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I don’t much care for k-pop. I don’t watch many Korean dramas. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV. I don’t follow “idols” or really pay attention to what they do. Last week I was teaching a class. One of my students asked me for my thoughts on the recent suicides of Korean idols […]
There was a time when I was a good street photographer. There was a time when I would shoot constantly. I’d walk constantly. I’d walk and shoot. Nowadays I walk to the coffee shop on Sunday mornings to get a coffee for me and my wife. I sometimes take my camera. The coffee shop is […]
So, this year has been a busy one! Tons of things to do and very little time. Compared to the past couple of years I am constantly back and forth to Seoul, juggling three jobs, and taking care of our “babies.” That brings me to a point I kinda thought was interesting today. My friends […]
So finally, after much ado, my first attempt at a vlog is live on my new YouTube channel 😉 It isn’t much, but it is a start. In this post, I’ll go over a bit of the process I went through making this first (obviously not great) video. There isn’t actually that much to talk […]
10 So, here goes. My top ten photos of 2018. Well, in fact this post will just go through 6-10 in reverse order. Above is number 10. Admittedly this year was slim pickings for street photography. I quite literally didn’t do much of it. In February I participated in the 24 hour project in Busan. […]
So, it is 2019. How time flies. I can’t believe last year went by so quickly. Was shocking to me. Was really one of the best years in my life. That is, at least personally. It almost felt like a vacation of a year. 2019 is here and I need to buckle down and get […]
Hi Everyone! It’s been a while. Some new stuff to announce! As of this week I started as the Leica Akademie Ambassador in Korea. What does this mean? It means workshops, lectures, exhibitions and more! I’m really excited by what is to come. First! This Saturday, September 15th at 1:00 at the Leica Store Gangnam […]
It was my birthday yesterday. I tend to forget. They kind of just happen. I’d asked people on my Instagram in the morning what I should have for dinner. It seemed a fine enough idea. The choices were raw beef or sushi. I’d put on shorts and paint stained t-shirt to go out. Since renovating […]
Hello everyone! I’m happy to announce a workshop I will be hosting in Seoul at the end of July. Here is all the info: Workshop: Jtinseoul in Seoul 07.29.2018 ─ Overview This workshop is meant to be an informal, fun, and informative. During the workshop, students will spend time with myself, JT, in the streets […]
Been a while again. I know I said I was going to try and blog more. I think I say that at some point during every post. Reality is, things are always so busy that I rarely have a chance to do anything aside from eat and sleep, ha. So, consider this an update on […]
So, this is my bag for the @24hourproject this year. I’ll leave work tonight and head for the port/beach city of Busan. The cameras I’ve decided to take are the original Fujifilm X100, the Leica T (with 50mm Summilux v2), and my phone. I’ll use the Fuji for street, the Leica for portraits, and the phone if […]
So I’ve done the 24 Hour Project for four years in a row. It is a difficult thing to do, in fact, sometimes it outright sucks. I don’t know why I keep doing it. Well, I guess I kind of do. The memories. I do the project selfishly. Even though it is always a struggle […]
I’ve got some good news and some bad news about this ‘review.’ The bad news first. I’d been waiting to do this review because I didn’t have any photos. Literally, I didn’t have any time since I promised this review to even take photos. Not even a spare hour to walk around. Feck. My days […]
After much ado, my first solo zine is now available. It’s been a long time coming and I apologize for the wait! The photos found in this zine are mostly street photos, which is where I had my start. This book is special to me because of the title: Neverland. This is what my father […]
Okay, a slight follow up to yesterday’s “pre-review” of the Pen-f. One thing I wanted to ask people is if they want to see some of the OM-D EM-1 in the review. I know, it isn’t the newest version, but to be honest this is the camera I use most for “serious” work. I know […]
So, I’m gonna start by saying this is not a review. The review is still in progress. My thoughts about the Pen-F are actually pretty well concluded. I know how I feel about it in use. I know how I feel about it with the 17mm Olympus lens and I know how I feel about […]
I’ve lived in Korea for a long time. Nearly 10 years in fact all told. I’ve always been aware of the big holidays – of which there are two – Seolnal and Chuseok. Weirdly though, I’d never properly experienced one until this year. The week didn’t start off so good. The weather was about as […]
Winter is here. I know I’m behind on blog posts. Feels like I can never catch up. I am in the middle of renovating my house here in Iksan. Last week, the snows came. Winter had been nothing more than a cold autumn until now. I like the snow. Being a teacher, when the snow […]
It’s been a strange couple of weeks. Things that seem big rungs on life’s ladder all kind of happened at once. I guess that is how life works. Christmas also happened. I took this photo on Christmas morning. My navigation took me off the highway and I saw these birds. This is one of those […]
