Cheongju Photo Class

I thought I'd mention another great opportunity I took up with FB alumni Michael Hurt (metropolitician.blogs.com/) this past weekend.

Michael's a fashion photographer in Seoul and, as a half Korean/half African American expat, he came to talk to us about photography and cultural issues in the country. On Sunday he offered to take a few of us out to Cheongju (about an hour away, good sized city) and teach the fundamentals of DSLR photography. I mean, I know how to use my camera, but I didn't know how to use my camera.

After lunch at Mr. Pizza (where the average pizza costs about $30 and whose official slogan is "Love for Women," hmmm, apparently only women eat there anyway. Oh yea, and Koreans will put anything on a pizza: kimchi, crab, you name it. I also saw a kimchi donut at Dunkin Donuts, but that's another story; story for the aside) we headed out back and Michael taught us all about fill flash, ambient exposure bracketing, and all sorts of ways to get just the right shot.

Needless to say it was a great opportunity to play around with the camera at a higher level. I've posted a few random shots from the day, some of the better ones after playing around with all the settings. That's Jing above, failing to use her massive D40. Better yet, I got the lady-killer shot on the bus from Goesan to Cheongju. I always knew that telephoto lense would come in handy. In any case we're all headed to Haeinsa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haeinsa) this weekend, so I should have some good shots after that. It looks great, but I honestly don't know what we're going to do there for three days--better pack an extra bottle of soju.