Recently the voting ended for the portrait art contest that is taking part by the group Artpoli. As you may recall in last month's posts I invited you all to get to know the famous Kolleen Park. I don't know if any of you voted or submitted artwork, but it looks like there was a good turn out.

The following links can show you what works of art were selected for the gallery showing.

• [Togethership with Kolleen Park – Open Art Contest] 1/2 http://www.artpoli.com/collections/387 (random)
• [Togethership with Kolleen Park – Open Art Contest] 2/2 http://www.artpoli.com/collections/388 (random)
• Seperation is no reason and random.
• These are to be exhibited at Shinhan Gallery Yeoksam  during 4/28 - 6/15

As April is approaching it's final week and a half that means some important events will occur in regards to this show. Here for you is a reminder of what to check out:

• Kolleen Park will join.
• All Artist can be attend.  
• Gallery Address: Seoul Gangnam-gu Yeoksam-dong 731 ShinhanBank Gangnam annexe first basement level Shinhan Gallery Yeoksam (02-2151-7684)

• April 28 - June 15, Shinhan Gallery Yeoksam (Mon - Sat, 10am - 6pm) 

 

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We’re on the 3rd floor trying to get some work done, but the two college students a few tables over are smoking like factories and playing the loudest damn game of Kawi Bawi Bo I’ve ever heard in my life.

It goes on like that for five more minutes, and we’re starting to get perturbed by all the rocks and papers and scissors being thrown around. All of a sudden, my fiance asks: “Wait, did that guy just say ‘cowabunga’?” I look over at one of the guys who was now standing up and flexing triumphantly, wearing a Red Sox hat and a Yankees jacket. Cowabunga was evidently his winning cry, and just like that, they’re leaving the cafe.

That was our first time at Cappuccino, and luckily, our fifteen or so trips back there since then (we’re pretty much permanent fixtures there now) have been much quieter and laid back. Most of the clientele are college students because of its proximity to Pukyong Nat’l University, but they’re more the studious types.

The whole place looks and feels like an old house, with little study rooms and nooks everywhere. It has 3 floors (2 main floors with a split-level/mezanine in the middle), and there’s also a garden with lots of greenery that makes you feel like you’re not in the middle of a city. Really, though, no matter where you choose to sit, the atmosphere is cozy, and a great place to get some work done.

The service at Cappuccino is wonderful, and unlike most other cafes (but not restaurants), there’s a ‘magic button’ on the table to call the server. The beverages are good quality and of comparable price to other cafes in the area (see price list below). The cakes are good too. It’s also laptop-friendly. There are power extension cords galore, and Wifi is available. There are little post-it notes stuck all over the walls with the ID and password. If for some reason it’s not working, you can always borrow some wifi from the Avatar PC room next door (ID: avatarpc).

An enigma: they have a wine rack with wine… however, you can’t drink it (we’ve asked plenty of times). So if you want some booze, you have the choice between a black or white russian. Not a bad choice.

Definitely check this place out, especially if you have some work or studying to do and plan to be in a cafe for a while!

Drink Prices:
black tea – darjeeling, lemon, earl, jasmine, orange, kiwi: 4
herbal tea – hibiscus, rosemary, lavender, camomile: 4
americano: 3.8
espresso: 3.5
cappuccino: 4
hot chocolate: 4
black russian/white russian: 6k
milk shake: 5

Food Prices:
cheese cake, choc cake, tiramisu: 3.5
waffle: 2.5
bagle, croissant: 2
sandwich (egg + ham): 2.5

Directions: Kyungsung metro exit 5. Turn left out of the exit (around the corner) and go four blocks down the street. Turn left just past the Family Mart. Cappuccino is in the free-standing house on your left.

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(Sources: SeoulBeats & personal scan)

Welcome Busan National University students, and please click here for the PowerPoint presentation that accompanies my guest lecture next week. I look forward to meeting you!

As for regular readers, this will be a repeat of the lecture I gave at the Royal Asiatic Society in Seoul back in February, but unfortunately I’m not aware if it is open to the public yet (I’ll update this post if it is). Partially, I’m posting the file here because it’s much too big to send via regular email, but I’ve also had many requests from readers for something like it, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully a much improved and simpler version of the original, now only a handful of the slides in it require my additional explanation to be understood, so I hope you can enjoy it even if you can’t make it to the lecture.

Please feel free to ask me any questions about the contents and/or for links to posts where I discuss any of the issues raised in it in more depth, and – as always – I would be extremely grateful for any feedback!

Filed under: Announcements, Body Image, Gender Roles, Korean Advertisements, Korean Media, Sex in Advertising, TGN in the Media Tagged: Erving Goffman, Gender Advertisements

 

This was taken last weekend at the Cheongdo Bull Fights and I sort of like the “300″ look to it. I did this same treatment the last time that I was out there a few years ago and stuck with it for the updated shots.

Why: I wanted to portray a “Gladiator” or “300″ feel to these shots and I love the mood of those movies and I think that it goes well here. Also, when I looked at my shots, I wanted to make something that stood out and was a little more on the dramatic side. Also, I found when I corrected the levels, the photos were a little flat and cold.

How: First, lets look at the basic set up at the time of the shot. I was using my trusty 70-200 canon lens set at f2.8 and iso bumped up to around 400 to make sure that I could freeze the action. I also brought my monopod along to further steady the camera and lens. This is my basic sports set up.

Next, I normally shoot in raw and here is no exception. Typically shooting in raw for sports is a concern because you want to have the speed without having to wait for the buffering to finish. When you shoot in bursts in raw, older cameras like mine with have a lag while processing the images. However here, I didn’t feel that it was much of a concern. With the photos taken, I opened them up in Camera Raw, but Aperture or Light Room would be suffice.

If you use the Auto settings, you are going to get a really flat picture. What I did for this shot was I desaturated the image until it is almost black and white but there is still colour in it. I also went back up to the top and warmed up the image using the temperature slider.

If you are using CS5 which has the lasted version of camera raw, you’ll see a new “fx” tab, I went there and added a post-crop vignette to draw more focus to the action in the center of the frame. Once that was done I opened the image up in photoshop. In the older version it will be found under the tab that kind of looks like this “((()))”

Once inside photoshop I did my usual size and sharpening adjustments.  I went into levels and dropped the mid-tones down a bit to really make this a bit more gritty. Then I added a warming filter and increased the percentage to something close to that “300″ look.

That was how I achieved this shot. it sounds like a lot and to be honest this is more than what I would normally do for a regular shot, that it also why I find it so interesting.