Looking Back On Korea – Seoul Lantern Festival 2013

I was very fortunate to pick up this months issue of Stripes Korea, a free addendum of Stars and Stripes specifically geared to the Korean theater.  Not only do they have informative and humorous articles related to serving in Korea but it has an entire section dedicated with keeping you up to date with what is going on in the community.  One of the entries caught my eye.  Every year since 2009, local and international artists build ornate and picturesque scenes using lighted lanterns placed along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. 

  Always looking for an excuse to use my camera, especially in new and challenging conditions, this was an event I really wanted to go to.  I really needed to make sure I got out of the house Sunday night, since I had a 13 hour marathon at work on Saturday doing multiple installs.  I was just too tired to drag myself out of the apartment Saturday night and Sunday was the last day of the festival.  It runs from the 1^st of November until the 17^th.

  In all honesty I did not know what to expect, Whatever preconceptions of what a lantern festival was it was not exactly what greeted me when I found my way down to the stream.. I think I was expecting more of a traditional Chinese style lantern.  Maybe I have seen Raise The Red Lantern one too many times.  So I wandered around a little bit looking for lanterns that we have all seen in China Town.  I got to the stream during sunset, so the lanterns were not well lit, but really nice art in the river.. I like it..  When the sun finally went down and a crowd of Koreans descended on the river it dawned on me.. Those were the lanterns!

  I spent about 3 hours walking up and down the river, taking pictures in the changing light conditions.  My goal was to use only my 50mm prime lens (Canon’s Nifty 50), no flash, and everything in manual (Except White Balance, which was left in AUTO).  I was going to switch to my 24 – 105mm L series zoom lens for another pass. I was getting such good pictures with the Nifty 50.  That I never even bothered to change the lens.

  All my pictures where taken in manual mode, changing only the aperture, and shutter speed and ISO.  I did not use exposure compensation, and only a few times used an ISO higher then 800.  By the end of the evening I was feeling much more comfortable using my camera, had a great time mingling with the local Koreans, and passed 20,000 steps in a day on my fitbit!

  Great evening all around.  If you are even in Seoul in November, I highly recommend checking out the Seoul Lantern Festival.

More great pictures from the Seoul Lantern Festival.

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