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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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 Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: When you wish you had a camera.. |
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I really have to start carrying around a small digital camera with me everywhere I go. Because out of the blue I keep getting hit with golden kodak moments..like these 2 in the past week:
1) Oksu station, 3pm An old ajosshi is passed out on the platform, legs sticking in the air, lying on his back. A crowd of commuters in suits mill around him, nobody batting an eyelid.Absurd.
2) A big black equus is parked in the middle of a busy street, nobody in it. Dead centre. Traffic flows around it, nobody bats an eyelid.Absurd.
Got any better ? |
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spliff
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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Pretty ho-hum if u ask me....  |
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browneyedgirl
Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: Re: When you wish you had a camera.. |
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| A very manly, caucasian man riding around on a pastel pink woman's Schwinn bike. |
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Young FRANKenstein
Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Location: Castle Frankenstein (that's FRONKensteen)
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: Re: When you wish you had a camera.. |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| 2) A big black equus is parked in the middle of a busy street, nobody in it. Dead centre. Traffic flows around it, nobody bats an eyelid.Absurd. |
It's not absurd. It's an Equus. The driver is obviously a very important man. You just don't know Korean culture. |
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Temporary
Joined: 13 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: When you wish you had a camera.. |
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| browneyedgirl wrote: |
| A very manly, caucasian man riding around on a pastel pink woman's Schwinn bike. |
An obesse adjummma wearing a transluscent Jacket and wearing nothing underneath it. Scary how dark the nipples were.. I think She was a fruit cake. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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Golden eagle 15 feet away flapping up off the ground, up and away on its two meter wingspan. I was on the motorbike coming up the dirtroad. It went across the little valley and sat on a pine branch at the edge of the rice fields, same spot, all night. I could see it from 'my house' (actually the school's house). Some kind of pitstop.
This was last week and the closest I've been to an eagle. John Denver would have written a song about it. Then somebody would have shot him.
Last edited by captain kirk on Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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genezorm
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Location: Mokpo
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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| when i went to the beach and saw a lot of hot chicks in bikinis |
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Crockpot2001
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:36 am Post subject: Re: When you wish you had a camera.. |
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| Temporary wrote: |
| browneyedgirl wrote: |
| A very manly, caucasian man riding around on a pastel pink woman's Schwinn bike. |
An obesse adjummma wearing a transluscent Jacket and wearing nothing underneath it. Scary how dark the nipples were.. I think She was a fruit cake. |
Did you mean "fruitcake" as in she had gone a little crazy or did you mean "fruitcake" as an explaination for the dark bits. If it is the latter it struck me as the funniest thing on the internet today. Damn! |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| I was leaving my elementary school one day, and noticed a circle of kids around one of those kid sized videogames at the stationery shop. As I got closer, I figured out what all the kids were doing- they were watching a middle aged guy in a business suit hunched over playing the game, and by the looks of it doing quite well. |
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The Bobster
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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I do carry my digital everywhere, and aside from capn kirks' eagle and pmint's businessman playing the vidgame, no one's yet mentioned anything worth taking it out of my shoulder bag. Sorry to say, but wierd and strange happens any old place in the world ... frankly, I think most people back home would wonder why you'd bother taking a picture of a car parked in the middle of the street, or a guy drunk on the sidewalk of a train station. These are things that only happen in Korea? Would they be interesting some other place or to some other person than yourself?
Don't mean to criticize - but, hey, you got a negative attitude about a place, or about life in general, you can point your machine around and make it look like anything you want ... or, just maybe, you can use the camera to help you understand what you are looking at a little better. Like I said, do what you like, but when I take a picture, even if it does sound grandiose to say it like that, I'm all about having a conversation with the world and listening to what it has to say.
Here's an elderly matron waiting for people at a subway station. I asked her permission, but she didn't pose. I think she couldn't be bothered, which is what I wanted.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/the.bobster/2286879
This is a rare case of getting English right - I like Korean food, just not intestines, thank you very much, and yes I tried it once or twice.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/2284353?from=2286879&at=1214453849
Here's a salaryman at an eel restaurant drinking soju with a pal.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/2284349?from=2284351&at=1214420904
He's selling some kind of hose thingy, on the subway train. It's probably the best thing since jam on toast. I didn't buy one, though, and I've been kicking myself ever since.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/2284349?from=2284351&at=1214420904
There's a bad word painted on the wall. The guy in the background wishes I weren't taking a picture of it, and next time I walked by it was the only bit of wall that had been painted over.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/2064616?from=2065981&at=1211684238
War surplus, bargain rate, on the sidewalk.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/1985474?from=1985474&at=1210696199
Pojang macha.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/38382/1961548?from=1985474&at=1210696199
Last edited by The Bobster on Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:13 am; edited 2 times in total |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for those pics, Bobster & peppermint- I'm definitely going to pick up a small cheap digital to carry around, precisely for this purpose.
