Seonimgyo Bridge

[Yes, really, two posts in two days! Still dumping Korea pictures...]

One of the attractions near Jungmun Tourism Complex is the Seonimgyo bridge (apologies I never got a picture of it from far away so you could see how it is located):


Here it is in the background of a Korean Gatorade I bought:


And here it is before I crossed back over to head to the hotel.


This image was a bit nasty to post-process because it had the interlacing problem from my flaky 20D sensor (a problem that hasn't re-occurred since I've returned to the States). Using the interlace option in PSP XI (on the rotated image) took care of most of the problem, and then I had to spot-edit some areas of a very saturated blue in the dark areas. There were still some remaining artifacts but they aren't evident in these web-resolution images.

I was playing with the exposure of the bridge and I really liked the sun's effect in the sky and the shadowed (almost a silhouette) bridge.

The Princess and the Hayman

My daughter loves it when I make up a princess story for her, so I thought that the above title is appropriate. I got special permission (from my wife) to post this because my daughter is not identifiable and personally, it is my favorite picture of the Makin' Hay series (maybe just because my daughter is in it).

Makin' Hay

Here's a photo I submitted to DPChallenge's Personification II competition. It was literally a last minute submission, so I didn't get to tweak it quite as much as I'd like.

Table Salt hasn't done that well (around a 4.7 or so) and I don't expect Makin' Hay (from the sculpture in the Stanford Foothills) to do much better. It seems like pictures really need to have great contrast and extreme colors with a strong overall image. Details matter less, mostly because of the 640 pixel maximum. I've become a member, and I'm planning on submitting many more images (but it will take me a while to do well, I expect).

Meet David's Admirers...

Later, after I took the first images of David, I walked by the same gallery and saw these other people admiring the sculpture. I thought it'd make a good picture, so I put my camera to my eye right as this guy turned around to imitate David's pose.

Yeah, he saw me. And yeah, I didn't stick around...

David: Slab-Man

David is not real -- David is actually a work of art called Slab Man by Duane Hanson that was made 1976 (yes, David is older than I am).

But, boy, does David have a presence.


The first time I saw David at the Cantor Center I didn't actually see David. I was looking around the museum and came upon a gallery that was still under construction. The two outside areas (near the doors) were complete, but the center was still under construction. So, I walked in, noticed one of the workmen (a rather large, husky guy) taking a break, and avoided eye contact while I looked at the art. After all, it was near the end of the day, and this guy's body language was saying he was tired and didn't really want to be bothered. I finished with the gallery and moved on.

It was only a bit later when I went by the same room and saw other people looking at David that I realized he wasn't real. So, yes, I was alone in the same room with David for 10 minutes... while I was looking at each piece of art in turn... and never noticed he wasn't real.

Furthermore, even when photographing David, when you invade his space, you feel it. In fact, I took a few shots right in front of his gaze, and it was quite unsettling.

Meet David...

More about him tomorrow...

Auguste Rodin

This is a sculpture-portrait of Auguste Rodin by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1910).

Beefcake

Currently, the only photo exhibit on display at the Cantor Arts Center is:

Beefcake
The Physique Photography of Dave Martin

Without going into much detail, lets just say that it features well-muscled young men and their genitalia. Still, I checked it out, although it was a struggle to see the merit of the portraits beyond, the, you know. I'll be honest, I was a bit uneasy.

I got two really funny things out of the visit though. First, while I was in there, alone, with a camera (yeah, that had to look a little suspicious) I heard a young female voice in the hall say:

Mom! Don't go in there, that's the most disgusting room I've ever seen!

Well, of course, what do I see next but a middle-aged woman sticking her head around the corner and take a long look. I smiled at her, she smiled at me, and then she reluctantly followed her daughter.

Also interesting was the comment book that was left in the room. The idea was to leave comments for the curators of the museum (which probably gave them some real feedback about including an exhibit that had a warning on the door). One particular page jumped out, reproduced below.

The one in the center cracked me up most of all. "Very educational" and then signing it "Jenae/virgin"... why exactly is the /virgin necessary? Is it a badge of honor or a sign that she got a lot out of the visit?

The Thinker

This is one of the most famous Auguste Rodin sculptures (The Thinker), and in real life, it truly is massive.

Vairochana

This is the detail around the base of an artifact at the Cantor Arts Center from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). I thought it made an interesting composition.

Gay Liberation Part II

You may have noticed that pictures of people are pretty conspicuously absent from these entries. Part of that is for practical reasons: my wife doesn't want pictures of her or the kids posted on the internet (and I don't want to post my friends or their kids either without permission, for similar reasons). The other part of it is that I'm pretty shy about approaching strangers.

That is one advantage of sculptures -- you can experiment with shots that invade personal space without making anyone uncomfortable. I took a number of shots of Gay Liberation and got really close to the sculpture from many angles with my 50 mm lens. I'm hoping to get my nerve up and approach some strangers in the near future for portraits, but for now, sculpture is a good exercise.

Another thing I'd like to point out about the image above: the photo was of the woman on the left (in the overall image, see previous entry). This was her "good side", from almost every other angle I found her decidedly unattractive (I think the casting deformed her face somewhat).

And yes, I'm actually assessing the beauty of a face in a bronze statue.

Gay Liberation

Gay Liberation, 1980

by George Segal, USA, 1924-2000
Painted Bronze

One nice thing about Stanford is the wide range of art put in random places. Such as this sculpture near the west side of the main quad. When I originally saw it a few years ago (riding by on my bike) I assumed it was a student project made out of paper mache.


I revisited it about a week ago around dusk (and took these photos). It turns out it is actually painted bronze.

And only just now, as I posted these pictures, did I realize how the title related to the sculpture.

Stone River

This is Stone River a sculpture outside of the Cantor Arts Center.

An Urban Legend

There is an urban legend that some graduate students have turned to bronze after their tenth year of study.

That's my theory at least (I only have two years to go).

Just kidding... This is one of the Rodin sculptures in Memorial Court.