Yellow Flowers in Gyeongju

Last week we were driving through Gyeongju on our way home from Ulsan's Costco when we zipped past a  field of yellow flowers.  A huge field.  It is so uncommon to see so much color in one place that we made plans right then to return the next day and take pictures and act like fools in that sea of color.  So last Sunday we loaded up the car and drove to Gyeongju to take pictures.  In my mind I imagined a kind of engagement photo shoot for us, so what I tried to do was take as many pictures of us as possible and then I edited them in as many ways as I could imagine.  I'm a little disappointed as my imagination ran out pretty quickly.
Shooting in a field full of flowers is pretty cool.  Doing it with a tripod, a flash, and a hundred and fifty people all around is a whole nother thing.  People were already very interested in us because we were relatively dressed up.  And Sara was wearing makeup and a dress and posing all over the place and I was snapping pictures of her, so people were really interested in what she was up to. Then I put the tripod down and started firing the flash all over the place.  I was taking sets of nine photos in less than a minute and the flash was firing on every shot.  Not to mention the fact that we were standing in the middle of a field hugging and kissing and acting like we like each other, which is not really done.  Needless to say, I was not the only one taking pictures of us.  The best part about learning to use a camera in Korea is that I just don't give a shit if people stare at me.  People always stare at me, kids point, sometimes people take pictures of me when I go downtown, so when I'm climbing on top of something or laying down in a field of flowers, yeah, people are staring, but they were staring before I had the camera so I say let 'em stare, at least I'll get the pictures I want.  If you're interested in seeing the rest of the pictures I took here's a link to my Smugmug account, where you'll find nearly a hundred more.  As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

The hardest thing during this process was finding good pictures of me.  I have the grace of a cardboard box and am as stiff as a pine tree.  

You've gotta have black and white.

This de-saturated look is the rage.

I spend hours scouring the internet for Lightroom presets.  I started with a Lomo preset and then tweaked from there.

I'm a big fan of Lightroom's split toning. Purple shadows and gold highlights is probably my favorite look.  

We stood in the field and waited for some strong sun, but it came and went in about five minutes.  Right now there's just this grey haze that covers everything and the sky never gets very blue and the light never gets very strong.  Frustrating.  But we got some good sun in this one.

I doubt I'll ever work with film, but like most people I like the look.  This reminds me of something you'ed find in an attic somewhere.

Finally, some light.  Bright orange sky for about twenty minutes.  By then most of the people had cleared out, so we had the whole field to ourselves.  Almost to ourselves.

I really am like Frankenstein, just no give in the joints.

Look at those cheekbones.

Time for some wide angle.