Northwest Indiana Photographer | Aaron Brown Photography - Wedding, Portrait, Live Event

... Next to Godliness

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:28:00 +0000

News:
Hi. My name is Aaron. It has been almost 9 months since my last blog.

Hmph. I almost felt like a member of AA writing that. Or a "practicing" Catholic in a confessional. Either way, there is guilt in my heart, so here I am - looking for welcoming arms, organizing my thoughts, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that my next leap, will be the leap home. Well... those last two things might have been from Quantum Leap. Regardless, I am ready to clean up the cob webs around here and breathe some life back into my blog!

This place has always been my area to document what I've been up to (especially while overseas), where I've been shooting, and when to look out for more of my work. I still want to focus on those, but I'd like to add some "whys" and "hows" to the mix. If I can get more behind-the-scene looks into my process, I think it will give people a better view of how I work, and why I do the things I do on my sets. I really think people like to see how things are done sometimes. I know I do.

Also, because of Facebook & Twitter, I've often given my blog the cold shoulder. So, in combination with social networks, I'm going to try to utilize this area in ways that are more befitting. The more info that's out there about me, the better. I'll be actively utilizing more ways for people to find me, engage with me and my work, and share it with others. So keep checking in with me right here!

Photo by Jeff Tolley aka gltchcom

It's been just a little over a year since returning home from Korea and things are going great. I've been working 12-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week, at building my photography business up and it's working... slowly. Trying to sell yourself as a wedding photographer without having ever shot any weddings is a pretty hard thing to do - and pretty ballsy. But that's just what I've done and, from what I've heard, to my success. The thing about wedding photography is that you have one try to get everything you need, and get it looking good. It's a lot of run-and-gun shooting, being in the right place at the right time, and anticipating the moments you want captured. It really helps to know the ins and outs of the venues you're shooting at, too. I really love the spontaneity of it all and overcoming the challenges that present themselves! Plus, I've had the good fortune of booking super-awesome couples. :)

But I don't just do weddings - I do portraits, too. Here, I have the opportunity that hectic weddings don't often allow for - epic themes, grand lighting, and the time to spend hours with my client building up amazing photographs one at a time. (I often get to do this for wedding couples with an engagement session. It helps get us comfortable working together and balance out any wedding day craziness.) You'll find me shooting people on-location at amazing looking but often unconventional places like under bridges, at abandoned buildings, and in rural fields or city streets. The sky is literally the limit, though I think I could pull off an amazing shoot at the International Space Station some day.

To top things off, I shoot live events. Isn't a wedding a live event? Yeah, sure. Aren't all your shoots "live" events? Okay smart guy, here's the difference: what I mean my "live events" is more in line with a combination of my portraiture at an event in similar nature to a wedding. Those include concerts, performances, nightclubs and parties. In live event shooting, I'm able to capture bands on stage, speakers & performers, and DJs, dancers & couples an the middle of action, but also pair that with a controlled area I can set up for portraits. It's the best of both worlds for me, photographically speaking.

In a very short year I've built up an amazing clientele at all three ends of my business! Thanks to my fantastic friends and family, and everyone on Facebook that has supported me, I've had the best marketing team I could ask for, too. I'm excited to share more of my adventures here as the shoots get edited, and as I whip up a few sentences to go with them.

As always, thanks for checking in!
More to come... soon... I promise... again!

Gotta get this place so fresh and so clean, clean.
- ab

Where in the World is Aaron Brown?

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:00:00 +0000

News:
Dude! I'm home. I'm in America - specifically, Crown Point, IN. I've been here since mid June, but I've been a busy, busy, guy. Sorry for the delinquency that is this blog. Unacceptable, I know. Never fear, though. I will be whipping this place back into shape with new galleries in the Exhibit area of my website as well as more interesting blog posts, right here - and all of this more often! For now, you can see a handful of shots I've been working on at My Flickr account. Holy moly. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Here's the quick gist of it:

Since Shannon and I returned home in the middle of June, we've been enjoying time with friends and family, eating all the food we've missed, and re-adjusting to the American lifestyle. More importantly, we've been looking for work - 'cause the money we saved up quickly disappeared. After filling out over 71 applications, Shannon finally got an interview and was hired at Goodwill Industries. I've been hustling photography - you know, slanging film on the corner, snappin' shots of fools, lighting people on the street. Hustlin'. It's going surprising well, though. I've been lining up a lot of portrait sessions and weddings, but it's a lot of work trying to start your own business and be your own boss. I'm hopeful. By this time next year, I should be earning just under minimum wage... if all goes well ;)

Thanks for checking in! More to come... soon... I promise!
- ab

Photo by Jeff Tolley aka gltchcom

Ilsan - Home of the Whopper

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Review:
I've been sitting on this one since mid-February. I wrote up 1,200 words or so about Ilsan (my hometown for the last two years while living in South Korea) for assistant editor, David Carruth over at 10 Magazine in Seoul, South Korea. Being the successful magazine that it is, time and plenty enough magazine content were foes of mine while trying to get it to print. That left the original article being pushed back several months and eventually being cut down to half its size. Aww... But it's not the size that counts. At least, that's what I've been told. Aww... Regardless, it finally made it to print with a handful of my photos in June's issue, and trust me, I'm a happy guy for it. I'll do just about anything to see my name in print. I once wrote to Wizard Magazine in the 90s and asked if Superboy was related to Superman. Sure I was just stuffing an envelope with a meaningless question in order to get the envelope itself (a rendition of Beavis and Butthead dressed as Scorpion and Sub-Zero of Mortal Kombat fame) printed in the "letter art" section. My question showed up in issue 21; the drawing was never to be seen again, however. Bringing things back on topic, I've decided to publish the unedited version of the article instead of the final 10 Magazine revision for anyone interested -- which is like three or four of you -- to check out. Seeing that I'm leaving for American in less than a week, it seemed fitting to finally get this out as my time here comes to a close. I hope somebody visiting Ilsan can someday make use of this carnival show of a write-up. And I hope not too many of you clicked away mid-rant above. Those of you still reading, enjoy!

Ilsan – Home of the Whopper

Well, not really… but try to follow me. The northwest satellite of Seoul is known as the New City or Garden City to most. But since “new” things become “old” things before you know it (let’s face it, the district has been around for over 20 years now), and because the area is undergoing urban development at a seemingly exponential rate with fewer “garden” left to enjoy, I like to focus my thoughts of Ilsan down to an experience near and dear to my (trans-fat infested) heart – fast food corporate chains. They’re a blessing I’ve enjoyed from day one in my adventure to the Land of the Morning Calm.

Don’t get me wrong. Ilsan is by no means full of greasy burgers and fries. It has quite a diverse selection of amazing eateries. You can find (much like eyeglass stores, pharmacies, cafes, and “barber shops”) traditional Korean dishes galore down just about any street, as well as a wide selection of foreign restaurants – including Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian as well as western sit-downs like Outback, Bennigan’s, and Pizza Hut. And even though my better half makes Gordon Ramsay look like (allow me to mix metaphors) a Sudden Attack n00b who just got pwnd via the headshot of a ramyun-eating twelve year-old girl when it comes to cooking (seriously, she’s good), there’s a special feeling I get from those golden arches, those 11 herbs and spices, and that flame broiled goodness at my local fast food joints. It’s probably the beginnings of heart failure, but to me… it feels like home.