So it all started with a conversation. A simple conversation. Myself and Nick were having a beer and talking about cameras. We did that a lot. He asked where my M3 was. You see, I had sold it. I bought it because it was cheap and I was poor. I bought it because it was […]
There is this wall. It isn’t a particularly interesting wall. In fact, it is a very normal one. That being said, I think it is my favourite wall. It is kind of beige or off-white. The wallpaper is fairly typical for Korea. I can’t remember the first photo I took against it. I think it […]
Well, this should come as a surprise. I’ve been shooting with a Ricoh GRII again. Yup, again (well only like ten photos so far, ha). My blog post- Why I Always End Up With Ricoh – is especially pertinent at these kind of moments. The story goes something like this: I had a GRII at […]
This is a post about nothing in particular, I promise. It isn’t about anything that has been talked about a thousand times and it certainly isn’t going to be about comparing anything. Definitely not. It is just a post about some photos I took on a day trip to Gunsan. I had planned on going […]
I haven’t been here for a while. Truth be told I have been super busy of late. In June and July I hosted friends for nearly both months. I taught two workshops in July with Wearethestreet and Leica Korea. Needless to say, it has been a wild ride. The whole thing started with Matt. Matt […]
Wearethestreet is a group of photographers that I’m a part of. The other photographers in the group are Sean Lotman, Chulsu Kim, Nicholas Dominic Talvola, Aik Beng Chia, and Junku Nishimura. From Wearethestreet: Hi everyone! We are super excited to announce our first Wearethestreet zine! The zine was designed by Wearethestreet member Aik Beng Chia […]
So, it’s been some time since I’ve talked about this camera. I credit this camera with being the camera that actually taught me what photography really was. It wasn’t the Leica M9 or Leica M8 I had before this. Wasn’t the M6 or the M3. It was this, the Sony DSC-W100. You may be thinking, […]
Hello everyone! Wearethestreet is happy to announce our inaugural workshop and exhibition held in concert with Leica Camera Korea in Seoul! The workshop is hosted by Leica Camera Korea and is sponsored in part by Lucida Straps. Exhibition Details: The exhibition will be held at Leica Camera Korea in the Gangnam district of Seoul. The […]
The green tea fields of Boseong. A popular place for Koreans to visit during the spring and summer. I went without much thought. I went without many expectations. I was somehow expecting a tranquil experience. I was expecting a feeling of calm. In fact, though, it was busy and crowded. It was full of tourists. […]
I noticed her. The park was full of tourists. The cherry blossom season in Gyeongju is a big event in Korea. The small lake had a winding path circling it. Strangely, no one walked up to the lake. She did, though. Wearing a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) like out of a dynasty far removed she […]
There are several things photographers usually struggle with. Gear is usually the first. People struggle with what camera to use and when. Recently, some people have asked me to talk about gear that ISN’T a camera. So, in the next couple blog posts I’ll talk a little about the other photography gear struggles… The strap […]
April 1st was the date of the 24 hour project this year. For those of you that don’t know what it is, it is an Instagram initiative where photographers from all around the world post one photo per hour for 24 hours in their given city. It is the third time I’ve done the project, […]
So, it has been about a month since I have been using film almost full time. It is an interesting experience. I mean, I shot film for years but somehow it makes a lot more sense to me this time. Maybe it is because I’ve gotten older or more patient. Maybe I am just learning […]
I wrote a little about this in my last post. After some careful thought I decided to shoot a lot more film this year. Almost exclusively, actually. It isn’t something that is easy to do but, something I feel is necessary. The first obvious question is why. Well, it isn’t easy to answer this either. […]
The hardest part of photography for me is processing. The part that pisses me off the most is processing. Basically the only thing that annoys me is processing. I fucking HATE processing. Why? Well, there are too many options. My mind changes too often. I hate being in front of a computer, yet, spend half […]
So, I just wrote about the Fujifilm X-Pro 2. It is a nice enough camera. I used it over the past six months. The fact of the matter is though, I never felt much of a connection to that camera. It worked just fine, but it never made me want to take photos. It was […]
Around six months ago I wrote a blog post about using one camera and one lens for a year. I tried my best, actually. I used the Epson I had planned to use for about a month until it died because of humidity. The second one I got also died. It was at that point […]
One of the things I’ve decided to do in 2017 is to lose some weight, ha. A typical resolution but a necessary one. I gained 15KG in 2016. No good, that. Luckily already shedding them in the first couple weeks of 2017. The first thing I did was quite all the shit I was doing. […]
First off, I want to thank everyone for sticking around over the past couple months even though I have posted so infrequently. I wish I had a good excuse, but truth is I’m just lazy. I have ideas for posts but never manage to sit down and write them. After some thought, I’ve decided to […]
