Life, Love & Happiness

WOOT!!

Well, I havn't shot a picture in almost 6 months, been busy with work, cycling, and more and more busy with love over the last year and change.  We've set our wedding date for DEC 5th.  I'm so happy!  Woot Woot!!

In other news, looks like I will finally be leaving Korea in March 2010.  I guess it's about time, even though I really don't want to leave.  

I need to get out there and shoot some more   Maybe one of these days when I go on a slower long distance ride maybe I'll drag a camera kit along to take some pictures.  It's been way way too long

The hunt... for a home

The hunt... for a home

I'm back in Seoul, and love it here!!!  I hated living in Pyongtaek..

I'm hunting for an apartment, hopefully I can find one somewhere soon.  I've been living in a hotel for 2 weeks, and I miss my stuff.  Once I get settled in, I'm going to begin shooting again on a more regular basis, since I'm not stuck in the middle of nowhere anymore.  Hauling all my equipment when I lived over an hour away from 'life' really sucked.

Friend brought this up... Here's what I have to say

Reference:Supreme Court Strikes down DC Gun Ban



The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America states that: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

My thoughts:

The second ammendment to the Constitution was intended to keep the power within our country with the people who lived in it, to allow them to defend themselves against any who would invade America or against a tyranical

SEMI-AUTOMATIC HANDGUNS DID NOT EXIST IN THE 1700s
No founding father of the American Constitution could ever have percieved that such a thing would be created and that the crime in our country would ever have evolved to such a state with the assistance of this very invention.  The "right to bear arms" should NEVER have extended as the Supreme Court has recently allowed.  While many may argue that the "right to bear arms" is a "right to defend oneself", I disagree to a degree.  This right, as given in the second ammendment was only intended for the type of arms and their evolution following the period in which this amendment was created (i.e. The RIFLE and assumedly The SHOTGUN).  Arms that could not be hidden for view nor the intent of their use misconstrued.

The shotgun and the rifle evolved under two circumstances:  war, and hunting.  The handgun evolved under one circumstance: killing another human.  No person, goes hunting with a handgun; nor do they go to war with the impression that the primary fight would be with their handgun.  The ONLY purpose of a handgun is to kill or injure another person (and recreation cause I have to admit, shooting one is fun, but for the purposes of this blog, should be in a controlled environment for the civilian populace).

If one wishes to defend their home with a shotgun in Washington D.C., they should be allowed (The shotgun is preferred over the handgun during Military Operations in Urban Terrain [MOUT] for the purose of in-building combat).  However, I firmly believe that in a city, so rampant with crime, if the Handgun Ban was upheld by the Supreme Court under the implication that the police must find a way to critically enforce that ban, then the ban should have been declared illegal ONLY by the fact that it banned ALL guns.  The Supreme Court, in their Majority Statement SHOULD have specified that the intent of the second amendment did NOT cover handguns, nor should it be allowed to be misconstrued by lower courts as such.

I believe whether foolishly or not, that if the handgun was barred from private ownership, within 10 years, roughly 95% of all handguns carried by the civilian populace (illegal and legal) would be turned in, confiscated, or destroyed within the United States.  The remaining 5% percent accounts for some trafficking of weapons in and around the United States through criminal intent, and those citizens that would keep their handguns for nostalgic value.

The sad truth is that, our country, in it's infinate glory and freedom, has become a place where criminals are protected by the very same amendments that make our country so great, through political miconstruements, lobyists, and a gross deformation of certain individual's "concept" of what our forefathers had intended.


Author's Comment:  I believe in the right to bear arms, and I love shooting.   I'm in the Military, and shoot both rifle and pistol with expert precision.  I love my right to shoot as a recreation as well as my job.  In no way do I believe that 'guns' such as the rifle and shotgun should be banned.  Nor do I believe the handgun should be eliminated for public use.  But I do believe handguns should be restricted to public ranges for rental purposes only, and their routine use be for the military and police only.
For those of you who would argue, 'what about the military being turned against the people of America' (concerning handguns), I say this:  Do you want to bring a handgun to a fight with M4's, M16's, Shotguns, Apache Helicopters, M1A1 Tanks, and AC130 / AC10 Gunships?

Set sights on your goals and run to them.. never look back!

Well, nothing happened to me yet...  No asteroids, giant Korean buses, wars, or epidemic plagues have killed me off...  I've just been so busy!

Work's got me scrambling for time during the week.  We have two major military exercises coming up, the last of which I design the enemy scenario, so thats about 10,000 database entries I'm building.  Fun fun right?  wrong.

Outside of that, I've been clicking away for about 3 weekends straight!  I have tons of pictures I need to work on, and I'm sure a bunch of which will be ending up on here within the next few days.  So, in order to ensure that I'm not escaping my room..  I've hidden all my clothes from myself!   Can't quite go running around outside without clothes, now can I?

There's one problem with this..  when I'm done...  how do I find my clothes again?

Set sights on your goals and run to them.. never look back!


Well, I bought myself a new Canon EOS 5D on Friday.  It's scheduled to arrive Monday or Tuesday (military mail SO unreliable...)  I'm happy to finally have a full frame digital, and one as good as the 5D at that .  

I found a great place to shop for camera equipment pretty cheap.  For those of you in Korea, or anyone headed over here, Namdaemoon market in Seoul has a hidden Camera section to it, things sell cheap as hell, just make sure you shop around and get the lowest price.  Prices vary a little bit, could be upsetting to find out you could have saved $30 by walking 20 meters down the way.

My model was sick this weekend, so had to bump the shoot to next weekend...  That's going to cram a lot of work into 1 weekend, with the High School Cheer leading team one day, and the model shoot the next.  Should be fun, but there goes relaxing out the window! .

I think I FINALLY</u> found a place for my prints.  The place I wanted to use is in Seoul, but not open on the weekends .  I found a Kinkos (don't laugh) open 24 hours in Chungmuro, that sends digital off to a print shop and returns within 3 days... Works for me in most cases, and they are extremely cheap.  I ordered 14 11x14 test prints from them for $23.  Can't beat that anywhere!




PHOTOSHOP TEMPLATE CONTEST</u>
Congratulations to ~GossamerInnocence on winning the contest with this submission:  
[link]

Set sights on your goals and run to them.. never look back!


Well, I've had some great luck over the last couple days ^^.  Looks like I'll be able to shoot the Yongsan Girls BB Cheerleaders for their team and individual photos, provided I can find a printshop around here that will print decently..   The one on base in Pyongtaek doesn't have Matte, only Gloss..  What fricking printshop doesn't have MATTE?!?!  Not to mention I had to give them a tutorial on why you don't resample EVERYONEs images to 400dpi regardless of size..  They were doing that to every photo.  $40 dollars later in prints, I showed them what happens when you print something out at the original 220dpi for 12x18, and when you resample it to 400dpi..  Took a magnifying glass and damn near hit the lady on the head with it.  How can you run a business and not know the basics of printing?  jesus..

If I can find a good printing place up in Seoul this weekend, I think I'll be able to survive.. keep your fingers crossed for me please!

On another note, this Sunday I'll be shooting my first model     This should be exciting, I'm really looking forward to it!
Skyler