South Korea & Japan Holiday
Overdue family holiday to one of our favourites destinations and a new one we can tick off our list.
Had been a while since we took a family holiday which always means there is one brewing. This time round we decided to check out South Korea and while we are so close to Japan lets go there after that.
Like most of our family holidays it usually revolves around the Australian school holidays and this trip was no exception with us heading to South Korea first on the 19th of December, thats right it was going to be cold!
You might be asking why South Korea (Japan is obvious if you look at any of my old blog posts or pictures), well it simply comes down to the fact that my wife has been watching various Korean dramas on Netflix over the last year. It started with wanting to eat Korean food regularly and then it was just mentions of it here and there where she would say stuff like “We should go on a trip to South Korea”. Based on the fact that we wanted to also swing by Japan meant that we needed more time on the trip and the Christmas break would be the only time that would facilitate it without having my youngest miss school. This meant that we would be going to South Korea & Japan in the winter, not full blown winter but still winter.
We have done Japan around December/January before and it was cold, but i dont think we knew what we were getting ourselves into with South Korea.
For the rare photo that im in the picture my 11yr old Lucas took those shots which turned out well, i also threw some phone snaps in there.
The Gear
We need to talk about the gear, still love geeking out about specs and nerdy tech things so have to cover what i brought with me on the trip. On this trip i didnt want to take all of my Fuji lenses with me so i left one behind (thats a first for me). Here is what i brought:
Body
Fujifilm X-Pro3
Lenses
Fujinon 16mm f1.4
Fujinon 23mm f1.4
Fujinon 35mm f1.4
I found i gravitated to the 23mm (35mm full frame equivilant) a little more although not much more than the 35mm (50mm full frame equivilant) which was 30 frames behind in my selection list. I do love the 35mm Fuji lens as its probably the sharpest Fuji lens i own, plus it was the only lens i had when i first moved to the Fuji ecosystem so ive come to know it alot better than any of the other lenses. The 23mm has only been a somewhat recent purchase so i havent properly found my way around it, but in saying that i think the 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent) is by far the best lens to take on holidays and i do think i could get away with only using that lens. That would also save a lot of lens anxiety knowing what lens to put on the camera, if you only have one then the choice is easy. The 16mm didnt get much action, mainly used for shots that needed it, tight spaces that needed to capture a wider view.
Along with the digital gear i also took my Contax S2b with the Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2.8, i absolutely love this combination and forgot how much i love shooting with that camera/lens combination. Ive had a roll of Kodak Portra 400 laying around for who knows how long so thought id throw it in and try and capture some moments along the trip.
South Korea
South Korea was as mentioned our first destination, things didnt start of well with my wife not getting on the flight (the downfall of flying standby) and only Lucas and I getting on the flight to South Korea. Sadly due to the fact that my wife didnt get on the flight they decided to take all the bags off the plane when she was pulled off so both Lucas and I arrived in Seoul with nothing but the clothes on our backs and some backpacks with his Nintendo Switch, books etc and my camera gear and laptop. This wouldnt have been a problem if the temperature wasnt -5 degrees celcius when we arrived at 930pm that evening and all we were wearing was jeans and a t-shirt!
Thankfully our Airbnb host was very accomodating and organised for a taxi to be waiting at the bus stop we got off which was a good 12 minute walk otherwise, all was well once we made it to the apartment. We got our bags 2 days later on the same day my wife ended up arriving.
The rest of the trip was exploring Seoul which included some of the main attractions, a DMZ tour and then we finished off with a short time in Busan. Enough of the text here are some of the images from our time in South Korea.
Thought id add some of my favourites shots from South Korea into a larger viewing platform.
Japan
Being that this was our 2nd family trip, my wifes 4th and my 5th visit to Japan meant that it would probably be best if we tried to explore places that we hadnt yet seen. The fact that we were ending our South Korea trip in Busan meant that we could have a short flight to the South of Japan, with this in mind we decided to start our Japan part of the holiday in Fukuoka the southern most city in Japan and then make our way to Tokyo where we would ultimately fly back to Sydney from.
So we started in Fukuoka but we stayed in Kumamoto, we then made our way up to Okayam, stayed in the Mt Fuji region and finished off in Nerima City in Tokyo. Here are some of the images from our time in Japan.
Much like the South Korea images, thought id add some of my favourites shots from Japan into a larger viewing platform.
