Seoul

A mixture of contemporary art, cute cafes, streets of shopping and beautiful scenery. Seoul is my kind of city.

This post is quite delayed, seeing as I went to Seoul at the beginning of December last year. It was the first time I saw snow in a city (I've been to the Snowy Mountains in Australia, but that just doesn't compare with it actually full on snowing while going around shopping and city exploring). To the state the obvious, it was incredibly cold. I packed on as many layers as possible (thank goodness for Uniqlo Heatech). The wind blew around the snow, leaving any exposed area of skin freezing cold. With heaters blasting indoors, going in and out of shops was quite a hassle where layers of clothing had to be constantly taken on and then off.

Nonetheless, my five days in Seoul were still enjoyable. The snow was definitely quite beautiful and exciting to see in real life. It was a short trip, which involved visiting tourist sites such as Gyeongbok Palace, shopping, and going to as many cafes as possibles.

Myeondong was so good for shopping. Streets and streets of massive stores. I started around 6pm and stayed until all the shops closed at around 11pm. However, I was slightly disappointed by shopping in Seoul. I was expecting a shopper's paradise but compared to Taipei, the shopping experience is around the same (and Korean clothes aren't any cheaper in Korea).

Korean cafes are so good. I love their emphasis on interior design and decor. Even the coffee art! Although my coffee was only warm, not hot, when I received it, the coffee art definitely made up for it. However, beware - coffee can be quite pricey. Expect to pay about $5-7 for a cup of coffee.

Samcheondong was probably my most favourite area that I visited. Lots of boutique stores, cafes and contemporary art galleries. If you know me, you would understand that this is perfect for me. It was fun exploring the old style streets decorated with wall art/graffiti. I definitely recommend this place.

I definitely didn't get to see and do everything that I would have liked on my short tour with my mum. Things to do for my next trip to Korea:

• Go shopping at Dongdaemun during the middle of the night (apparently there's a market that opens at around midnight)
• Experience Korean nightlife (I definitely didn't want to go to a bar/club with my mum)
• Travel around to the towns and Jeju Island!

PS: This is the cafe in the photos - http://www.5cijung.com/

Scrapbooking

I recently discovered something called Project Life. It's like scrapbooking but more organised with a combination of digital and paper designing. It seems like an awesome way of recording memories.

As great as the templates you can buy are, something about me just has to make it myself from scratch. It probably won't look as good, but I enjoy the creative process of making everything.

Designing my own photobook from scratch also seems like a fun challenge.

I recently went to Taiwan for 6 weeks and I had so many great memories. I definitely want to make a scrapbook or photobook in order to remember everything!

But I have a confession to make: for the past year I've been trying to make a scrapbook of a trip I did with my friends in November 2011. I'm only halfway through completing it so I guess this means I'm terrible at making scrapbooks. My goal is to finish making scrapbooks for both the trips by the end of the year! Wish me luck!

Do you have any creative projects that you've been working on for a ridiculously long time?

Fashionable Male Friends

I have to say, after high school my guy friends suddenly got a lot more stylish. I think it was a mixture of the new found free time and money (for those lucky enough to get an university scholarship). Now they seem to be constantly consulting male fashion advice and shopping on ASOS. They love discussing their new purchases and they complain that my girl friends and I just don't understand male fashion.

I wish I could be as stylish as them.

Straya Day at the Light Garden

After much last minute deliberation on the morning of Australia Day, a couple of my girl friends and I decided to check out the Light Garden at Centennial Park! In celebration of its 125th anniversary, Centennial Park had some outdoor installation art for the public to enjoy at night.

The lights reminded me of something you would see in a romantic scene in a movie. It was dark and harder to navigate than I expected. Luckily there were only 3 of us, or else we probably would have lost each other in the crowd.

The darkness made it even harder to focus with my manual focus lens. I had to use the markings on the lens and approximate my distance away from the subject. I need more practise with the manual focus!

I processed RAW photos for the first time (I've always been too lazy to process them). However, I ended up editing it like a normal JPEG photo on Photoshop mostly. Does anyone have tips for RAW editing/processing or know any good tutorials?

Instant Addiction

Kelly - the cute dog that makes me sneeze.

If you follow me on Tumblr or Twitter, you would see that I post on Instagram a lot... As an avid social media user and photo taker - Instagram is just perfect for me :)

But the problem is that as I use it more and more, I'm developing a greater 'need' to instantly share my photos. This means that my cameras have been put aside for a prolonged period... Even if I do take a photo with a proper camera, I still want to share it on Instagram! Should I embrace or resist this changing technological and social environment?

(Uni is teaching me that in order to remain relevant, I need to be agile and embrace change. But I can't just let go of my beautiful cameras....)

Some wise words from C.S. Lewis

Walking home to some pretty skies

Economics love

A smile from the bus driver

Light and Shadow

Have you ever had one of those days where you don't intend on taking photos, but then something catches your eye and before you know it, you've just taken a whole series of photos?

Well that's what happened here. Too bad my battery died so my 'photo walk' ended a bit prematurely.

So I'm currently on holidays until the end of the month. Yay! But I've still been pretty busy - working (mostly unpaid though), hanging out with friends and breaking windows. Yes, I broke a window with my arm and there was a piece of glass stuck in me. (Don't worry, all my cuts were superficial so I'm all good now.)

Bright Days

Excited about our 8:30am accounting lecture.

In Sunday afternoon traffic.

9am at Bondi.

From these photos, it probably looks like I'm in nice warm weather but unfortunately I am not. It's currently winter and everyday I struggle to get out of my warm bed. I'm looking forward to spring.

Also, I haven't been eating out much lately so I have very few food adventures to share. And when I do eat out, sometimes I forget my camera and instead I take photos for Instagram. The troubles of teenage photography enthusiast - should I take a photo with my phone for Instagram or with a good camera??
(I normally end up taking photos with both...)