Ilsan is the popular brother of the two districts in Goyang City leaving the lesser known Deogyang as the sort of Casey to Ben, Eli to Payton, or Luigi to Mario if you will. You can get there by transferring on the subway to the orange 3-line or by riding any of the red 1000 or 2000 busses. The district spans from subway stops Daehwa (310) to Jichuk (319) and is roughly a 45 minute subway ride outside of downtown Seoul. What really makes the area a treat to live in, is that it offers all the amenities of a metropolis like Seoul – food, shopping, nightlife, recreation, and a readily growing expat community – but with a fraction of the population. The reduced congestion & pollution in a relaxing environment are nice. Now for the sake of preserving my gluttonous reputation, allow me to offer a breakdown of a few more select spots that make Ilsan worth the ride to.

Juyeop (311): Zeppelin’s – Mr. Kim and his wife serve up an awesome selection of songs on vinyl (if they don’t have the song you’re looking for, they will the next time you come back!), foreign beers, cocktails, and yummy roasted nuts in this small (10 chairs or so, so get there early) LP bar. From exit 4: Walk straight, cross the major intersection, and it’s a short walk up in a side hall on the left. Look for the giant adjuma in the fur coat advertisement.

Grand Department Store – Exit 5: Groceries, McDonalds, upscale fashion, furniture, electronics, as well as a comfy movie theatre up top. It's a staple of my neighborhood, as well as the larger Ilsan area.

Miller Time – A hof that serves up delicious spicy short ribs, tater tots, fried chicken, as well as (you guessed it) Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite beers. Good eatin', son! This place gets crowded, so get there early. From exit 8: Hang a left at the first street, hang a right at the next street and it’s in the middle of the block on the left.

Jeongbalsan (312): Lotte Department Store – Right outside exit 2: Similar to Grand in Juyeop, but with a lot steeper prices if that’s possible. La Festa Shopping Mall – Exit 2: A huge outdoor / indoor shopping area. Cross the street towards Lotte, hang a left, walk down past the Burger King to the McDonalds and everything is to the right. Bar Boom and Frog and Toad are two excellent expat bars to check out on weekends. Heaven is another great LP bar located on the street corner in the middle of the mall, across from the Baskin Robbins and STCO. Andy owns it. Tell him Aaron from Chicago sent you! He’s awesome.

What's even better, you know, for consumerist whores like myself, is that when you're done making your way through the almost never-ending three-leveled labyrinth, head back past McDonalds, and just on the other side of Jeongbalsan Park pavilion area is Western Dom: another huge mall with equally impressive amounts of crap to buy – like nice smelly stuff at the Lush store, overpriced cameras and electronic stuff at PixDix, or Chicago style deep-dish pizza at Uno’s. Check out the Cubs baseball display that houses a White Sox jersey inside. Oh, Korea! You make me laugh.

Lake Park – Probably the biggest draw to Ilsan next to Kintex in Daehwa, it’s a huge man-made lake with tons of exercise and recreation areas for the family, as well as botanical gardens and a really cool musical fountain during the nicer months. Take exit 2, but don’t cross the street to Lotte. Just head left past La Festa, take the bridge over the major road and you’ll end up inside the park. It’s a big place to explore, but it makes for a great Sunday afternoon.

Baeseok (313): Cost Co –They have everything from AA batteries to “his” and “her” underwear. Seriously. You name it, and they pretty much have it. It’s quite nice having this store so close. We still head to Seoul for certain things, but Cost Co takes care of the majority of our needs. The little lady does a lot of our monthly grocery shopping there and it’s full of harder to find western items like cheese, tortillas, and good meat among others. Take exit 1, cross the first street, turn right at the second street and it’s a block down on the left. Grace Hospital – A friendly woman’s hospital two blocks straight from exit 4 on the left. Science forbid you actually have womanly part troubles here, ladies. But this place took good care of my Boo!

There’s really quite a lot more in Ilsan than the scope of this article can encompass, and in all honesty, the promise of delicious obesity is only a fraction of what can be found here. Everything from bowling alleys, health clubs, bookstores, and assorted street vendors to exhibition centers, art theaters, and various churches and temples can be found. There are mountains to climb and trails to hike. And if you’re a photographer, you have easy access to both urban and rural areas. Sweet! For me, living outside of Seoul and still finding fast food readily available made my move here an easy transition. And although it may not be so new anymore, nor have quite as much greenery as before, Ilsan does have everything a guy from Chicago needs in order to feel a little closer to home. Let me tell you, it’s really nice to know that in such a different land, you can still “have it your way."

Thanks for reading!
- ab

HDR: High Dynamic Range

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Review:
I'm often asked about why some of my shots look so different, or more like paintings than photographs, and also how I managed to pull 'em off. It has a lot to do with my post-processing, and I do plan to detail out, step by step, how I've edited one of my images sometime in the future. But for now, here's a basic overview of a process that I think is pretty damn cool -- HDR (High Dynamic Range).

What is HDR?

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a method of obtaining a photo with a greater dynamic range of luminance than a normal camera allows. That is to say, capturing a higher range of exposure between what you see in dark shadows and what you see in bright highlights. When shooting film, the acceptable rage of exposure between these points is referred to as "latitude."

The most common method of HDR photography is combining multiple exposures from a normal camera. Note: the term "normal" is always relative and a higher dynamic range than now may be the norm of tomorrow as High Dynamic Range cameras find their way to the public. As of now, most cameras capture about a solid 3-4 stop range of luminance within a single 16bit RAW file.

It works like this: you take different exposures of the same shot and combine them together giving you an increase in shadow and highlight detail.

You need to bracket multiple shots with varying exposure values. For example, I often set my camera on a tripod (to minimize change in angle within the frame), adjust my f-stop (locking aperture and depth of field), adjust and lock my focus (again, maintaining depth of field and also focal distance), and then shoot different exposures (only changing the shutter-speed) of the exact same frame.

I usually shoot one properly exposed shot at 0 ev, one +2 ev (over exposed -2 stops) and one -2 ev (under exposed +2 stops). Some cameras allow for easy exposure bracketing with 3 to sometimes 5 exposure value settings. Setting your camera to Aperture Priority mode and manual focus helps. I also recommend a sturdy tripod, a shutter trigger, and enabling mirror lockup to help minimize camera shake. You should also set your camera to auto fire if it has the option. This can also be accomplished with point and shoot cameras but is a lot more work. I've shot many hand-held HDRs too, but I've sometimes needed to align them individually in post which can be quite a chore.

After you have your multiple exposures, you take the photos to an imaging program and work from there. Photoshop CS3 and higher allow HDR merging (CS5 trial is now available here), but the most popular tool today is Photomatix (free trial here) which combines tonemapping and a load of imaging options to allow everything from a more natural look to a very surreal dream-like look. Style is subjective, so do what you like, but try not to go too overboard playing with sliders and settings. You'll end up with halos around everything, over sharpening, and over-saturated colors that could send your viewers into Epileptic seizures.

That's about it. Here's a fantastic tutorial with nice visuals by a guy who is one of the best at the technique, Trey Ratcliff (Stuck in Customs HDR tute here).

Photo Essay: Han River Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Tue, 11 May 2010 03:59:00 +0000

Muse:
Beautiful isn’t a word often used to describe your typical Korean sky, but spring isn’t your typical Korean season. The few weeks that come together bridging the bitter Korean winter and the stroke inducing Korean summer are quite magical. The land comes alive; birds sing; flowers bloom; children run amuck. After the yellow dust blows through, something often forgotten, especially in the bigger cities, appears: the sky! Grab your loved ones and get out to the Han River. Walk around all day in the colorful gardens. Play in the parks. Experience one of the many outdoor cultural events going on at any given time. Just be sure at the end of the day you take time to enjoy the sun setting across the seemingly endless sky above. Before you know it, the rain will come, the mosquitoes will follow, time will pass and the dreary greys will return. Bask in the beauty while you can!

