I haven’t made a photo I really like in a while. I can think of three possible reasons for this. One, I’m just in the kind of slump that comes to all people involved in the arts (ooh, aren’t I fancy?). Two, I’m tired and bored of visiting the same few places over and over. Three, equipment analyis paralysis is using up the mental energy that should be going to thinking of new ways to photograph what’s around me. One or more of these things is stopping me from doing anything creative.
So this morning I picked up my Fujifilm X-T4 and resolved to at least practise pressing the shutter button if nothing else. I chose the X-T4 because it’s light and because it’s digital and I wouldn’t waste the precious film in my other cameras. I threw away the idea of trying to make photographs for my portfolio and decided that I would just take pictures to share on the blog. If I can’t make something good, I thought, at least I can show people some things they might not be familiar with. And so . . .
This is where I catch the bus for downtown, where I transfer to Bus 1 that goes to Goseong County. It’s illegal to smoke within ten metres of a bus stop and this garbage can has a no smoking sign on it. But it’s the kind of garbage can that has a place for cigarette butts. You might be able to see some and an empty pack of smokes.
To catch Bus 1, I get off at the market and walk across a main road to transfer. Near the entrance to the market are women selling vegetables unofficially.
I arrived in the village of Gyoam and noticed that the county are replacing the old bus shelters with nice new ones. The new ones have much better protection from wind and rain. Caution tape is wrapped around this one. Maybe the concrete floor hasn’t dried yet.
The usual sort of older house you’ll see out in the countryside. Carved into the large stone on the left is ‘Heavenly Crane Pavilion’ in Chinese characters. The pavilion and Gyoam Harbour are what I went to look at today.
Another large stone with the name of the pavilion. In Korean letters this time. The pavilion is at the top of two sets of stairs.
I took this photo when I was just about at the top of the stairs.
I was going to go into the pavilion and make some pictures of the sea, but some men from the Seniors’ Club beat me to it. The Seniors’ Club members are hired by the county to pick up litter, pull weeds from between bricks in sidewalks, and other small jobs. They spend most of the day sitting around and talking. But they only get paid two to three hundred thousand Won a month, so I’d be sitting around a lot as well. It’s basically slave labour.
I moved here and there to get some different perspectives of the pavilion. At one point I stood by the side of the pavilion to look out over the sea and the man on the left gave me an unpleasant look and said to his friend, ‘Look, there’s an American here.’ I thought about asking him what an American is supposed to look like and aren’t there white people in, say, Europe, but what would have been the point? He’s from the generation that probably only ever encountered U.S. soldiers before English teachers started showing up in the 90s. As I was leaving, the other man said to me in English, ‘Beautiful pictures!’. From his intonation, I think he meant, ‘I hope you made some beautiful pictures.’ So that was nice.
Grasshopper Dive Resort. I saw a café and an octopus soup restaurant, but not a resort. Maybe ‘resort’ means a place where you can rent scuba equipment and get lessons. A jacked-up 4×4 is a common sort of vehicle at diving places. Manly sports need manly vehicles?
A couple of fishing boats at Gyoam Harbour. The boat on the right is not a design I often see. But I don’t spend too much time at harbours.
A typical fishing boat. This one is named Shinjin.
Broken stairs on rocks outside the breakwater.
The Heavenly Crane Pavilion as seen from the breakwater. It looks like it should be in an Oriental painting. (Is it still okay to say Oriental painting?)
A wide-angle view of the harbour.
South of Gyoam Harbour you can see seaside hotels and cafés. A few people were playing on the beach.
Not as nice as the pavilion on the hill, but it’s a good place to sit and relax at the harbour.
Another fishing boat tied up at the harbour. I rather like the composition of this photo and the white boat stands out against the dark buildings and wharf.
No harbour is complete without a building dedicated to selling live fish for taking away or eating on the premises. Not much happening on a Monday morning.
I bought a tin of coffee and sat at a picnic table in front of a 7-11 close to the harbour. I noticed a couple of dishes set out for a cat or cats.
This guy/girl showed up a few seconds after I took the picture of the food dish. The cat lid down by the picnic table until the owner opened the door to the shop and then he/she went in to have a look around.
I think this is a café. It’s also close to the harbour and beach. The signs say No Pets, Brush the sand off yourself before entering, Don’t enter if you’re wet, and Don’t bring outside food into the café. The first floor has inside seating as well as seat on the deck, the second floor is a No Kids zone, and the third floor is the rooftop which has seating.
If your life has no meaning or purpose, the GS25 convenience store chain will provide you with a Lifestyle Platform. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean. Everything you need to live conveniently is in one place? I used to buy my tins of coffee here until the 7-11 opened up not too long ago. Better view. And cats!
While waiting for my bus home, I took this picture of Gyoam’s main street. It’s not much to look at, but just past the centre utility pole is a very good Chinese restaurant.
Home Sweet Cat. Actually, the bugger was pretending to sleep when I entered the room and he was looking at me through narrowed eyes. So much for a warm welcome.
I hope that wasn’t too many pictures for one post. Today I tried to avoid thinking about making great pictures and just tried to take good pictures that would show people a documentary view of the place I had visited. I didn’t make any adjustments to the pictures as you can probably tell from the flat look of many of them. I might work on a couple of the photos later on, but today was about just getting out with a camera.
The X-T4 worked okay. It didn’t crash on me like it sometimes does. The Acros film simulation looks good enough and the camera wasn’t exhausting to carry around. But I wish I had a simpler digital camera with fewer buttons. I pressed some by accident several times today and I had to change settings back to what they were or turn off a timer screen, etc. A digital Leica M camera would be nice, but you’d have to be mad / filthy rich to pay that much money for something that might be obsolete/unfixable in a few years.
Ugh. Thinking about cameras again . . .