I already have a Canon 30D and lenses but they're just not practical to have with you all day every day. Basically I think you need a small and unobtrusive digital that you can whip out almost unnoticed, because whenever people see a camera they tense up and form unnatural poses. And then with Koreans you have the whole issue of them seeing a foreigner taking pictures of things that are possibly not what they want you to see. Like graffitti or whatever.
What cameras you using Pepp & Bobster? |
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5600
Joined: 07 Apr 2008
Location: At an undisclosed FEMA camp.
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| genezorm wrote: |
| when i went to the beach and saw a lot of hot chicks in bikinis |
You must have been in Thailand. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
Thanks for those pics, Bobster & peppermint- I'm definitely going to pick up a small cheap digital to carry around, precisely for this purpose.
What cameras you using Pepp & Bobster? |
A couple of friends are very into photography, and they all suggested that for non SLRs, Panasonic were the way to go. They use Leica lenses, and while I don't really know what that means in terms of picture quality, I've had two in the last four or five years, and been very pleased with both. |
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The Bobster
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:09 am Post subject: |
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Whoa, weeks later and I just now noticed this thread had more replies and even asked a question or two ... sorry, I got busy and then I forgot.
| nautilus wrote: |
| Thanks for those pics, Bobster & peppermint- I'm definitely going to pick up a small cheap digital to carry around, precisely for this purpose. |
Something to be careful about, which ought to have been obvious to me from the start. You get a cheap camera because you plan to carry it around and it might get lost or broken more easily than an expensive camera that you only take out when you are planning to shoot something - guess what, though? If they are cheaply made, they are actually a bit more likely to break BECAUSE they were cheaply made. I found that out with a small Olympus jobber I got at Cosco for about 110,000 won ... and what I also found was also obvious: when it broke, I didn't care so much about the money I was out of pocket as I was disappointed at losing 5 or 6 dozen photos, some of which might have been kinda nice.
| Quote: |
| I already have a Canon 30D and lenses but they're just not practical to have with you all day every day. Basically I think you need a small and unobtrusive digital that you can whip out almost unnoticed, because whenever people see a camera they tense up and form unnatural poses. |
Mnn, yeah, that's exactly why (so far) I'm happy with the small point-and-shoot models that not only fit in my pocket but have preset functions that are suitable for the largest variety of targets and situations so they can be set up in a minute or less. It's really all about the kind of pictures you are interested in taking, at least I think so, and I guess I'm more interested in documenting my surroundings than in creating great visual art.
| Quote: |
| And then with Koreans you have the whole issue of them seeing a foreigner taking pictures of things that are possibly not what they want you to see. Like graffitti or whatever. |
You know, a lot of this has to do with the attitude and frame of mind you carry around with you. I'm always happy to show any picture I take to anyone at all, and that's because I guess I feel that my motivations are pure, if it's possible to say such a thing - basically, I'm in Korea because I want to be, because it's interesting enough even after nearly a decade to keep me intrigued when I walk out the door every day, and even when I take a shot of something that is sort of ugly I guess I'm trying to notice something about it that is worth noticing ...
I think it's valid, at some point, to ask yourself if you like the place you're in and if you feel any affection at all for the people who inhabit it with you - if there IS something like fondness operating at some level, then you have nothing to worry about because that's likely to be one of things that get communicated with the images you choose.
| Quote: |
| What cameras you using Pepp & Bobster? |
Mine's very basic and somewhat old, (Casio QV-R41) so I'm looking to upgrade in the next couple of months. Not even mine, actually, bought as a gift for the spouse when we were still dating (she bought me a phone at a similar price, by the way, so I'd have no excuse not to call, I suspect  ) and I'm so unlearned about cameras that even after all this time I'm still only up to 90% knowledgeable about everything it does ... for instance, I'm discovering that a lot of P&S cameras have functions that let you bypass the presets and get at least some of the flexibility of the "prosumer" models, like your Canon ...
I've been hearing similar things as pepp and I'm looking at the Lumix series for my next buy. It probably shouldn't matter as much as it does, but the thing I'm most interested in is whether it fits snugly into one particular interior pocket of the shoulder bag I carry with me to teaching gigs - ironically, I've discovered I'm taking fewer pictures in the peak days of summer, and you know why? The clothes I wear out of the house have fewer pockets, so if I don't have the teacher bag I probably left the camera at home ... |
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