And... cropped...

Ok, it's later. Not really, ok, so I cropped it. What do you think? I'm really not sure...

Boys in Nha Trang

I just came home from 10 days in Vietnam. Hopefully over the next few days I will be posting my better photos here.

I took this photo of some boys playing on the beach in Nha Trang. I cropped it a few different ways, but I can't tell which I like the most.

Here is the original photo.

Here is a slightly cropped photo. I like the clouds in the background.

Here I cropped the image down so it's just the boys on the beach. Which do you like best?

Street Vendors

I always walk by street vendors and think that they would be perfect subjects for some shots. Unfortunately, I don't have the courage to go up to them and take their photo. Is it proper etiquette to ask permission? Either way it seems a little awkward, especially since I have no idea how to say that in Korean.

Yesterday I grabbed these two opportunities to take photos of vendors. In both cases they had no idea I was photographing, so I felt OK doing it. Does that make it better?? Or am I just now a creepy photographer who sneaks up on strangers??This is the fruit vendor near my house. I've always meant to buy something, but I hardly ever buy fruit, and when I do it's usually at the supermarket. Work seems to get stocked on fruit occasionally, so that's where I got my fruit fix. This photo was shot at about 6:00 in the evening. I wasn't sure whether or not to lighten this photo because it makes it a bit grainy. But, once I lightened it, you could see the writing on the boxes and the shine from the sewer cap, which I think makes it a little more interesting.

Here are some snack vendors in Myeongdong. They were so busy that they didn't even notice me right in front of them snapping this photo. I like this photo because this sort of cart is so common here, especially at this time of year. Chestnuts, especially roasted chestnuts are so popular with the Koreans. I tried my first chestnut a few weeks ago. I wasn't that impressed.

My Digital Editor

No, I don't have Photoshop, or any other fancy editing software. I use the newest edition of iPhoto. While I realize that you can do amazing things with Photoshop, I'm just an amateur, and I don't see the point of shelling out all that cash to get the fancy software. iPhoto lets me do 95%of what I want to do. Now with this photography blog, I've been spending more time in iPhoto trying to make my photos look more decent. I've just found some new features that I never noticed before. You can straighten images, reduce or increase shadows, sharpen (which sometimes looks good and sometimes just makes your photo look unnatural) along with many of the normal features like reducing red-eye, B&W, Sepia, etc. I really like this straightening feature. Check out what I was able to do with that photo with the boys at the folk village with this tool.

Images from Gyongbukgung

On a beautiful, but blisteringly cold day, I made my second trip to Gyongbuk Palace in Seoul. The skies were much clearer than the first time I went last summer and my photos came out much better.

On the roofs of many buildings within the palace walls, guardians such as these protect the royal family's residence.


Here is the front gate to the palace. I cropped more sky out of this photo because I was not sure if there was too much blue in the other photo. Here is the original. What do you think?


Part of me sort of likes this one better........

Here is a flag belonging to one of the palace guards. I took this during the changing of the guards ceremony. The wind was whipping so strongly that I could barely open my eyes because of the dirt blowing in my face, but I did snap this photo. I really like the clouds and sun in the background, and the flag itself is really fun. I wonder if the ugly buildings in the background detract from the photo though? And what about the fact that the upper corner of the flag is cut off?

Tomb Guardian

I took this photo on a beautiful day in October. Here in Seoul, there is a park not too far from COEX mall where the tombs of several kings of the Joseon dynasty are held. This is a guardian placed in front of the tomb of King Sejong, the greatest king in Korean history. He has been credited for many of the achievements of Korean civilization, such as hangul, the Korean alphabet.I don't know much about digital editing, but does this look better with a color boost?

I don't know much about digital editing, but does this look better with a color boost?