Chuseok here in Korea. It is kind of like Thanksgiving for those of you who aren’t up on your Korean culture. Sitting in a coffee shop it feels a bit weird. I used to hear how Chuseok is a family holiday but it seems like all the families are here in this cafe, ha. I […]
Been quite a while since I’ve posted! Unfortunately this isn’t much more than a bit of an update. The summer is terrible here in Korea. Way too hot.. Also, I have been in the process of moving so it has been hard to post. Recently, I broke down and purchased the iPhone SE. When I […]
I noticed the orange and red lights first while flying into Korea. I remember thinking about Gibson’s Neuromancer. The neon night city of Chiba and my obtuse vision of what Asia was like. When the plane was close to touching down I realized what I was looking at were crosses. Equally neon, they littered the skyline. I didn’t […]
Was an interesting week or two. I wanna start by apologizing for not having posted frequently over the past several months. It still surprises me when I get emails from people asking me why I haven’t posted. It still surprises me that anyone even checks these things. To be perfectly honest, the reason I don’t […]
I don’t know when I suddenly turned into a “reviewer” of cameras. I guess it isn’t really much about the cameras. I’ve for the most part stopped buying cameras. New cameras, anyway. Cameras sort of find their way to me. Cameras of all different types. Let me start by saying this: I have stopped paying […]
I took the late train home Saturday night from Seoul. I haven’t taken the train much this year. I’m not sure why. I like the window seat. I like watching the countryside drone on. The contact sheets that make up my life. I was tired. Tired a lot lately. Almost too tired to take this […]
일상 literally means daily. It is one of the most popular tags on Instagram here in Korea. I always thought it was a funny one. I didn’t really get it. The “daily” photo. Then one day my phone ran out of memory. I was shocked. I checked the settings only to figure out photos were […]
It is a holiday in Korea this weekend. For me, it means a five day holiday. In the past I might have flown to Japan or Hong Kong but lately I prefer to stay closer to home. A couple of months ago I moved back to Iksan, the small town I originally came to when […]
“Why do you take so many photos on the train?” I get it.It must be sort of boring to see twenty photos a week of people on the Seoul tube. Fact of that matter is, I don’t take many photos. I literally never go outside with my camera just to take photos. I don’t do […]
As a continuation of the rather strange last month for my blog I’ve decided to do another “review.” I put that in quotations because I don’t think I really know how to do a proper review. This will be more like my thoughts on a camera I’ve used off and on for a while: The […]
In a hotel room in Seoul. Staying in a hotel makes me feel like I’m doing something. I sort of enjoy it. I don’t usually take this kinda photo. Felt like a memory I wanted to be in. 2015 has come and gone. It was a mostly up and sometimes down year. I enjoyed most […]
I suppose I should start by saying merry Christmas. I almost forgot it was Christmas (not really) being here in Korea. Probably partly to do with the fact I worked until 10 PM yesterday. You may or may not know this about me, but I’m a teacher. Like many foreigners here in Korea I teach, […]
A lot of things can happen in a week. A lot of things did happen. A week from writing my post on mobile photography I find myself ironically with no camera but my phone. A long story short, Ricoh wanted to charge me $700 to fix a camera that costs less than that new. I’m […]
So I said I was done with gear posts during the last post. I guess I kind of lied. The one camera I hadn’t talked about yet was probably the one I use the most. My phone. The mobile phone has been the camera I’ve used the most over the past 5 or so years. […]
I’m going to do something today I don’t usually do anymore. I’m going to talk a little about a camera. It is pretty ironic that I planned on talking about the Ricoh GR on this blog post and today it decided to have a problem with its lens mechanism. More on that later. I don’t […]
I am often asked why I choose to live in Korea. I’m Canadian, for those of you who didn’t know. I’ve lived in Korea for most of the last 8 years. And quite honestly, I am perfectly happy to never go back. At least not to live. It is hard to describe why that is […]
It must seem that I take so many photos on the subway. Funny, just happens to be where I am. Honeslty though, I probably take two or three photos during a trip. Maybe. Depends on how interesting the music I’m listening to is. I had a conversation with my friend Simon about this the other […]
Some time ago I made a blog post talking about how I felt taking photos in Korea. I called it Neverland, because of something my father used to say to me. He used to tell me that Korea was my Neverland. “Having fun in Neverland, Peter?” He always said that. At the time I thought […]
Thursday morning was pretty foggy. Probably the most fog I’ve seen in Korea. Granted it was 6 AM. Maybe my brain was a little foggy. On my way to the golf course this was pretty much the scene out my window. Not ideal. Glad I could take a photo of it with my phone. Phones […]
Seoul and back again. October 2015.
