Continuing from my last article, right after I bought my first DSLR camera in September 2014. In that first article, I detailed a little bit about my first outing to take photographs in Seoul, South Korea. In quick succession, I went out exploring a few occasions at different spots in Seoul.
Graveyards in Dobongsan, Seoul
In South Korea, including in the capital city of Seoul, there are many, many mountains. I’ve heard that the peninsula is about 70% mountains. You have a huge amount of traffic, storefronts, and apartment buildings lining the main roads in the lower areas, then it seems that the sidestreets often go uphill, often on both sides of a street into the residential housing areas forming at the bottom of the mountains. Trails and the like continue further up the mountains of various heights. Sometimes on the sidelines after the residential houses but, before the mountains, certain areas are protected as farmlands.
Going up near either these farms or mountain trails there are numerous tombs that you can discover along the way. Often they are random gravesites of families’ ancestors who were buried in the locations 40,50,100 years ago. In addition, there are gravesites of Joseon Dynasty royalty. In the Dobongsan area in Seoul, South Korea, there are many of both which I discovered on my excursion there. Some of the images I captured documented some of what I found in this area.
I could go on about the experiences I’ve had in Korea, but when it comes to photography, I must say I didn’t have the best understanding of the art. However, I did put in a lot of effort to go to these areas and explore. I was actively looking for something interesting, and although not the best technically, I managed to document the scenes in a way that a viewer could get a glimpse into the reality of the places and time. Even looking back on these photographs reminds me of what I experienced and how I felt exploring that day.
Namsan/Seoul Tower at Night
Another day in mid-September I made a trip out to Namsan/Seoul Tower for the evening. Now for a newbie photographer shooting handheld in auto settings poses a lot of challenges! The photographs aren’t that great at all. It would be some time before I learned how to do night photography more effectively.
Nevertheless, I’m happy to share some of the photographs that I took that evening in Seoul.
Local Village Evening Concert
Somewhat along the same lines of night photography, my skill level was just not even close enough to capturing anything worthwhile in the evening. Still, I was out trying though. It was fun to be out, I took my son to this local outdoor concert that they had going on in Goyang, which was close to where I lived at the time. I enjoyed observing, and my son enjoyed it as well. Here are a few of the photographs I took in conclusion for this article.
I’d like to invite you to share with me some of your work and your stories! Please reach out to me by dropping me a message on Threads!
September 2014
Photograph(s): #288~577