This is the first in many short photo essays I plan to blog from time to time. This shot was from a recent visit to the Han River in Seoul. I have more from that day to show off in an upcoming blog. Thanks for checking this out; there's plenty more to come!

-ab

Super Mario Bros. Crossover - Best. Game. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Review:
So today's post does not have anything to do with the photography field, but it's something I just had to share with anyone reading here. I want to keep this post short because the game speaks for itself, but I hope you go to the full post for the (meager portion of) meat of the article and the link to the genius behind this.

Play it after the jump!

_______________________

So my buddy Jae on Facebook pointed me to the flash game above that blew my mind. Jay Pavlina at Exploding-Rabbit has put together an amazing version of Super Mario Bros. where you can choose to play as Metroid's Samus, Link, Mario, Mega Man, Castlevania's Simon, or Contra's Bill R. They each have unique abilities in the game -- especially after a Super Mushroom or a Fire Flower! And to top it off, you can choose a new character after each level.

If you grew up gaming in the 80s, then this one will surely hit home. I can't wait to see what else this guy comes up with and any updates / additions to this one!

Cheers!

- ab

Groove Magazine: We Need Surgery - The Album

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:00:00 +0000

News:
So, I made it into another awesome issue of Groove Magazine with the shots I took of the awesome band We Need Surgery - one of the best known bands in Korea - taken at E-Sound Studio near the Hongdae area of Seoul while they were putting the finishing touches on their long awaited debut album. Tenative title: Chinese Democracy. Cool name!

I met up with Groove Music Editor, Summer Walker, a few weeks back in Seoul. We met up on a Saturday afternoon and headed out to meet with the guys from the band and ended up having a fun few hours. Summer interviewed the band's manager while I sat along and documented the final takes in-studio of a war-torn and tired group of guys. Then she had a full on interview with the band. You can read it in the article above.

We Need Surgery
From left to right:
Brandon Butler - Drums
Miso Stefanac - Vocals / Synth / Guitar
Valentino Avignoni - Guitars
Paul James - Bass

A couple of the guys were exhausted from the night previous: you know, the typical Rock-and-Roll-lifestyle antics and hijinks -- fun times in a limousine with Russian twins and a few people they happened across while out on the town -- including a large African man donning a cowboy hat and boots. For some reason, I pictured a Nigerian version of John Voit from Midnight Cowboy which mad me enjoy the story even more. One of the fellas had a busted lip and a limp as proof of the eventful evening. I immediately knew, these guys were no joke; they were the real deal. Rock and Roll, baby!

Beer? Check.
Cigarettes? Check.
Snacks? Check.
Chucks? Korean style slip on, check!

For the actual shoot, I kept in the background and stayed away from them as they worked -- for the most part. It was dark, so I ramped my ISO between 1600 and 3200 to get decent exposures while being able to move around. For the post editing, I went with a high-contrast, desaturated look to the shoot - a (digital) bleach bypass process that's popular in war movies. 'Cause for me, these guys seemed like they had been through their own war - working hard, rocking shows, promoting their sound, and planning a big move to Canada all while getting their long overdue debut album ready - so I wanted the photos to show it. Don't let any limousine stories fool you: it's not easy being in a band, you know... if you want to do well.

The best part, for me, was meeting them and discovering that they had a bigger picture than just playing some shows and drinking like so many other bands I've shot. They actually have a solid vision and they're knocking out everything they need to do along the way to achieve it. I can't wait to work with these guys again, and I can't wait to hear the finished album because to top everything off, they're actually really good! :)

Here are a few more shots from the day. Be sure to check the band out at Facebook: We Need Surgery.

Cheers!
- ab

Groove Magazine: March Music Special

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

News:
Now that the issue is out and about, I'm happy to share the fun time I had shooting recently. I was out shooting (as were fellow Seoul Photo Club alumni Dylan Goldby, Shawn Parker, and Lee Smathers) for the March music special of Groove Magazine recently. As Shawn puts it, "[it's] quite possibly the most well-photographed issue of the mag, ever," and I ain't arguing with that.

A bit out of order, as my mind sometimes gets, this first shot (above) is from behind stage at Club Freebird in Hongdae, Seoul -- stop number 3. No strobes here. Just stage lighting. Got here for the last band, couldn't find the owner, and nobody could tell me the band's name. If you know who they are (if you are who they are), I'd love to shoot them (you) proper credit. They started out with a kind of smooth Coldplay vibe, and then songs took an interesting turn into pseduo metal balads... or something. I would have liked to listen to more, but time ran out. I was shooting three venues in one night. No time for love, Dr. Jones! This one ran on page 38 of Groove. It's one of my personal faves.

This is DJ Paul. He's a cool guy. He let me put all my gear inside the band room. He does DJ work on the side, but his main love is jammin' with his group -- Kachisan. I have yet to make it to one of his shows, but I'm excited to check out their sound and shoot some photos. You can also find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/paulkhillier so stop by and show him some love!

Paul was mixing up some tunes to listen to during the band's break, so I popped on my trusty Canon 430 flash, aimed it at the wall of CDs to the left, and bounced it back at him in E-TTL mode while dragging the shutter a bit to mix the light. Turned out alright, IMHO. This was before I picked up some Flashwaves and went wireless. Setting everything up manually is great, but E-TTL is nice when you're working fast! Check it out on page 38. wo0t.

Freebird's small, but there's a lot of room to sit off to the right and a dance floor right in the front of the stage. It's dark inside, but it's cozy. The band room behind the stage is wicked cool. Overall, the place seems like a place I'd frequent back home -- small but still comfortable, dark but inviting, and with a balance of live bands and dance music. Cool.

This is on the main entrance floor in Club FF in Hongdae, Seoul -- stop number 1 that night. The stage and bar are downstairs where the sign is pointing, but I found a messy table off to the side and went wide with my lens (Canon 10mm-20mm at 10mm) to get a nice wide view of the place up here. The Rocktigers are in the background getting ready to go on stage after the Moonshiners finish up below. I shot this HDR (High Dynamic Range -- multiple exposures combined to provide more details in the highlights and shadows) image hand-held, as I do a lot of the time. However, it's even harder when you're shooting indoors at an average shutter speed around 3 seconds and at an ISO of 800. Yikes. Where was my tripod? This turned out better than expected and ran on page 38.

Here's a view downstairs inside Club FF in Hongdae, Seoul. My buddy, Dylan, assisted as my more than just my voice activated light stand, but more as my voice of reason. He really helped come up with some off camera lighting solutions that night. He was way off camera, top-left, amongst arm-to-arm fans, sweating his nether regions off in order to pop a bit of rim light into the crowd on this one. I'm sitting pretty back in the DJ / mixer booth. :) Ah. The joys of assisting.

I really have no idea what the settings finally were because we were ramping power up and down for different tests, but if I had to guess, it's probably around 1/32 power, bare. We worked out an intricate system of thumbs up for more power, thumbs down for less that we toyed with until I had enough to move on.

That place was hot and these guys were rockin' the place! I've been to FF when there was more room and it's quite comfy, but punk bands really know how to pack a place! And that's all fun and stuff... you know... when you're not there to work. Oi! You can find this one on pages 37.

This is the interior inside Club Ta in Hongdae shot from the round lifter area off to the left -- stop number 2 that night. I shot three long exposures and composited them into an HDR image -- thus the extreme ghosting of the patrons. Camera-left is the stage and off in the distance behind everything is the bar. TA has a really cool look, but as you're about to read... I guess it normally looks a lot different... or something. You can find this one on pages 36 & 37 in the magazine. I'm pretty happy with how the colors turned out.

