At long last I have edited the photos from my outing to King Myeongju’s Tomb up in the mountains. Soon I’ll print them on 4×6 paper so I have a better idea of what I might want to print on 8×10 paper later.
——————————————————————–

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I don’t know if these white stones were taken out of the ground to make room for a new path, or if they were brought to the park to be used in landscaping. Maybe I’ll find out the next time I visit.
—————————————————————————————————-

I almost said that this is a new path and manhole, but a man wouldn’t fit down this. The building in the background is a public toilet, so there might be some connection with that. The bathroom looks great from the outside, but I wouldn’t use it. I don’t think it’s been cleaned or renovated for years. Maybe that’s next on the list of things to fix.
—————————————————————————————————————————

This building is used for ancestral rites to honour the king. Probably once a year. I thought it curious that someone used a lot of concrete to make a bridge between the hill and the back entrance instead of two smaller sets of stairs. But probably a procession goes from the building up to the tomb and this is safer and more convenient.
—————————————————————————————————————

It’s possible that the owner of this private house might have some duties as a caretaker. A farmer living next to the Obong Confucian School had a similar role. I wish there was more light on the stele, but perhaps it’s fitting that there is light on the living home and shadow on the marker of a tomb.
——————————————————————

Into the afterworld . . . . .
————————————————————————-

I like the harmony of the curved lines in the tomb and the hill. And the repetition of the vertical lines of the trees and the stele.
———————————————————————————–

A close-up of one of the stelae around the tombs. It’s written in Classical Chinese, so I only understand a few words like the name of this province and ‘C.E.”, as in the date marker.
——————————————————————————————-

More tall trees and a stele in front of a tomb. I can read the Chinese on this one. It says, “The tomb of Kim Juwon, King Myeongju”. Myeongju is Kim Juwon’s royal name. He wasn’t the king of the whole nation, but more of a lord.
—————————————————————————-

I don’t know who this warrior statue is meant to represent. King Myeongju’s retinue, perhaps? There are several of these warriors as well as scholars down by the ritual building. The style looks modern compared to the stone work at the tomb, but I’m no expert.
———————————————–

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I’d like to go back again when the weather is decent. I.e., when the wind is calm and light is nice.

I visited a local photo lab the other day to print my 2020 portfolio. I hadn’t been there for a long time and I wondered if he was still doing film. He had often grumbled that hardly anyone brought film in and maybe he should just get rid of his Fuji film developing machine.

So imagine my surprise when I walked in for the first time in a couple of years and found he had hundreds of rolls of Kodak ProImage 100 and Fujicolor C200 for sale. “Who’s buying this?” I asked. It turns out that the youth of Gangneung (including students at the two universities and the college) have discovered film and old cameras. He also has a boatload of Kodak disposable cameras for those who want to have a go at film but don’t yet want to invest in a film camera.

I like ProImage 100 film, so I’ll start buying and developing it there. He has the last film service in this province, so I should support him, what?

It’s obvious that I ran out of black and white film part-way through my visit. That’s okay, because Kodak’s Proimage 100 gave me some very fine results. It’s half the price of films like Portra, but it has fine grain, the lab scans it well, and it has just the amount of colour saturation that I like.

The ground floor has a convenience store where locals buy fishing gear for fishing off the breakwater and docks. The upper floors have a coffee shop. I always assume that so many buildings are grey concrete and polished granite to save the expense of painting. Maybe people think polished granite is fancy, but I find the lack of colour to be depressing.

This is the back of a new art gallery out in the countryside. The Daechumu Fine Art Gallery is a non-profit gallery that says they want to promote an international art space in local society. Maybe I’ll donate this photo of their scooter. 🙂

The weather has been unkind to slightly lazy photographers lately. It’s either freezing cold, windy, windy and cold, or the light is too bright. Finally, I decided today that I had to get out of the apartment and make a few photos, even if they were nothing. The weather wasn’t too bad, actually. Cold, but not bad. And no wind! It was overcast so I didn’t have to worry about harsh shadows.

I got on bus 220 and went all the way out to Anmok where I made a few photos.

I don’t think there are any buses from Anmok to Gangmun a little up the shore, so I caught a taxi. It’s not that far, but farther than I wanted to walk today.

From Gangmun I walked to the Heo Estate. It’s closed on Mondays, but I thought I might find something to photograph anyway.

No masterpieces here, but I was glad to get out with a camera and make some pictures. And the last scene really made me feel good.

I hope you have a good day as well.

Too much shadow in the foreground, but by the time the sun comes up high enough to fill the ditch the pleasant morning light has been replaced by harsher sunshine.

Even if I can’t get any decent photos, it’s always nice to visit this place on a weekday morning. Most visitors use the exercise paths at the nearby lake and few people bother coming this far. Possibly because it’s far from the parking lot. Great for me.

Probably meant to keep out people who didn’t pay the entrance fee rather than barbarians. Barbarians are welcome if they cough up 5,000 Won and come in through the gate.

This is the first time I’ve been happy with a photo of this greenhouse. In the past I think I’ve always photographed it straight on to get a view of what’s inside. But on this day I stepped to the left and included the structure in the background as well as the piece of panelling(?) in the foreground. I like the row of vents on the roof, which I never included before.