Korean Photography Blog

This past Saturday I visited Seoul with a group of very talented photographers to check out the Seoul International Photo & Imaging Industry Show. It was a virtual playground for those with an affinity for camera, gear, printers, bags, coffee, lights, etc. I must admit that I was impressed by the displays that each of the major photography companies put out. By and Far, Olympus for some reason seemed to be the most exciting. Mind you that was possibly because there was a brand new Nissan GTR parked in front of their display.

Canon had a ton of toys to play with, each hooked up to an impressively nice iMac that allowed you to shoot and instantly see the results. With all the pizzaz that the other booths had, Canon basically said “here, take a photo and see for yourself” It was extremely nice to be able to play around with thousands of dollars of camera goodness.

The strangest part of the whole show, had to have been the “models” or Doumi as I wrote about in a recent article for Ulsan Online. It was sort of mesmerizing and skanky at the same time in that sort of “what the F**k?” kind of way. Canon was a prime example. In one part of their huge display, they had a model sitting in front of fake European cafe setting. That was fine but where they had their high-end cameras was around a “classroom” replete with naughty school girls.

Not to be out done, each of the major brands had their own models standing there for you to test you equipment out on. It was rather interesting and a clever idea. Though there was that strange feeling of sickness watching hordes of men with thousands of dollars in camera equipment photographing girls in short skirts.

The plus side of the show was the deals to be had! Most of the shops had special pricing for the show. Though, there wasn’t much in the way of dealing on the pricing, there was some pretty good prices around. Griffin Stewart and I picked up some new straps for our Canons. I must highly recommend the Lowe Pro Voyager C camera strap.

If you have a rig like mine, where you have a heavy lens, plus a battery pack, then you no doubt have felt the cut of the seams and the rough edges of your camera strap digging in to your neck. I kid you not, after a lot day of shooting, that strap feels like it is going to decapitate you. The voyager C is like a gift from above! Soft, cushioned, breathable neoprene gives amazing relief on the old neck. Plus the memory card wallet on the strap is cool along with the quick release straps.

A few things that I didn’t pick up that I saw were very cool were the new line of Kata bags. They’ve changed up their logo (the one before looked like it was barfed up from the ’90′s) and updated their like of backpacks. Very cool and extremely functional. The bumblebee back pack looks really cool. Though the website says that it is coming soon, I totally saw it at the show.

One of the highlights of the trip, as sides from the great group of people, was the restaurant we went to for lunch. Taco Rico was quite possibly the most authentic mexican food that I have had in a long long time. They had great friendly service and great food. If you are even in Gangnam pop in and grab a bite, you be amazed. Zen Kimchi has a great video about it here

When all was said and done, I set off on my own in search of stunning photos of Seoul. After getting a little turned around and then losing the light, I decided it was better to grab yet another tasty mexican food place Tomatillo’s I was in the Jongak Station area and tore into a pretty damn tasty chicken burrito. For a good price you get a drink and a plate of chips (handmade) and salsa as a set menu. It was a great way to end an awesome day.

A things that made the trip great were some helpful apps made for Korea. Having an iPhone is a great tool in a city the size of Seoul. An app that was awesome when I got turned around near Jongak station was one called “Odiyar” which was great for searching out locations. This cool app uses a map when you have the camera facing down but switches on the camera and overlays the locational on the screen image of your phone. Thanks to Jon Purdy for telling me about this one.

The other app that I found useful every time I travel in Korea is iKorway This app has all of the information from busses to trains, along with extremely useful subway maps. You can adjust the route you take by minimum time or transfers and plot by just pressing the locations. It is great for navigating the complex network that is Seoul.

I hope that many of you got out and enjoyed the great weather this past weekend. I plan to get out and get some shots of the city one I slog through all of this work that I didn’t do this weekend.