Master photographer and lighting extraordinaire, Dylan Goldby, returned the favor and then some for this shoot. Low on supplies, he lent me his Nikon speedlight and Flashwaves trigger and put together a makeshift DIY snoot out of a band poster to help light this off-camera left. Power was at 1/32. Tests went on and on... but with a basically empty bar, you can mess around for a while without anyone in your way. Well, almost.

We had a bitch of a time trying to color-correct the flash without any gels (we tried a balloon, a glass of beer, and I think some CD cases), so I ended up double processing in post. Just took the blue cast off of the model; I thought it looked interesting and more theatrical splashing on to some of the background.

Here's a photo I snapped via timed-shutter to test out the snooted light:

I really like Club TA. It has a chill vibe going on inside. Although there was no band to enjoy that night, I couldn't help but notice the most excellent stage -- [inset any Bill & Ted movie line here]. There was a dude here, as there is many places from time to time, who made it his job to let me know all about the place, how long he has been frequenting it, all about his time in Korea, how he takes photographs too, and then how I wasn't photographing the club the way it really is.

I nodded, smiled, and swiftly booted him to the throat and went on with my business. I'm pretty happy with how I photographed it, with the solution Dylan came up with for light, and the overall look -- and most importantly, so was my client. Up yours TA snob-douche! You can find this one on page 37, too.

Thanks for checking these out. More to come... sooner this time... I hope! :)

Zeppelin Jazz & Rock LP Bar: Ilsan, South Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Review:
The little lady and I have been frequenting Zeppelin LP Bar in Ilsan since we arrived in Korea in 2008. Mr. Kim and his wife serve up an awesome selection of songs on vinyl (if they don’t have the song you’re looking for this time, they will the next time you come back!), foreign beers, cocktails, and yummy roasted nuts in this small (10 chairs or so, so get there early) LP bar. Here's a quick breakdown on why we love the place.

How'd we even find this place? I remember touring the area with Shannon the first week I arrived and we went up and down the length of the major street outside our apartment. We finally walked in the general direction of the establishment and Shannon just had a feeling that we needed to check out what was down this one particular hallway outside. Low and behold, there it was! Our newest favorite place to sit and knock back a couple was discovered.

First off, Mr. Kim is awesome. He has a LONG ponytail and he often wears a cool blue tank-top. He drinks whiskey straight and he loves spinning 70s American rock and roll. He has the kindest smile and the most welcoming attitude. You wouldn't know it by looking, but he can kill a man with a single flex of his palm. He's in his mid-50s and he only looks about 40 -- the same goes for his wife. I find that Koreans age pretty well. They also exercise and don't eat the same crap that Americans do, but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

Mr. Kim always serves me up a shot or two of fine aged scotch as "service" which I never object to. And I'm pretty sure, with two shots in front of me in this photo, he's digging out some Kenny Loggins... because I'm definitely in the Danger Zone (nod to Archer on FX).

The place is small, but it's stuffed with old tchotchkes and relics from a time once past. A small selection of foreign beers like Corona, Heineken, San Miguel, and Budweiser keep us happy, but there's an extensive selection of Bourbon and Scotch. They'll even whip up a vodka cocktail and, mmmmm..., the roasted peanuts are delish! Mr. Kim has everything on vinyl from Abba to Ziggy Stardust and an amazing assortment of great music in between. However, I'm pretty proud to have introduced him to the Ramones and Weezer -- two of my favorite bands. He also spins some Billie Holiday or Etta James from time to time, which I find just delightful.

From Juyeop, Orange Line - Stop 311, Exit 4: Walk straight, cross the major intersection, and it’s a short walk up in a side hall on the left. Look for the giant adjuma in the fur coat advertisement.

Thanks for checking this out. I hope to see some more foreigners there before I leave this country.

Grand Hilton: Seoul, South Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Review:
Headed to the Grand Hilton in Seoul over the New Years Eve weekend with the little lady. Let me tell you, that place is swanky. This is the view from the balcony of our real hotel room at the Hilton Grand Suite just across the way. Our building shared all the amenities of the Grand Hilton, but for a fraction of the room cost. Score for us! Even though we were on meds and couldn't drink, we still had a blast. Okay, we were really pissed we couldn't party the year away. It kind of sucked. But we tried to have fun. And sometimes, we did!

This is downstairs near the dinning room. I felt like I was in some sort of rich-folk hallway staring at these badboys. Our food bill was expensive. Guess how much an 8oz can of Coke costs... enough to pay for gold elevator doors. Boom. Always take the back elevators!

Here's a view looking out towards the lobby with one of the coolest clocks I've ever seen right here up front in your grill. Boom! What time is it in Paris? I dunno. Let me look at the giant see-through cube clock. 1:06pm my nizzle. Holla!

Sorry, I got lost in some weird fictional dialog that never happened nor ever will. Anyway, I'm a big fan of mechanical watches, so I really dug this clock. Hey look! There's another one of those swanky gold elevators in the background. This place was far too expensive. I'll be eating ramyun for the next month or two.

I do Xmas, not Christmas. If you do Christmas, cool. Not me. I left all those traditions behind when I -- as George Carlin often put it -- reached the age of reason. To each, his own and all that. This was one of the prettiest Xmas trees I had ever seen. Don't get me wrong. The little lady put together a really cute mini-tree back at our apar-tuh (that's Konglish for apartment), but this one was really nice. So here it is, for all to see.

I can't use the adjective "swanky" enough to describe the Grand Hilton. Swanky, swanky, swanky! Okay, now I'm just thinking of Hillary Swank. You know, "The Next Karate Kid." That movie sucked. Aw, man. Pat Morita's dead. I just remembered that. You know, Arnold from Happy Days. Aw, man. The Fonze is getting old. I hope he doesn't die. Remember that scene in Boys Don't Cry when Chloë Sevigny helps ol' Hillary "reach her / his full potential" if you know what I mean? Now that was something worth waxing on and waxing off for. And did anybody see The Brown Bunny with Chloë and Vincent Gallo? Wow. "Happy ending" is a bold contradiction in terms in that one. Seriously, that ending was raw.

Hey, look! There's Shannon.

Babalu! Lucy, I'm home. You got some 'splaining to do!
(Seriously, that's all I got.)

This is the view down the hill and out of the Hilton Grand Suite (where we stayed) on the left -- just across the way from the Grand Hilton -- and the Grand Hilton Convention Centre on the right. A really cool benefit to staying here is that you can take the free shuttle out to several stops in downtown Seoul for free every hour. All-in-all, we were really pleased with our stay, but we can't wait to be back home with friends and family to celebrate properly next year.

This may have headed south a while back. And for that, I'm sorry.

Swanky!

2009 - My Year Captured in Facebook Statuses

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0000

News:
So I saw an application on Facebook that was similar to this but without the flexibility that I wanted in order to share it with all my friends, so I rigged this together myself -- my 2009 presented as a collection of every Facebook Status Update! The year started off pretty slow, and in the third-person. But things picked up as the summer came to a close. Updates include love, hate, quotes, observations, music, movies, sports, opportunity, desperation, joy, sorrow, political ranting, shameless self-promotion, and even bodily functions. Does life get any more meaningful than this? Hopefully. Is it worth your time to read, absolutely not. Well, maybe. You'll see at the end. Enjoy!

January:
Aaron Brown is on Myspace. Go find him there. | Aaron Brown loves his girlfriend, Shannon!

February:
[aww... no updates.]

March:
Aaron Brown turned 31 today (kind of)... In Korea, I'm 32. It's weird out here. Facebook is dumb. Holla. | Aaron Brown wants a ukulele.

April:
Aaron Brown is colorblind. Really.

May:
Get scared Chicago! The 11-time Stanley Cup Champions are commin' at ya! Chelios says hi. | Red Wings, baby!

