Fall colors and snowy trees

So why a whole post dedicated to fall? Well let's be real, fall is beautiful in Korea (summer is too humid and too hot and winter is too snowy and cold!)

The first snow of the season. The first snow is beautiful - it's the 32nd snow that starts to really suck!

..... Notice anything different about the photos? Notice how the focus is very specialized to one specific area of the photo and the rest is blurred out. This is a characteristic of my new lens - called the Lensbaby! And it will be the only 'baby' I have for a long long while :) The lens bends and moves to create these images and it is all manual focus, so it's no easy task but who doesn't love a good challenge every now and again?!

I learned about the Lensbaby from a photographer friend and Cheongju-eon, Ilze Louw Photography. She creates absolutely breath taking images!! ... so I decided I'd give the Lensbaby a shot! I'm no pro, but it's fun and has more of an artistic feel to the images!

What better way than with a cool, brisk, sunny day to take a walk around Cheongju and just 'be' and photograph. 

So here's a bit of my photographic art from the beauty that I was surrounded by the whole time I was in Korea and didn't realize it until it was time for me to leave. Sad. But hey, better late then never!!

I realized on this long wondering walk how we can easily live somewhere for a year and a half and still not know about or see things that were right around the corner from us. It's sad really, but a pleasant surprise when you find a hidden gem or 2. One hidden gem for me was a few resale shops just down the road from me. I came out of there with a purse, coat, pants, shirts for 20 bucks! It was a steal!

I can't harp on myself too much about not seeing or knowing about things in Korea because to be fair... sometimes places literally didn't exist the day before. Building, restaurants and shops were gutted and rebuilt in a matter of minutes, I swear!

Can you tell what these are (below)?

Yup, leaves shot in my apartment using natural light and my Lensbaby! :)