Sheila Bocchine, Photographer

Pinhole portrait of Jesus on Brother One Feather’s Van in Santa Barbara, California.
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Last Saturday I joined a meetup.com group of photographers to photograph the bustling Namdaemun Market in Seoul, South Korea.  My only reaction is just ‘wow’!  It was so busy that even shooting pinhole was a little difficult. I’ll need to go back without my digital camera and just focus on pinhole.  In fact I always feel if I have two cameras one is being neglected or not used to it’s greatest potential…. I’m talking about my pinhole camera here.  I have to be in a pinhole state of mind to shoot pinhole.  I have a theory of what makes a great pinhole image and when I’m shooting pinhole I look for those elements.  When I’m shooting both pinhole and digital I’m not as focused.

But I digress… Namdaemun Market was incredible. Hidden alleyways of fresh fish, dried fish, fish heads… barrels of zestful spices, shops with every kind of bead imaginable! Fabric, socks, purses, sunglasses, hairdryers, camouflage… Golden bottled Ginseng that looked like alien lifeforms… Buildings full of tourist trap goodies sold at wholesale prices.  Strange smells around every corner.

I was photographing a bowl of cherries next to a bowl of pretty black and white beans… next to an old woman. The old woman wasn’t even in my photograph and she started poking me with her umbrella.  One of the other photographers spoke Korean and the old woman started yelling at him, telling him it’s illegal for people to take photos of Korean people. Ha!  When she was arguing, I went to the other side and snapped her photo!

Take a look at the photos from Namdaemun Market here.

Pinhole photograph of a Witch, her poisoned apple and a dwarf on Brother One Feather’s Van in Santa Barbara, California

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I know this is a few days after, but if I posted one blog about all the exciting things I did on the weekend, I’d have nothing to post during the week.  My weekdays are pretty boring.  I wake up, I spent a few hours on the computer (facebook) and on the phone, I make lunch, sometimes I go hiking or for a walk, and then I go to work.  I work, then I grade then I go home and usually watch tv until I fall asleep.  Pretty non-eventful. BUT THE WEEKENDS are wonderful!!!

Saturday was the 4th of July, my favorite holiday (tied with New Year’s Eve). I adore fireworks…mesmerizing flecks of glitter that light up the night sky. I could watch fireworks everyday of the year!  A few friends got together for a picnic, beer and fireworks in the park.  They are legal in South Korea and you’ll never guess where they are sold.

Try to guess?

Okay, I’ll tell you.  Are you ready for this… in the kids department.  They are sold next to the toys.  Oh yes, I’m not kidding!

I painted my name with sparklers, enjoyed sweet watermelon and was ready for the show of endless roman candles.  Someone had the great idea to shoot them off all at once.  We tried sticking them in the ground but they kept falling over, so we used the other half of the watermelon. Pure magic!

We had an audience, mostly of little kids.  The adults were moving as far away as possible from us. We stuck about 8 huge roman candles in the watermelon and about 8 smaller ones in the ground next to the watermelon.

And show began! First they shot off quietly, one at a time, but after a minute or two, hot balls of fire were busting out of their containers and exploding in the sky, 4…5at a time!  Totally rad!

It was a fantastic 4th of July in South Korea!  Photos can be found here.

Pinhole photograph of a fairy on Brother One Feather’s Van in Santa Barbara, California.

*****

On Saturday I was a tourist. I went to Hwaseong Fortress with a few friends.

The construction period of Hwaseong was between January 1794 and September 1796.  Hwaseong is known as a masterpiece in the history of fortification.  It consists of 41 facilities, however, 7 facilities have not been restored.  Hwaseong, constructed over 200 years ago, has the most modern scale and function.  (I stole this from the brochure).

I shot a couple rolls of pinhole so I’m excited to see how those turn out.  On our climb to the top we stopped about halfway and I did a pinhole portrait of Joey, Nero, Paula and myself.  Joey speaks Korea and said when the Koreans were walking by they said, “They aren’t taking a picture, that camera is broke.”  How funny is that!

No matter where I go with my wonderful little pinhole camera, a small crowd usually forms around me.  Even people that don’t speak English want to know what I’m doing.  One of the girls in the group translated and they all ooooh’d and aaaaah’d.  I handed out many postcards. It was quite the celebrity moment.  I think I should make some with my Korean information.

The fortress was nice. I kept waiting for a castle. My favorite part were the gardens and waterfall.  The waterfall wasn’t anything like the photos in the tourist center showed.  It was quite small, but surrounded by walls overgrown with ivy and beautiful bright flowers.  It was very peaceful.

I posted some photos here.

Pinhole of a caterpillar on Brother One Feather’s van in Santa Barbara, California.

*****

Hooray!!!!  My blog is back.  It was down for 2 weeks.  I kept wanting to update you on the fascinations of South Korea but technology was being uncooperative.

I have discovered Nore Bangs (translation: song room).  Private karaoke rooms!! I have been 3 times in the last 7 days.  Basically you get group of people together and go singing in a room with couches, disco balls, beer (or Soju if that’s your thing) and a tv with endless song possibilities.  Oh and magical microphones! I swear the microphones make everyone sound super fantastic!  Either that or I’m a MUCH better singer than I originally thought.

Last Saturday night some friends and I went and they speak Korean so they were singing Korean songs.  The impossible happened.  I realized that I’m starting to like K-pop (Korean Pop).  I didn’t think that was going to happen, but it did.  In fact I’m obsessed with this song:

After we finished our 2 hour session.  I went to NOW Bar and recruited 7 others to go back!  So we sang and danced from 4am to 7am.  It was morning when we left!  Korea is so amazing.

On Friday night there was another spontaneous Nore Bang happening.  We were drinking and I couldn’t stop talking about it and recruited a few people in the bar into rock star status!

I want to go to Nore Bangs everyday. Like seriously they are my new favorite activity!