June:
Abdelkader makes Crosby and Malkin look like n00bs! | Calibrated the laptop monitor. Sweet! | Focusing on IMPORTANT news...

July:
Hoping I make it into the Seoul film festival. | So I guess Facebook is the place to go when you want mass-app-spam from all your friends. Then again, MySpace is the place to go for shitty band friend-requests. Hooray for The Internet! | Campaigning for votes... | Loves the Cubs, but wants you to vote for him. PLEASE!!! | Over 100 votes now. Please add yours: http://www.worldinfocuscontest.com/bin/Rate?image_ id=1006803773 | Sold a commercial license of the Chicago Realtor Building today. Woot! http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6702572_Wy7BN/2/569 561399_4JwUF#569561399_4JwUF

August:
On the cover of Daegu Pockets magazine: http://www.daegupockets.com | A little less than 2 weeks left at summer camp. wo0t! | 2nd place, almost halfway there on votes, pass the word PLEASE! http://www.worldinfocuscontest.com/bin/Rate?image_ id=1006803773 | Cosplay photography in 90+ weather has mad me T I R E D ! ! ! | A Seoul radio station wants to interview me. Pretty cool. Too bad I can't get away this Wednesday to do it. [sad face] Hopefully we can reschedule! | How do I like my steak sauce? BOLD! | It's FRIDAY!!! | I gotta poop. | Last week of Summer Camp, wo0t! | Did Michael Jackson die or something? | Jay Cutler and Matt Forté, FTW!!!

September:
"I just wanna be successful..." - Drake | Go Bears! | New rule: you can't use the terms "epic," "ftw," or "pwn" unless you play mmorpg. Otherwise you're just a douche-er!!!1!1eleven! | Zoos smell like poop. Pass the word. | I have the rock opera, Franz Kafka, from Home Movies in my head. | Gotta finish these DGBD photos! | One of my kids asked me of I remembered Terrorist Day, today. I told him yes. He said it was awful. I agreed. | Go Bears!! | Three straight throws to the other team!? | Adewale Ogunleye! | Bears D is looking tough. Come on Cutler!! | Hester! | Jay Cutler = Interception. Boo!!! | The Swaze died? Aww... I'm going to do a little dirty dance for my lady later in his honor. | I miss my friends back home. | I love lazy Saturdays. | Getting through season 1 of Sons of Anarchy. Awesome show. I want to be a bad-ass biker outlaw, but alas I'm just a girly figured photo boy. Aw. :( | What's worse than buying a generic box of mac & cheese for $3.50? Opening it up and finding no cheese sauce. I hate Korea today. | Aaron took the "Which Actually Real Person Are You?" quiz and the result is Aaron Brown. Amazing. | Pizza is yummy. | About to watch Heroes Season 4 season premiere. Hoping it doesn't suck! | Cold pizza is so much better than cold turkey... unless you're trying to quit something. | Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" is so epic it makes me feel like I'm actually from New York and can do anything. Fantastic. | If you spell Jesus backwards it's Susej. That's pretty close to sausage in my book. | Just enabled Facebook Connect with my blog. Stop by and send me some love: http://aaronbrownphotos.blogspot.com | Noted: There's a distinct difference between Martin Short and Martin Sheen. | Today one of my students asked me if there was such a thing as a monkeypotamus. I immediately told him yes. | Getting ready for the gallery show tonight. Hope to see some friends there! | Lazy Saturdays are great, but Lazy Sundays are even better. :) Workin' on the site and watchin' movies. | They'll be playing when I'm asleep, but Go Bears!!! | I have a feeling there's something wrong with this HD. It shouldn't be failing every 2 months... | Sneezing my head off while I'm finishing the new blog. Achoo! | Aquarium Blog is Live: http://bit.ly/2MznBz

October:
Chuseok Vacation in T minus 6 hours... | I got a $40 box of Peaches and a $50 box of Spam for Chuseok! Oh, Korea. Happy holiday everyone... in Korea. :D | Cinnamon bun, you're the yummiest! I love my boo for getting it for me. | RE: @abrownphotos Thanks again to all who voted! I ended up with 3rd place in the People's Choice award. I also had th… http://disq.us/skvz | Bears! | New blog: Cosplay: http://bit.ly/SGRlZ | 5 days left to vote and help me get published: http://bit.ly/T6vLI | Why did I wake up with Madonna's "Lucky Star" in my head? | "Yet still you haven’t seen enough to just give me the part. You still make me sing for my supper." - Johhny Drama: Entourage | Over an hour wait at the bank today and still nothing was accomplished. :( | I have a strange affection for Lady GaGa. | I'm excited Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is finally coming out in theaters! Check out the trailer: http://theroad-movie.com/ | I'm wondering who over at Borders thought I'd be interested in Michael Bublé's new album. Thanks for the e-mail, Borders. I'll pass. | According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." | If there's one thing I've learned, it's that nay-sayers will always say nay... no matter what. | Sometimes Korea does me a solid: new Reebok Jay Cutler Jersey & Mitchell & Ness Walter Payton throwback -- $50. Done. | Korean Rockabilly Blog is now up: http://bit.ly/1crIBT | Damn! Sons of Anarchy is stressing me out! :D | Working on some photos of the hottest model I've ever shot -- my woman. :) | Excited to watch 30 Rock again! | Zombieland = fun movie! | Halloween flicks on tap to watch this month: A Nightmare on Elm Street 1- 7 and I might even throw in a few Takashi Miike flicks if time allows. I love sharing the freaky films with the little lady. Last year I introduced her to the Saw franchise. October is a fun month! | I use Firefox and so should you! http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ | Bear down, Chicago!!! | Johnny Knox!!! | WTF, BEARS!? | Finally! TD Bears! | Mondays, how I hate thee! :P | The future of HDR? : http://bit.ly/2Qdsli | Seoul Grand Park Zoo blog is up. Comment with Facebook Connect: http://bit.ly/Xt3OG | One of my cutie 5-year-old girls just came into my classroom and delivered some important information to me, in Korean. When I told her I didn't understand, she came up close and whispered it all to me in my ear. Then she giggled and left. I think I'm fired. | Jay Cutler deal good for both him and Chicago Bears: http://bit.ly/15ayTx | I guess I'll just use Live Feed... | I hate living so far away from my friends when bad shit happens. If anyone from the White Hawk / Texas Corral / Houlihan's crew gets details on what the hell happened with Rob Lowden, please let me know! | Last 20 minutes of Paranormal Activity were kind of cool. | I have "Thriller" stuck in my head thanks to Justin's Halloween photo. Thanks, you lowsey Bengals fan, you! :) | I laughed when I saw someone in my live feed "became a fan of Glen Beck." Not because it confirms their complete detachment from reality, but because they're content to join an online fan page that misspells its celebrity's name. Only someone as moronic as Glenn Beck could join his misspelled Facebook fan page. We need more Glenn Becks / Ann Coulters in the world, if only to help me delineate the crazies online here. | Saw VI was okay... I guess... | Two days 'till Halloween! | Where are all my Korean contacts going on Halloween? Shannon and I want to do something fun. | Korean contacts and friends: Where you be this weekend!? | Happy Halloween, everyone!

