Hangang Bridge Long Exposure

When you cross the Han River on Line 1, during winter, at about the time rush hour starts, look out the window. You will see a snake of car lights on the road following the banks of the Han. This, I thought, might make for a decent long exposure shot.

Unfortunately the bridge I see this photo opportunity from is a rail bridge with no pedestrian access. Looking at the map I found that the road bridge a little further on had pedestrian access. Unfortunately it did not have heaters, duh, which would make standing next to the river for 30 -60 minutes, IN FEBRUARY, much more bearable. Sure, you can wait for the weather to warm up, but the sunset changes drastically between season, so at the moment I have no idea what the traffic is like just after sunset at other times of the year.

This past week I finally managed to work up the will to brave the cold and trek into Seoul. I got on the train, got of at Noryangjin, walked to the Hangang Bridge and found a spot I liked. To bad about all the shaking Wait, what?!

It turns out the cars driving over the bridge makes the whole structure vibrate. Lorries and busses makes the bridge shake. Yea, this is not exactly good for long exposures where you need to hold the camera motionless for as long as 30 seconds. Not even a tripod will steady that ship. Bridge, whatever.

I took a few sample shots to see what the view was like. Hand held with a fast shutter speed made the photos OK, but of course that is no way to get snaking light lines that long exposure gives.

Testing the view at 1/50s

As the light diminished, I started playing with exposure times The first shots were not all that long. They gave nice bright red snakes, but the lines didn’t seem continuous and the buildings in the background were too dark.

Seeing if it will work at 8.0s

Longer exposures filled in the shadows, but the periods where the cars on the bridge were not moving were really short, so anything over a 10 second exposure was rather luck of the draw. This meant most of the images ending up blurry with squiggly light lines.

25.0s without vibrations was just to much to hope for.

Messing around with the aperture to increase the auto shutter speed gave me one very long, unexpected shot. I ended up just taking the camera off the railing, putting it on the ground and doing something else while waiting for the shot to finish. It ended up looking kind of interesting, so much so that I tried to replicate it.

An unexpected 30.0s exposure ended up to be interesting.

In the end I did manage to get a shot that was relatively stable, but as you can see the very long exposure makes the colours from the lights blend together far to much.

13.0s or relative calm gave me a mostly useful shot.

The photo session turned out to be underwhelming, but I did serve as a good learning experience. Maybe if I can find a footbridge with a similar view then I will be able to get a stable camera set-up.

Odd Lines

The last image of the DDR this week. The lines of this structure are fascinating.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

Sterile Future

The inside of the DDR is a feast of smooth but oddly angled lines.

I liked the contrast of the bright young autumn tree against the sterile gray of the building itself.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

Dongdaemun Entrance

When you look at old science fiction films about the future you often see crowded back streets with power lines everywhere and neon lights blinding you around every corner.

In many ways this is North East Asia today. In Gangnam you get the sanitised sparkly lights, but in the less posh areas you get something that often reminds you of Blade Runner. And then you get Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

In this photo we have the main entrance to the structure, late at night but still well lit.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

Passed out and nowhere to go

You don't see them often, and certainly not passed out on a busy through fare like Noksapyeong to Itaewon, but the homeless are all around us in Seoul.

For those interested in helping out, there are various groups in various cities that volunteer their time. In Seoul PLUR provides an way for English speakers to help out. One of their programs that is almost always in need of more people is the Sunday evening Seoul Station project.

If walking the street around Seoul Station is not your sort of thing, then you can always go help at one of the soup kitchens.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

White Flower

Its interesting what happens sometimes when you slam a photo with the editor. This little flower, busy opening into full bloom, was nothing special. fter messing about just to see what would happen, this displayed on my screen.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

Hand in Hand

During summer I walked to school quite often. I did so usually when it was raining because that meant I had a very good excuse to walk barefoot.

As I near school I often see mothers with very young children. The area is newly built and mostly populated by younger people getting to the stage where they purchase their first apartments and start having children. Many of the mothers do not work and have the luxury of taking their babies to school every day.

When I took this I was walking behind a family and found the scene of the older sister taking care of her little brother heart warming.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.