Sheila Bocchine, Photographer

Pinwheel on Brother One Feather’s Van in Santa Barbara California.
*****

I said it yesterday, I’ll say it again today.  Intensives, have been intense. My blog and life have been neglected and after tomorrow, everything goes back to normal.

Even though I’ve been working…alot… I’ve still found a little time for excitement!

I went to my first soccer game at World Cup Stadium in Suwon. I’ll have to go back because it wasn’t the professional team, just kids under 20 years old. The stadium is beautiful and the seat pattern resembles the elements fire and water. My friends and I learned their cheers and sang along…probably not the exact words, but we tried! Also, they take foreign songs and turn them into Korean cheers, like Joy to the World. To view photos from that night click here.

I went to Insadong and explored more art galleries, paper shops, traditional craft shops and tourist trap shops (purchasing too many items for my family).  It’s the community in Seoul travelers visit for a taste of traditional Korea.  To view photos from Insadong click here.

One afternoon I spent exploring Itaewon, the foreigners part of Seoul and found a book shop with English books! I got my eyebrows waxed, unfortunately they are uneven and made me miss my brow lady in Scottsdale sooooooo much. I had walked to every salon in Suwon (where I live) and no one waxes eyebrows. I did research and found this salon in Itaewon that did, next thing I knew I was on the bus to Seoul, without my camera.  BUT I found a bookstore! The books were priced well, but the magazines, were OH MY GOSH OUTRAGEOUS. I’ve been going through magazine withdrawal since I arrived and I finally find some fashion magazines and they are $25. Vogue and In Style were $25 each.  Hint… Hint… The perfect package for me would be an assortment of magazines, not just fashion…

Last weekend Joey and I went to Incheon for the 2009 International Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale. The trip there was long, over 2 hours but so worth it! The exhibit was wonderfully inspiring. I only knew a handful of the artists so finding new women artists I like was such a treat. It just so happened that the exhibit was in Chinatown, so afterward we headed up there, ate dinner and walked around. Then there was the 2 hour+ trip home.  Seoul is so big, it often takes hours to get anywhere. To view photos from that day click here.

This weekend is the Fring Festival in Hongdae, so photo will probably be up on Sunday!

These are NOT pinhole photographs.  I did pinhole the eclipse but the film is waiting for me at the lab. Having only one place to develop film in South Korea means, it will always be a long time between visits. It is after all a 90 minute trip to the photo lab. 90 MINUTES!!!

Goodness, has it really been a month since my last post. I have a very valid excuse… the last month was Intensives at school. Two more days and they are finished. I will be very happy to get back to my routine, 12+ hour days are kinda rough… never ending kids and NEVER ENDING GRADING!

Right before intensives started, on July 22nd, 2009, I witnessed a solar eclipse! It was quite the experience,  I felt lucky to have seen this and photograph it. I went to the rooftop of my apartment, on my way up I was thinking, “I hope there’s a puddle so I can take photos of the reflection”. I set up 2 pinhole cameras and was looking around. In the corner I saw a tub of water (the universe was looking out for me) and moved it so I could photograph the reflection. The bottom 2 photos are reflection images.  The top image, was me being brave or perhaps a little crazy and I looked up and snapped away. I got a wonderful image and my eyes didn’t burn out of my head.  Success!

I was pretty giddy during the whole 10 minute performance. Watching it actually happen, in real life, can never compare to looking at someone else’s photos or a video on the internet. Although I did look at tons of spectacular solar eclipse photos.  Did you see any of them fromSolar  India? Do a Google or flickr search and prepare to be amazed.

OH! Speaking of Google! I immediately uploaded my eclipse photos to flickr and for that WHOLE DAY anything you typed into Google related to the solar eclipse, showed my flickr photos as the first listing on google!  I was definitely patting myself on the back that day.  Google even brought over 4,000 views to my solar eclipse photos.

To view all images click here.