Film Images
This roll of Kodak Portra 400 ive had has been sitting there for at least 2 years from what i can remember, it hasnt been refrigerated or kept in a cool place for its life so i think thats the reason of the over grainyness i got from it. I shot it at 320 ISO which is what i usually do for a roll of 400 speed film but potentially needed to go more due to how its been stored all these years and might have lost more of its sensitivity compared to a fresh roll. Oh well i still like the results of some of the shots, these are my faves, the rest arent really worth sharing as they didnt turn out the best. 18 out of 36 shots isnt a bad ratio, probably could have added some more but left them out.
Conclusion
By far my favourite place on this trip was our time in the Mt Fuji region, the fact that we had a car and could explore where ever we wanted to was refreshing compared to the rest of the trip. Plus Mt Fuji is just so mesmorising. South Korea was very similar in ways to Japan but way way colder. There was lots we didnt get to do in South Korea which was our own fault as we were poorly organised but it just means we have the opportunity to go back and see more things. As for Japan, we saw a different side of it as the places we went to didnt have many other tourists besides ourselves (Mt Fuji and Tokyo obvsiouly being the exception), we experienced a lot of what was just local life with a lady even asking us why we were in Kumamto as its a smaller town that not many foreigners visit. Japan has always given me great experiences even on the 5th visit.
Overall it was a trip we all had fun on, explored new places, ate new foods, made lots of good memories. The only downfall was that our eldest son couldnt make the trip.
Until the next one.
Thats for visiting.
Argentina & Chile Holiday
After many many years from not being back and roughly 30 years since seeing my dad i finally make it back to Argentina. Along with the kids meeting my family for the first time. Also getting to spend some time in Chile exploring the south.
It had roughly been 2 to 3 years since we had travelled overseas due to you know what. So we decided we should take a trip when school finishes at the end of 2022, Seb would have finished high school at that stage and Lucas would have finished for the year. Conveniently both work for my wife and I shuts down at the end of the year for roughly a week and a half.
So the question was where do we go?
So i initially thought Japan again (can never over do Japan), but because it will likely be our last trip overseas with Seb due to the fact that a 17 year old generally doesnt want to do anything with their parents for any amount of extended time i thought why not take a trip to South America and introduce my side of the family to my kids who they have never met and to my father who non of them have ever met. Then also head over to see my wifes family.
So it was decided, we spend 9 or so days in Argentina and the rest in Chile were we can also do some sight seeing.
Before we get on with the trip we need to talk about the camera gear i was taking with me of course, this is more about the photography than my poor story telling skills.
I wanted to keep it reasonably light so i took my Contax S2b with my Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm F2.8 on the film side of things and my new to you Fujifilm X-Pro3 (purchased Nov 2021). With my X-Pro3 i took my Fujifilm 27mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 16mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2. Although the lens that was on the camera the most was my 27mm f2.8 pancake, it just made the camera so much more compact. This also confirms that i prefer the 35mm full frame focal length (23mm on an APSC sensor), i think its the perfect all round lens for travel. I found the 27mm a tad too cropped in and i figure the 23mm f1.4 will get added to my lens arsenal very soon. But the 27mm was the closest to that focal length in my lens bag which is likely why it sat on the camera for most of the trip.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 with the 27mm f2.8 while on a river crossing in Castro
Without going too deep into the X-Pro3, one of the things ive loved is the recipes you can create with the various simulations. Of course if you have a Fujifilm you need to go to fujixweekly and get started with some recipes. Since i got the body ive been playing with 2 recipes from fujixweekly which is the Kodak Tri-X (very close to the real thing) and a Nostalgia recipe which i came across on Youtube with iamtongue tweaked version of a fujixweekly recipe. Ive been playing with these recipes for the last 6 months and made slight tweaks and reached a point that im happy with.
All the images youll see in this blog entry are jpg’s made with these recipes, slight tweaks like contrast and brightness in post but thats about it.
Here are my tweaked recipes:
Kodak Tri-X 400
- Film Simulation: Acros + G filter
- Grain Effect: Strong Large
- Color Chrome Effect: Strong
- Color Chrome FX Blue: Off
- White Balance: Daylight - R:9, B:-9
- Dynamic Range: DR100
- D Rand Priority: Off
- Tone Curve: H:0, S:+2
- Sharpness: -1
- Noise Reduction: -4
- Clarity: +4
- Exposure Compensation: +1
- ISO: 1600+
Nostalgia
- Film Simulation: Classic Chrome
- Grain Effect: Strong Large
- Color Chrome Effect: Strong
- Color Chrome FX Blue: Strong
- White Balance: Auto - R:2, B:-5
- Dynamic Range: DR200
- D Rand Priority: Off
- Tone Curve: H:-1, S:-1
- Color: +2
- Sharpness: -1
- Noise Reduction: -4
- Clarity: +2
- Exposure Compensation: +1
- ISO: 1600+
Back to the trip, we flew into Santiago from Sydney as there is no direct flight to Buenos Aires with Qantas, and from there we flew to Buenos Aires.