November:
Got through all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies for Halloween. Wow. Not as great as I remembered. | I love this version! RT @Weezer: Weezer ft. Sara Bareilles - I Want You To (Acoustic): - I Want You T.. http://bit.ly/4F30vR on =w= YouTube | RT @JoeMcNallyPhoto Hot Shoe Diaries was just named Amazon's #1Editor's Pick for 2009... http://bit.ly/2m4bVf | Happy hump day, Korea. :P | TGIF! | I've been geeking out on the new @joeyldotcom Sessions with Joey L DVD: http://www.joeyl.com/sessionswithjoeyl/ . Awesome stuff! | "Y'know, I came up with a new game show idea recently. It's called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns on stage They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn't blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator." - Chuck Barris | I really need to get out and work on The Metro Project! | "Fingernails are pretty. Fingernails are good. Seems that all they ever wanted was a marking." - FF | I scored 4 boxes of Pepero today. Awesome! My students love me. :) | I need votes, please! Vote for Wrigley Field at the Seven Wonders of Illinois Photo Contest:http://budurl.com/wfby | I'm excited. I get to listen to a Bears game on Internet radio when I wake up in the morning. I hope they win! | Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears... | Int!? INT!? Boo. | Robbie Gould is a pimp. | Time to burn my Jay Cutler jersey... | I vote yea. How about you? Should the NY Times and other publications allow photographers to submit HDR? http://bit.ly/1Ozsio | Mocha latte, give me the energy I need to teach these children! | I may have to paint myself pale and bite Shannon on the neck a few times this weekend since New Moon won't be out in Korea until Dec 3. >:[ | Be a part of the Help-Portrait project: http://bit.ly/QwkEk | Bladow. | Just set tweetboard up on my blog. Play with it. Cheers! - AB: http://blog.aaronbrownphotos.com http://po.st/E8g | This weekend went by too quickly. Boo. | I hope the Bears win one today! | Got a GREAT deal on a Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens from a guy here in Korea getting rid of some stuff he didn't use. Happy xmas to me! | Some people anxiously awaited New Moon, but I've been giddy about The Road, which opens tomorrow! wo0t! http://theroad-movie.com/ | I'm very thankful for all the great people in my life -- near and abroad! Thank you, all. | Aaron Brown likes this. | It's Friday! wo0t! Seven hours with the chillins and then I'm off to enjoy the weekend. Relaxing with some shows tonight, photography meeting / work Saturday morning, nightclub with Shannon Saturday night, and only Buddha knows what else is in store. Life moves pretty fast indeed, Mr. Bueller. | I had a yummy lunch, and now it's time for work. Let's get this Monday over with already!

December:
Sons of Anarchy just blew my mind. Damn that show! | Had fun shooting at an orphanage yesterday for the @help_portrait project. My body is aching today -- those little monkeys wore me out! :) | Finished a lot of photo editing tonight! Working on a few projects this weekend, and I'm close to landing a pretty big gig. Details to come! | Listening to the "Requiem for a Dream" soundtrack (Mike Wytrykus put me in the mood for it) and packing up my new camera bag. Fun times! Fun times. I need more photo gear! :D | Learn from these words: Frankie Say Relax... Don't Do It! | Random fact: I have never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show but I have done the Time Warp... again. | Can't wait to see me baby tonight! I've been missing her badly. :( | Hey you, out there on the road always doing what you're told, Can you help me? | Working on the Help-Portrait project wrap-up blog. Heading to the orphanage this Saturday to present the framed photos to everyone. wo0t! | It's a balmy 16 degrees out. Brrr... | I wish this writer would give me the [expletive] job already! | Xmas, xmas, xmas!!! It's almost Xmas! | Hoping the hot water works today... showering in icecubes kinda brought things down a notch yesterday. | Hoping my Red Wings can pull one out against the Baby Hawks tonight! | Last minute Xmas idea for me: a new laptop. ;D | One of my little ones told that me her mom said Santa had influenza and probably wouldn't make it to their house. One of my teen boys had surgery for phimosis (I'll let you google that). Happy holidays everyone! | After two days of trying to back-up (clone) my HD, I finally switched to Acronis True Image 2010. Worked like a charm. I really recommend it! | Xmas love to all! We got a little snow here tonight... Just watched White Christmas for the first time, to boot. Cheers everyone! | I love my Canon 7D! http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090105canoneos 7d.asp | I love the Bears today; now if only they played like this consistantly. | The Invention of Lying = Awesome! | Heading out of town with Shannon for the New Year. Cheers everyone!

All-in-all, it was another great year in Korea. Though, I can't wait to get home! If you actually just got through all that, then I owe you like 5-10 minutes of your life back. I figure at $7.25 an hour (Indiana minimum wage) that's worth about 60 cents to a dollar 20. How about I just buy you a beer or something? Let me know so I can add you to my list of bills. :D

Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:20:00 +0000

Muse:
I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the holiday with friends, family, and loved-ones. Just wanted to officially wish you and yours a fantastic New Year! The little lady and I are heading out of town for some much needed R&R, and although we can't celebrate with cocktails (we're both on meds at the moment... :( boo!) we'll be enjoying all our luxurious hotel has to offer -- a bathtub (serious luxury item in Korea), a pool, masseuse, 24 hour room service, amazing restaurant, casino and nightclub.

I have been out shooting for the Seoul Metro Project the past two days. Shannon tipped me off on this huge Santa Claus snow sculpture outside of Jeongbalsan subway station -- hidden in the Forbidden Zone ;) -- in our hometown of Ilsan, South Korea. So I stopped by and took some shots. It's a bit dirty now, but it still has a lot of character. :)

Cheers to everyone!

Help-Portrait: Hwasung Baby Home, Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:05:00 +0000

News:
Waking up at 6:50am isn't something that I do on a typical Saturday, but December 5th wasn't my typical Saturday. I'm about an hour northwest of Seoul, in Ilsan "The New City," so meeting the guys at 9:00am took me a little extra time to get up and ready. By the time I was on the subway at 7:45am, I was cleaned, clothed, and carrying my gear -- cup of coffee included! The Hwasung Baby Home orphanage in the Wangshimni neighborhood of Seoul was my final destination and where the Seoul Photo Club's Help-Portrait project took place.

A shift in thinking... Help-Portrait is a movement of photographers who are using their time, equipment and expertise to give back to those who are less fortunate this holiday season. Founded by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers, coming together across the world, to use their photography skills to give back to the community.

On or around December 12th, 2009, photographers around the world grabbed their cameras, found people in need, and took their picture. When the prints were ready, the photographs got delivered.

Awesome video edited together by Dylan Goldby with Shawn and Dylan's footage.

It was really nice spending time with the kids, and the camaraderie between us photographers made a long day a pleasure to work through. The four of us -- Aaron Raisey (Seoul Photo Club President), Dylan Goldby (Help-Portrait organizer), Shawn Parker, and myself -- made for a great team. Figuring out how to shoot kids who didn't want to sit still was a tough enough challenge. Add a language barrier on top of that and things could have turned into chaos pretty quickly! Luckily, Dylan's fiancee, Jeehe, was awesome at wrangling the kids and translating back and forth. As Shawn puts it, "We have experience in fashion, studio, print and editorial work. But none of that prepares you for the madness of shooting children. Lots of them, stuffed full of sugar."

From about 10:00am 'till 12:00 noon, we shot and shot... and shot some more! Kids climbed all over us the whole way through. It was insane, but awesome! The orphanage provided a delicious lunch including chicken and rice. Around 1:00pm when the older kids got home from school, we got right back at it! I think we finally packed up around 3:30pm or so and called it a day... a very long day!

At the very least, The Help-Portrait project brought four guys together, one from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States of America, for one day in order to give back to children in Korea -- that's a mighty wide reach for a mighty good cause! The laughs and good times with the kids is something we'll all remember forever.