The end of a long weekend. I used to travel on weekends like this. I would go to Tokyo or Hong Kong. Now, I prefer to stay nearer home. Funny that. I’m not sure I enjoy staying close. I stayed in a hotel last night just to feel like I was doing something. Just to […]
Finally, I’ve had a chance to settle into my new/old city. I love being here. It is relaxing. I feel relaxed. Something I haven’t done for some time. It is a quiet place, much quieter than where I had been. Sundays, like today, are particularly quiet. I get bored easily, so needless to say, days […]
I haven’t written for a while. I would like to say the main reason is that I’ve been moving and having had any time. While the fact of that is true, it isn’t the real reason for not having made a new post. As many of you know, or could see here, I had been […]
A month or so ago, I wrote a long post talking about a Sony digital compact camera I had that died. I wrote about how much I loved that camera. Wrote about how it taught me more about photography than almost any camera I had every used. I talked about how it cured me of […]
This may seem a repost. Might seem a bit of dejavu. It feels that way for me too. You know when you pull off a band aid or jump into a cold pool? Better to do it in one shot. It hurts less. This brings me to the death of a friend: my Sony DSC-W100. […]
Strange. When I was in Canada the one thing I thought that I wanted to photograph in Korea was the cherry blossoms. No particular reason, aside from the fact that I had never photographed them before. I’ve been back for two seasons of them, and this is the closest I’ve been to them. Through the […]
I don’t know how to choose the photos I think are best anymore. I am not sure what I like or what is good. So I post all of them. For better or worse, until I figure it out. Seoul, South Korea. April 4th, 2015.
Its been a while since a post. In fact, my posts are coming less and less lately. It is hard to find the time to take photos, and even harder to find the time to post them. I realized that 90 percent of the photos I take are on the underground. I suppose it is […]
I’ve been working a little bit on this series of “contact sheets.” So far, I talked about a couple of my favorite photos from the past year or so. This one, ha, is a bit funny. The story behind taking Eric’s current (at the time of this writing) profile photo. The story starts in the […]
Been a while since I’ve posted anything, and will probably be a while before I do again. I often say I’m going to take a break and rarely do, ha. Definitely needed this time though. Working on too many things and not nearly enough time. No time to shoot, no time to post, no time […]
More fish. After spending the previous weekend in Busan I found it hard to get away from the couple of photos I took there. I feel like I figured something out about myself there. I’ve always found it really hard to explain why I like the photos I take with small, compact cameras more. It […]
A question of style. Sitting around with a group of non-photography friends the other day one of them all of a sudden asked me why I posted a “‘normal” colour photo of them on Facebook. I thought it was a weird fucking question, considering the photo was just taken while they were just standing in a […]
“I can’t watch the news anymore. Let’s sit somewhere without a TV.” “How about just switching places so your back is to it?” “I can still hear it.” Inevitably, there comes a point when news of a tragedy becomes too much. Too much for the soul. Too much for the heart. You can only hope […]
My buddy Eric once did a a project on Korea called “The Presentation of Self.” While I’m not sure he really dug that project as much as his other work, the idea was a good one. Korea might be one of the most superficial countries in the world with self presentation being of utmost importance. […]
With not a lot going on the past week or so I stumbled across some old photos from a trip to Jeju-do in 2011. I had gone with one of my best friends, Chad. We’d done the trip on motorcycles. I can honestly say it was one of the best weeks of my life. Just […]
After watching a couple of disturbing videos today, I’m fucking astonished at what’s happened to the kids of this generation. Astonished. Seeing kids act out video games on the streets. Knocking out unsuspecting teachers and laughing about it. Really fucking funny. Whose to blame? Probably all of us. This generation is defined by fine lines […]
In the process of starting a project in Seoul following a group of musicians as they tour the underground clubs of Asia. Just a couple of days into shooting, I can already feel the vibe coming together. It’s seeping into what I’m doing. It’s a fucking great feeling. The inspiration for the project was jump-started […]
From my one night visa run to Japan. Only time for the airport and a shopping mall. Incheon, South Korea and Narita, Japan. December 6th and 7th, 2011. All images from the Leica M9P, 35mm Summilux.
de·tached adj \di-ˈtacht, dē-\ Definition of DETACHED 1 : standing by itself : separate, unconnected; especially : not sharing any wall with another building <a detached house> 2 : exhibiting an aloof objectivity usually free from prejudice or self-interest <a detached observer>
When you woke up this morning, you probably thought about how much better your life would be if you had a Leica M9. You probably thought about how having the Fujifilm X100 would make you a better street photographer. You should have then asked yourself a couple of questions. 1. Do you display your images […]
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