Heading to Buenos Aires from Santiago
Now this wasnt long after Argentina won the World Cup and the Argentinian team was due to arrive in Argentina. Lucky for us we arrived in Buenos Aires the day after the team arrived, otherwise it would have been chaos trying to get anywhere.
Sample jersey released after Argentina won the World Cup (not for sale unfortunately).
Jetlag hits hard for those of us traveling to South America from Australia as your meant to be sleeping when your awake and awake when your meant to be sleeping. The first morning in Buenos Aires was an early start.
As you can imagine after not seeing my family in Argentina for 17 years and some for 30, i spent most of my time catching up with them and not doing much sight seeing. Here is a mix of some of my fave pics from Argentina. In all honesty i should have taken way more pictures in Argentina but i let everyones comments get to me thinking i was going to get my camera stolen around every corner. In the end i physced myself out and didnt end up taking it with me many places.
Chile was where we could explore a bit more, here are some of my favourite randoms in Santiago after we arrived from Buenos Aires.
The next part of the trip we head down to the south of Chile, this starts off with us taking a flight to Puerto Montt very early in the morning and then drive 4 hours to Cucoa. During the 6 days we spent in the south of Chile we explored various attractions in Castro, Cucoa, Quellon and Puerto Montt. Here are some of my faves from that part of the trip.
When we got back from the south of Chile we drove to Valparaiso to explore a bit, here are some of my faves from that day.
Here are some of my favourite randoms from around Santiago.
Cant be in Santiago and not go to Cerro San Cristobal to see Santiago, you need rain for it to clear up the views of all the smog but still nice to get up there.
Lastly here are some of the final randoms i enjoyed from Santiago.
I did mention that i took my film camera with me, i only shot 1 roll with it which was a roll of Kodak Portra 400. I havent been keeping my film in the fridge and i think it may have deteriated over time, or im just severly under exposing the images. Anyway enough excuses, here are my faves from that roll.
All in all it was a great trip, happy i got to see my family and my wifes family and was great to see the south of Chile.
Even more stoked on the Fujifilm X-Pro3 and absolutely loving the Nostalgia and Tri-X recipes. Will hopefully put together another blog post of my experience with the X-Pro3 so far and share some of my favourite images taken with it.
For some other pics from the trip check out my saved Instagram highlights and posts.
Thanks for visiting.
Bali and the Fuji GW690III
Getting some use out of the Fuji GW690 III, forcing myself to use this amazing camera that tends to sit on my shelf while in Bail.
I purchased my Fuji GW690III on the 22nd of June 2019, and since then i would have shot around 18 or so rolls. The rolls i have shot have been great, super impressed with the camera and the lens which is the 90mm f3.5 which is roughly around a 38mm in 35mm format.
I think the cost of the 120mm film and the developing of it has maybe stopped me from shooting it as much as i have 35mm film for example. I want to make more of an effort in 2020 to shoot it more. With that said at the start of 2020 we had a family holiday to Bali, something close and cheap so i decided to take my Fujifilm X-T2 and the Fuji GW690III. On this trip i also decided to try some Fujifilm Pro 400H for the first time and also took some trusty Kodak Tri-X 400, Portra 400 & 800.
Recently been liking the Fuji stock and will probably continue with it for a little longer. Here are some of the photos from the Bali trip earlier in January 2020.
Fuji GW690II + Kodak Tri-X 400
Definitely my favourite black and white film on both 35mm and 120mm film. I like the extra contrast you get from it over Tmax. Will continue to be my black and white film for a while.
Fuji GW690III - Fujifilm Pro 400H
I really like the colours of Fujfilm stocks at the moment, the blue’s and greens are really calling me. Really like this film and will be shooting some more with it to try and get some more consistent results.
Fuji GW690III - Kodak Portra 800
There arent many 800 speed 120mm film stocks to choose from, there is Cinestill but thats super hard to get your hands (yet to try), Portra 800 makes up 5 of the 18 rolls ive shot on the Fuji, and really like the results.