For volunteer opportunities with Hwasung Baby Home contact Jeong Jin-Hee at 010-7679-3596 or visit them online at www.hwasung.org
For more on Help-Portrait www.help-portrait.com
For more on the Seoul Photo Club www.seoulphotoclub.wordpress.com or www.flickr.com/groups/seoulphotoclub

Clicking any of the photos will take you to an exhibit gallery where you can view the whole set.
Thanks for reading and checking these out!

The Metro Project

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:00:00 +0000

News:
I've been out working on another photo project. This one's the brainchild of one of my SPC buddies, Shawn Parker, aka Flash or Parks. The gist of the project is to creatively capture each stop of the Seoul Metro Rapid Transit system and the immediate outlying areas. There are 436 stations over 14 lines. I'm splitting the 3 line (orange line) with fellow member and head of SPC, Aaron Raisey. We each have have 20 stops to cover. I know Aaron's hitting a few more stops on another line, but 20 is more than enough for me. Shawn wants us to shoot with the theme of "Différance" forefront in our minds.

From Shawn: "Think of the interpretation of signs. They don't mean what they really mean (stay with me). Meaning is "deferred", altered, changed, shifted as it is transmitted from source to receptor (in big bold print: WE ARE THE RECEPTORS). This never ends. This occurs with all things. The established meaning in one space, in one place and time may not mean squat to someone engaging a sign for the first time."

Leave it to the professional writer to confound me with words! :P I'm just focusing on trying to create / find unique moments at each one. In the end, we're supposed to pick the most important frame and write a short essay. It's really a lot harder than you would think. When all the stops are completed, we're putting everything together and publishing a book. I'd like to see an exhibition as well.

I'm excited, but busy... very busy! The hardest part for me will be narrowing down the selection of shots I take to only 1 for each stop. If I'm just not finding anything, I may cheat a little and replicate I shot I liked but didn't use from one stop at another. It's an awesome undertaking, but we still need a hand. If you're reading this and you live in Korea, come join us. A lot of lines are available. I know Shawn wanted to get a native Korean to do a section and essay, too. Head over to the Seoul Photo Club at Flickr and join up! Thanks for checking these out. Here's a small collection of candidates for my stops so far. Click on any of them to see the full gallery exhibit. More photos to come. A lot more...

Help-Portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

News:
I'm very excited to be part of the Help-Portrait project. Some of the guys from the Seoul Photo Club I belong to and I are looking to help by photographing kids at an orphanage near Seoul. One of our club members, Dylan, is organizing everything and has rallied us together. This is an excerpt from what he wrote in the SPC discussion forum:

"I've been organising [sic] the Seoul end of this for some time now. I've got an orphanage organised [sic] who I will meet with on Saturday morning to discuss the details with. I would like to provide the 50 or so kids at the orphanage with a picture they can keep for their whole lives and a little spark of hope on the day if we can. I used to work for this orphanage, and they're a great bunch of people."

I'm stoked to do something so positive using a medium I love. More information to come as we get closer to 12/12.

Visit the Help-Portrait site for information on how you can help.

Seoul Photo Essay Contest 2009: The Real Story of Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

News:
So, I'm participating again in this year's Hi Seoul Photo Contest. Last year's competition garnered me one of four fourth place participation prizes for 30,000 KRW [photo here]. This year, the prizes are much nicer and I'm hoping to place higher if I'm selected. It took me a while to narrow down a photo I wanted to write about, but I really enjoyed visiting Changdeokgung Palace with Shannon back in June, so I decided to rework one of those photographs to suit the competition. Wish me luck and check out my short essay!

Awards: (directly from the Hi Seoul website)
- The Grand Prize winner will receive 2,000,000 KRW in prize money and a plaque
- Two Gold Prize winners will be given 1,000,000 KRW in prize money and a plaque
- 20 Silver Prize winners will receive 100,000 KRW in prize money and plaque
• the number of prizes awarded is subject to change depending on the quality of the entries.
• Seoul City will be giving away 4GB USB drives all the participants.
• Seoul City will be giving away Monthly English magazine only for winners.
• The winning essays will be published as an “e-book” and can be seen at Seoul City’s official english website.
• All winners are invited to a day cultural event(all-expense-paid invitation).

Essay:
Visting Changdeokgung Palace this year was definitely one of the highlights of my Korean experience! Although I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the magnificence of Seoul’s eastern grand palace as a whole, once in front of Injeongjeon Hall, I immediately understood why it is one of Korea’s National Treasures. The architecture and landscaping alone lend themselves to a benevolent society in which Confucian ideals are so important. What an amazing place! I could almost imagine myself inside the remarkably rebuilt throne room among King Sunjo, his family & court, and the stately gentlemen of the time. In homage to being designated National Treasure 225 on January 8, 1985, I thought it interesting to present Injeongjeon Hall in the style of the popular 1980s Holga cameras – of which their unique qualities complement such an extraordinary building. I know future generations of Koreans and foreigners alike will continue to appreciate Chandeokgung Palace and its many beauties within.

Seven Wonders of Illinois Photo Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:37:00 +0000

News:
After more than 90 submissions, the judges at the Seven Wonders of Illinois Photo Contest have chosen me as one of the seven finalists. Help me out and vote for Wrigley Field: The Heart of Chicago! All votes must be in by November 17 and the contest winner will be announced on November 18.

Let's show everyone how important Wrigley Field is! I know the Ricketts family will do right by the fans. Here are my thoughts on this photo, Wrigley, and being a Cubs fan in general:

Caption:
Oh, to be a Cubs fan! It's one of the hardest and most emotional things to endure. The Cubs are more than just Lovable Losers, and Wrigley Field is more than just an old baseball stadium. When the Cubs are down 8 - 0 in the bottom of the 6th, support never dies. Fans don't leave early to beat the traffic. Rally caps go on! Cheering gets louder! Families and friends unite around their team in the best ballpark ever built. Wrigley Field: this is where the heart of Chicago is! ...well, unless you're a Sox fan.

Happy Pepero Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

News:
It's Pepero Day! Well, here in Korea it is. Since this blog is tied to Chicago Central time, you just have to add 15 hours to see it's officially 11/11 here in the land of the morning calm. I live in the future; It's awesome. I'm too lazy to use my own words to explain or comment on this holiest of holidays, so enjoy this cut and paste directly taken from the most trustworthy of sources next to Fox News, Wikipedia. ;)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Pepero (빼빼로) is a cookie stick, dipped in chocolate syrup, manufactured by Lotte in South Korea since 1983.[1] It was inspired by the Japanese product, Pocky produced by Glico.[2]

Pepero Day:
Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero.[3][4] The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions.[2] Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity.

According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".[5]

In Japan, a similar Pocky Day was started however it has failed to gain traction.[2]
[edit] Sales and Melamine discovery in 2008

Lotte usually does about 55% of their Pepero business in November every year. In early October 2008 melamine was found in some Pepero.[6]

Flavors:
As of 2007, it was sold in 10 different flavors:
* Regular or Chocolate
* Strawberry-flavored
* Almond Chocolate
* Nude (chocolate in the center)
* Nude Lemon Cheese
* Cocoa
* Soft
* Cheese
* "Woman in White" and "Man in Black" are slightly more "classy" brands of Pepero, and both have chocolate cookie bits scattered throughout the chocolate dip.
* Topic, a style similar to Japanese Toppo, also manufactured by Lotte.

Apgujeong Noir

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Muse:
The little lady and I went out to Apgujeong to enjoy some yummy Hooters and decided to walk off some of our gluttony afterwards through the downtown streets. While we were wandering about through back alleys and dark corridors, I felt more like a foreigner than usual. There's something surreal about Seoul at night. I had been on a futuristic neo-noir / steam-punk film kick, i.e. Blade Runner, for a while so I thought I would take a stab at a "look" in these photos.

