes for good photo.

There were an overwhelming number of trees.

A rest stop on one of the trails. Probably my favorite composition. The lighting when we got there was incredible.

It was so good that I took a vertical version too.

And here's one that our tour guide wandered into. I also tried making the photo look warmer. I couldn't decide which one I preferred.

A man-made pond near the entrance to the reserve. Great lighting here too.

Our tour guide then took us to a museum that collects rocks and other random shit from the island. I think it was a scam. This is a bonsai tree that had another plant supposedly growing from it. Even the tour guide said that was bullshit. At the back, you can see the roots of that plant going down the trunk into the rock.

A wider shot of the museum place. It was basically a backyard with a grip of pretty rocks and rocks that vaguely looked like animals, people, buildings and penises strewn around.

A common sight on Jeju. Lots of green and mountains in the background (if you turn your back to the ocean). Beautiful place.

As I said, there are many farms. The cows there are mostly dairy cows, not meat cows. This is taken from a mountain road.

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of nightlife in Jeju. It's a fairly sleepy island. Most of the young people there out and about were tourists, not natives. This is a pier in one of the brighter and busier coastal areas.

As I said, it's a sleepy island. This is about as bright as it gets.

That's all the photos I have for now. The colors may seem a bit off, as I haven't been able to properly calibrate my monitor yet. My gamma is set correctly now, but the color balancing is still off. I think the blues are overpowered on this piece of shit. I gave up after around six hours of messing with shit. I kid you not, six fucking hours.

The next set I post will be of a very large Buddhist temple on Jeju. After that, I'll start slogging through my huge fucking pile of random Seoul photos.

Anyway, enjoy. Feedback and criticism is welcome and encouraged. (:

EDIT
There's a lot of weird aberration in a lot of these photos...weird purple fringing. Something is definitely wrong with my lens beyond the AF motor. T_T. Also, some of them may seem slightly out of focus. My eyes are bad and I don't like to wear my glasses when shooting, so I may have fucked that up, lol.

EpiK

Korea (South)5757 Posts

July 30 2009 09:25 GMT

nice shots!

lilsusie

3861 Posts

July 30 2009 09:30 GMT

those are beautiful! i haven't been to jeju yet... defo wanna go!!

Marine50

Australia1764 Posts

July 30 2009 09:31 GMT

Those volcanic rocks look like lion heads! and those forest/reserve photos are amazing. Great job

GoSu

Korea (South)1773 Posts

July 30 2009 09:31 GMT

good pictures. I will travel here as soon as possible. I think it's wonderful!

NeverGG

United Kingdom5399 Posts

July 30 2009 09:32 GMT

Those are some really beautiful photos. I've never actually looked at pictures of Jeju before and now I *really* want to go there and take some of my own. I miss the countryside (and especially the sea.)

GhostKorean

United States2330 Posts

July 30 2009 09:33 GMT

Wow I remember last time I was there (like 6 years ago) I did this interview for some thing

it was pretty awesome... I miss that place haha

United States6173 Posts

July 30 2009 09:35 GMT

@Epic: Thanks!

@lilsusie: Thanks!

If you go, I'd recommend getting a tour guide (expensive), or at least going with a tour. Either that, or get a group, rent mopeds, and tour by GPS coordinates. That's apparently popular.

@Marine50: lol really? I never thought of that.

...and thanks. (:

EDIT
@GoSu: Read what I wrote to lilsusie. To be honest, Jeju was the low point of my trip to Korea, lol.

@NeverGG: Thanks...I'm glad my photos make the cut with you. (:

I had no idea what to expect with Jeju. You'll have a blast taking pictures there, though...especially if you want to try for street/national geographic-esque style photography. Oh, but if you do go, make sure you have a wide-angle lens. I only had that broken 50mm (80mm on my camera body), so taking landscapes (which you'll want to take a lot of there) will be an absolute pain in the ass...especially with that giant telephoto zoom you've got. :X

@GhostKorean: Even though I've been talking a lot of shit on the island, I would actually love to go back just to take more photos. lol.

GoSu

Korea (South)1773 Posts

July 30 2009 09:45 GMT

Ok PH I read what you said to lilsusie.
Thanks for informations. My girlfriend didn't go there too so we will make the travel as soon as we can or what.
Great pictures again!

LimitlessSky

United States434 Posts

July 30 2009 10:20 GMT

#10

They are building a train from S.Korea to Jeju island.

I hope that train finishes up so I can visit next year ^_^

awesome pics!

alffla

Hong Kong20321 Posts

July 30 2009 10:26 GMT

#11

looo o oo hi some of thep hotos are really nice :d i want to go to jeju one day too

LuDwig-

Italy1143 Posts

July 30 2009 10:26 GMT

#12

Your family is from korea? Or your realtives moved to korea?
Do you think a trip to korea is cost effective? I mean is a good trip or you go there only for your relatives issue?

However some photos here are extremely amazing...you work with photos in you life or you are just an amateur??

United States6173 Posts

July 30 2009 10:46 GMT

#13

On July 30 2009 19:20 LimitlessSky wrote:
They are building a train from S.Korea to Jeju island.

I hope that train finishes up so I can visit next year ^_^

awesome pics!

Holy shit really? I would love to ride that just to see what it's like. lol.

On July 30 2009 19:26 LuDwig- wrote:
Your family is from korea? Or your realtives moved to korea?
Do you think a trip to korea is cost effective? I mean is a good trip or you go there only for your relatives issue?

However some photos here are extremely amazing...you work with photos in you life or you are just an amateur??

My family is from Korea. I'm a full blooded Korean born in the US. My parents immigrated here.

It depends on why you're going. If you like to travel, then Seoul is a great place to visit. It's the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world, haha. If you love SC on top of that and have an interest in Korean culture, then that's even better!

The cost of foods and other goods are cheaper in Korea than in the US (though I don't know about Italy), but any stay is going to cost you, and the plane ticket will bust your balls. You're better off asking other people about the price of lodging, though. I stayed with my relatives, so it didn't cost anything.

I used to shoot "professionally"...I worked for a little over a year for the newspaper my university runs. I quit after they shafted the photographers with a pay cut. I also did some portraiture and covered events independently of the newspaper on the side on my own, but nothing major.

Right now, I'm just an amateur enthusiast, though. (:

economist_

Vietnam719 Posts

July 30 2009 11:54 GMT

#14

Nice shot, Did you go to Halla Mountain area? People said its like the best attraction area there. I went to jeju last week but didnt have enough time to drop by Halla Mt. Great to see some pics of that

Perguvious

United States1783 Posts

July 30 2009 12:02 GMT

#15

I like looking at wild mushrooms

they just amaze me

*sighs contently*

konadora

Singapore66364 Posts

July 30 2009 12:05 GMT

#16

Aaah looks so beautiful.. I always go to Korea and want to go to Jeju but end up being unable to because my mom wants me to visit my relatives (who are scattered around Korea) every time I DO go to Korea T___T