Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Morning Calm Garden, Day Trip in South Korea

Not sure if I've posted this yet, but I wanted to make sure I shared this picture with you:

I love the random appearance of soldiers in Korea, doing random things, like holding their girlfriends' purses at shopping centers, or goofing off on a subway platform, during their weekends of leave. This is my all-time favorite, though:
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Next: Girlfriendoseyo took me to a place called "Morning Calm Garden" the very weekend after reading A Geek In Korea's glowing review of it. I took a ton of pictures, and here are the best ones for you. This was one of the prettiest botanical gardens I've ever seen (and I've seen a few). It's only 15 years old, and I'm sure as the trees mature, it'll only get better, but this was the absolute optimum day for fall colors -- both because of the date (everything was rich red) and because of the weather -- the grayish sky meant I never had to worry about backlighting while taking most of my photos, and then right near the end of our trip, suddenly the sun came out and I got a few blazing glory shots, too.
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In a garden, open spaces are crucial for balance.
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in the sun, those white spray-thingys look really great. I'm bad with remembering plant names, but in the same way not knowing musical theory doesn't mean I can't appreciate a good symphony, not knowing plant names hasn't impeded my aesthetic appreciation of them.
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In the gift shop: this is what happens to a Korean kid if they wet the bed. They have to walk around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking for salt. I imagine the public shaming might be a good disincentive.. then again, the fear of shaming might lead to bed-wetting level anxiety.
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A mother rubbing her sick baby's belly. Girlfriendoseyo asked if I knew what was happening, and I helpfully informed her that Korean moms are not the only ones who rub their sick children's bellies. (snarky comment goes here.. but I'm trying to be less snarky)
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I like wacky, crooked "1960s batman" angles when I take pictures.
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A waterfally stream.
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here's another picture of the stream.

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green and red.
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I love variegated colors like this, fading from one shade to the other.
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stream bed
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This tree had the most awesome colour fade I've seen in a while. Look how it pretty much hits every color on the fall spectrum, from its tips to its center.
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from the lookout point, I played with setting the light filter lower, so that the brighter colours showed up more brightly in contrast.
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lighter filter setting. Learning what my camera can do has been a fun process.
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The rock-pile garden was fascinating. One guy had a pile so tall it was above his head! (you can see it poking up, a bit left of the center)
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Kids were playing. They made me happy.
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I also like pictures of backlit leaves.
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The sunken garden.
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More leaf fades.
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Just to prove I was actually there:
Girlfriendoseyo likes to frame her subject on the sides of photos.
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as you can see.
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the pavillion lake.
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had a continuous string of people using these benches to pose.
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these reminded me of the Pines of British Columbia
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Maybe my favorite picture of the whole lot:
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a great people-watching moment I caught:
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as usual with Korean sites, crowds were de rigeur... but the scenery was so nice, I didn't mind a bit.
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Yeah. so that was nice.
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11 comments:

Brian said...

Rob, those are beautiful pictures. I think with this post you've guaranteed the park's attendance by foreigners will increase by about 600% next fall.

Kelsey said...

Great photos Rob! I really miss the Korean autumn.

Anonymous said...

Really nice!!! And I like the "snark", too!

paquebot said...

Awesome photos, Rob! Looks like you picked the perfect weekend to go, too.

How long was the bus ride?

Caryn Ouwehand said...

awesome photos Rob! The crooked waterfall is my favorite.

Charles Montgomery said...

Nice,

I'm going out there to take some pictures for a magazine.. maybe I'll just swipe yours!

danielle said...

Hey, do you know the song the mom sings when she rubs her baby's belly? It's really sweet and Kenny always rubs my belly and sings it when i'm sick. Translated, it says, "Your belly is full of crap, but my hand is medicine." Anyway, ask Girlfriendoseyo if she knows it!
Also, framing subjects in sides of pictures reminds me of the way Asians tend to relate the subject to the background and westerners often focus on just the subject, isolating it from the background . If you haven't already, you should read The Geography of Thought. It's so interesting. And EBS did a documentary about it. Really interesting stuff about the ways Asians and Westerners see things.

Patti Worley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patti Worley said...

Holy Wow! You got some really beautiful shots! That has to be the loveliest garden I've seen in a long time. Thanks for sharing!

Sorry about the excessive posts...

Anonymous said...

I want to go there!! I haven't seen anything pretty in Korea in a while, this might be just what I need.

Roboseyo said...

I've visited there a couple of years ago and your wonderful post brought back all the memories. Thanks :)