So here you have it: desaturated / bleach bypass process, viggnette, fade to black edges, soft focused / distorted edges, added texture / noise, and other artistic licenses along the way like the occasional lens flare / light glow. This is just the start to a bigger project I have in the works -- an experiment like the post-apocalyptic look in the Halloween Special I did (actually, I worked on these a week or two before those). I think it went well. How about you?

Feel free to comment below. Use the Facebook Connect option to link up and feel free to share with your friends. Click on any of the photos to go directly to the exhibit gallery. Thanks for checking these out!

My Blog Wordle

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

News:
So I happened across Wordle via the interwebs and had a lot of fun playing with it. I entered every blog up to the Halloween Special to see what words come up most often when I write, and this is the result.

Wordle is a cool little applet with some nice customizing tweaks. I had to screen-grab it in order to save it as an image since Java doesn't allow writing to the HD. I up-scaled it from there. There's no surprise that "Seoul" and "Korea" came up as top hits, since I've been living here for the last year and a half. I can't wait to bump "Chicago" up larger when I get back home.

From the website:
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Thanks for checking it out. Make one, like I did, at http://www.wordle.net

Apocalypse-oul!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:04:00 +0000

News:
Bill Paxton said it right in Aliens, "Game over, man. Game over!" H1N1 has finally taken its toll on Korea. I never thought it would come to this: riots, looting, mass-violence, murder, plague, death... zombies! You read it right. Zombies! How did it get to this?

Calls for vaccinations from the west were the beginning. Nationalist pride forced the government to secretly infuse kimchi with the antibodies. That's where things really took off. The combination of injecting the untested vaccination and mass ingestion of the famous pickled cabbage was catastrophic. The so-called H1N1 pandemic turned into a biological nightmare of apocalyptic proportions. We who didn't take the vaccine or eat the kimchi survived -- we built our immune defense up naturally. That's all anyone had to do, but they called us crazy. My, how the tides have turned.

Those of us not infected with the H1N1 mutation have taken refuge where we can. I'm writing this in an underground PC Bang surrounded by rotting corpses of the Sudden Attack and Starcraft players who stayed during the riots. I survive on the Ramyun and Cass Beer I find throughout the city. It's a war-zone here -- everyone for himself. I found a can of Dr. Pepper that I'm bringing home as a present for Shannon. It's the little things that count, now. I think I heard some thing moving. I have to go... If you read this, spread the word: avoid Seoul, head north if you can, and whatever you do -- DON'T EAT THE KIMCHI! Happy Halloween! :D

In Itaewon with Shannon

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Muse:
This is Shannon: my friend, my roommate, my future fiance, my everything. We have known each other since 2001 when a mutual friend of ours died. Mike's death brought a lot of friends together that year. And though it wasn't the particularly best of circumstances, that was our beginning. Well, you see, within the tangled web of life in which people cross paths and meet in seemingly ordinary circumstances, our beginning had been building well before we had realized: I used to work with her friend; she used to be roommates with mine. Our paths crossed from time to time after that, and when you cut past all that comes and goes in people's lives during seven years -- the ups & downs, rights & wrongs, good & bad -- you get to where we re-connected. In March, 2008, it was our time... and what a good time it has been!

We've been teaching English in Korea for about a year and a half now. That keeps us busy from Monday to Friday, but on the weekends we get a chance to go out and explore this amazing country. Last weekend we were out in Itaewon, Seoul for our monthly trip to the awesome foreign grocery store, foreign book store, and foreign dinner -- it's the foreigner capital of Korea. We wandered around through some side streets and alleys off the beaten path and I found a cool garage door I though she would look lovely in front of. Click on any of the following to go directly to the exhibit and see more. Here are a few photos from that shoot:

Your Favorite TV Shows Results

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:56:00 +0000

Which Current Shows Do You Watch?

News:
With 60% of the votes, Project Runway comes in as the winner. It's pretty fitting since the show focuses on artistic expression through fashion. Thanks for taking part! More polls to come...

Seoul Grand Park Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Review:
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight! We packed up our backpacks and headed off to Seoul Grand Park to check out its enormous zoo. Whoa, Nelly! It was big. We had to actually take a trolly car, or the optional sky-lift, up a mountain to the entrance. I swear, Korea has run out of land so new things are either on mountains or top of other old "things." Once we found a map in English, we trekked off on our makeshift tour with one real destination -- the dolphin show.
From Wikipedia:
Seoul Grand Park is a park complex to the south of Seoul, South Korea, in the city of Gwacheon (과천시). Seoul Grand Park has numerous facilities, including:
* Hills and hiking trails
* Seoul Grand Park Zoo
* Children's Zoo
* A rose garden
* SeoulLand amusement park
* Seoul Museum of Modern Art

The attractions all have separate admission fees. Line 4 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway stops at Seoul Grand Park Station. A free shuttle bus from the station visits the art museum and upper park entrance.

The show started at 3pm and we arrive a little early just in time to line up outside in the deathly heat. It was a good thing we did because the place got crowded quickly. I swear it doesn't matter how far away you intentionally keep from people, Koreans eventually find their way right next to you -- and I mean, RIGHT next to you -- so we didn't really maintain our comfortable seats long. But it was Shannon's first dolphin show and we were determined to make the best of it.

The Chicago Shed Aquarium puts on a much better performance, but when in Korea... eat dried squid, I guess. Here are some more photos from our amazing day. Click on any of them to view the full exhibit. Feel free to leave a comment or three here, too!

Kimchibilly Night at DGBD

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Brown) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Review:
DGBD - Hongdae, Seoul
So I was checking out some photos on flickr and came across this stunning black and white in one of the expat groups and I had to find out where it was taken. Turns out, it was taken in June (around Kimchibilly Night 7 or 8) at DGBD -- what I assume is the Seoul equivalent to the legendary CBGB -- in Hongdae, Seoul. I Googled me up some info from The Rocktigers MySpace Page and my old lady and I set off for some Korean styled rockabilly music at Kimchibilly Night 9 in August!

The Rocktigers:
The show started at 10:30pm, but we got there early around 9 or so. So we decided to get some grub next door (awesome fried chicken, by the way) and when we came back, everyone was kind of hanging around outside. I decided to snap some pseudo posed-shots outside before I got to the live performances. These two gents (Tiger and Ace) are guitarists from the headlining band, The Rocktigers. They were just too cool.

From Wikipedia:
The RockTigers (더 락타이거즈, also written as The Rock Tigers, The Rocktigers) are a South Korean indie rock and roll band formed in 2001. The band is one of the leaders of the rock and roll revival movement on the Korean indie band scene. The RockTigers show a style that is rooted in the 1940s and 1950s jump blues, boogie-woogie, rockabilly, and the 1960s twist dance that sets them apart from other Korean indie bands. Although not on the Korean mainstream, The RockTigers have developed a cult following with their energetic live shows around the Hongdae club scene as well as several rock festivals throughout Asia.

Velvet Geena: The Rocktigers:
I didn't think it was possible, but Korea has an awesome underground rockabilly / punk scene slowly emerging. Pretty cool! This is Velvet Geena -- what a doll -- lead singer for The Rocktigers. Seems like she sets these nights up and books the opening bands from what I have read on her Facebook page. She and her band, along with some of the opening bands happily obliged my makeshift photo session outside. On stage for the night: Rusty Belle, The Gentle Slicks, Dog'gie Dogg, and The Rocktigers.

Feel free to click any of the photos to go inside the exhibit gallery and see more of the night. Also, here's the direct link to share with your friends. I missed the 10th Kimchibilly night because of my gallery showing, but I hear the 11th will be on Halloween -- which could be a stop to make! Hope you enjoy a few more of my favorites: