I have a couple of quick announcements to share:

1. I’ve recreated my website.

You may now find me and my blog at https://www.donaldmacdonell.com

Although I will primarily share my journals on my website, I will continue to use Substack as a Newsletter to keep you up-to-date with everything.

2. Published Articles:

I have recently published a couple of articles:

The first is about personal photography, where I also share some images taken in early 2021 when our family was gathered for our annual kimchi-making.

In the second article, I share some of my personal background and my beginning in photography.

3. Some new reels!!!

I’m excited to start sharing some of the video footage I’ve taken over the years doing street photography in Seoul. I’ve begun sharing a series of reels you may enjoy.
Reel #1

Reel #2

I hope all is well with you and your photography journey!

Until next time,

Don

Hope you got something awesome going on with your photography this week! (Feel free to reach out and share!!! I’m always interested to see what’s going on!)

This week, I didn’t have very much fun. Pretty much just being at home recovering from a surgery I had to have last week. But I was able to share a few videos that I created. The first video is one that I created years ago. 2018, to be exact. I took a little trip to explore the mountain regions behind our home in Goyang, South Korea, and discovered that it was mostly a graveyard. But I was able to capture a few nice images.

Next, I was happy to go over some photographs that I took on a little day trip down in Daejeon, South Korea (a few hours south of Seoul). I went through my entire editing/curating process in Lightroom Classic.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

As a bonus, I was going through some of the photographs I took in 2019 in Seoul. And discovered a set of images experimenting with reflections. I think the images turned out very well! What do you think?

I think it’s good to do, it’s interesting to compare what stood out at the time of photographing a scene and what stands out in the present. Although I’m not getting into the comparison side of things, I’m happy to share a set of images that stood out to me today.

Color is generally not my cup of tea; however, at times, it makes sense. Since I rarely do so, editing in color proves to be a challenge for me. I’ve always had a liking for high-contrast, black-and-white images, and so I’m more comfortable with that. (My editing is minimal.) With that said, here is one that I edited in color.

Some more images from walking around exploring the area:

One thing that I enjoyed in South Korea was exploring and documenting. This included more than simply photographing images, which include people. Sometimes it meant simply documenting the scenes of an area, objects hanging around. Anything that caught my interest. This didn’t happen as frequently until later on, when I gave it more intentional thought. While reviewing older photographs, I find it interesting to see the roots of this pattern started.

The brunt of the images I reviewed was from an evening at Seoul’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza. I photographed over 1400 slow-shutter images to capture the motion of people. (It was quite the task to file through 😅) Here are some of the results.

More rare color images. When you intentionally capture a slow-shutter speed image with red motion-blur, you’d be contradicting yourself to convert it to black-and-white!

Now, two of my favorites:

This last image, I thought, was incredible. How specific the timing needed to be. (Honestly, it’s likely a happy accident. I may have pressed the shutter expecting him to walk through the frame.) But nonetheless, the way that we can see enough of a face in the image, along with the wavy motion blur of his movement from that point, makes this image stand out to me!

What are your thoughts?

Today’s Journal:
Review of 1,679 Images from May 2017.
Re-edit of 34 Images.

That’s where I believe too many people get caught up. They focus too much on the gear, too much on ‘what settings’ they need to use. Beginners who take up an interest in these forms of photography are concerned mostly about those topics. If you want to be a good photographer, learn how to see. That will be the most promising skill you develop.

I’ve recently been sharing some shorts on social media that were created from some of my older videos on my YouTube channel. In line with the above thought, I have this to share with you.

In addition to that spur-of-the-moment thought, today, I’d love to review some old photographs from March 2017. Today was another day I wasn’t out physically doing new photography, but I’ve been enjoying going through older photographs.

Now, a few words about the following images. I noticed right away the difference in photographs from my last post and these images. (Last post, if you’re interested, is embedded below.) Most of the images that I’ve been reviewing up until this turning point in today’s selection have been images captured using my 50mm lens (That’s 50mm, but with a 1.6 Canon crop sensor, meaning it would be similar to an 80mm if you’re using a full-frame camera.) From today’s reviewed images, I’m now using a 24mm lens. (Same crop value, making it similar to a 35mm or 40mm on a full-frame camera).

That being said, there’s now a completely different approach to street photography. I’m either getting much closer, or I’m incorporating much more of the environment in the shots. In actuality, it’s most likely a good combination of these two scenarios.

But with that also comes an issue. Going from shooting further back with the 50mm, I was used to having such a distance. Something new to me at the time, with my new 24mm. I noticed when going through the photographs that I was often missing focus. As the subjects were closer, my focus was further back. This, coupled with a wider aperture because I was shooting at night, made this very noticeable in some of the images. For this reason, some of the images fail to meet the mark, in my books, unfortunately. That being said, I still feel like sharing! 😅📸

Today’s Adventure:
Review of 34 Images from March 2017.
Re-edit of 9 Images.

I can be reached across all platforms with the username The Photo Memoirs.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, Bluesky, Threads

I look forward to connecting and checking out what photography you have been doing! Of course, in addition to the above platforms, we can connect here on Substack as well.

Today is a rather crumby day, weather-wise at least. Sadly, it is raining all day, and not a day we feel like going out to do very much. So, in place, I was sorting through some older photographs from March 2017. I did a few quick re-edits on a few that I thought I would share.

I don’t do color very often. To be brutally honest, I’m not even sure that I do color the justice that it’s due. I was always drawn to that high-contrast, black and white style that you find with the majority of my images. However, on occasion, I find some images that might be more interesting in color. You be the judge and tell me what you think between the image above and the image below.

Today’s Adventure:
Review of 23 Images from March 2017.
Re-edit of 4 Images.

In September 2016, I was living near Seoul, South Korea. It was an adventure of a lifetime moving halfway around the world, and it was special to start exploring this new world. My intention of moving there was not to explore the world and delve into life on the road or globetrotting, not even in the slightest. My wife is Korean, we chose to move closer to her family while we were expecting to welcome our son into the world shortly after arriving.

It wasn’t even a thought to learn and engage in photography. But as I was intrigued by the culture, history, and traditions of a foreign place, and enjoyed exploring, it became natural to want to start documenting my explorations. In mid-September 2014, I purchased my first DSLR.

Now at this point of time, we’re looking at a point of time, 2 years after purchasing that first camera. And I was exploring and documenting my journey. I was doing a lot! In fact, of only what’s remaining, I have over 20,000 images in my archive from that year alone!

At this time, I came across what I learned to be described as ‘Street Photography’, and that was what I was aiming to do. I frequently visited an area in Seoul that is known to draw a youthful crowd, the area of Hongdae University, which is well known for its nightlife scene among other things. These are some of the images that I have selected from the first part of September in the Hongdae area over multiple visits.

These are just a bit of a taste of a couple of evenings of exploring and photographing in the Hongdae area.

Now, I have a couple of big ideas up my sleeve for Substack, this newsletter, and the website. I continue on my journey as a photographer. I will include a section for my journal.

Next, I will be developing a new series that I hope will serve to inspire the next generation of photographers, particularly those who are aspiring street/documentary-style photographers! The series will be called, “Dear Photographer”. It will include various topics and questions aimed to help and inspire newer ones in their journey as an artist. I will be inviting photographers to share their views, insights, stories, and advice.

If you’re a photographer with insights you’d like to share and would like to help in this way, please reach out to me!

If you’re learning photography, and looking to improve your craft, please stay tuned! In addition, if you have challenges, questions, or other inquiries that could assist you and other photographers in your journey, please reach out and let me know, so we can focus on what will truly beneficial to you, the photographer.

In August 2016, I was testing out different things. I was having fun experimenting while exploring at all different times of day or night. I contacted a local photographer in Seoul to inquire about tagging along and helping out. Through that experience, I was hoping to learn as much as I could, and at the same time hopefully earn a little money on the side. At this point, I was hoping to take my passion for photography from a hobby to earning a living. Sadly, it didn’t pan out the way I was hoping. Nevertheless, I learned something interesting from those experiences and it did put a bit of cash in my pocket.

I had a lot to learn in terms of my photography, in curating images that would be sent to the customer, and in editing. I think, mainly for those reasons it didn’t work out with the photographer. I was strung along a bit, with no concrete decisions on the part of the photographer as respects me coming on and learning/working with him. That was a little bit of a letdown, but I understand that until that point he had worked by himself and that this would be a new experience to have others join his brand. He certainly had to weigh his choice very carefully, but it would have helped me if he had been more upfront about his plan.

He did mention to me if I had joined him, that he would send off my images to be edited, instead of having me edit them on my own. (Yes, as mentioned, I had trouble with editing well.) He also seemed disappointed at one shoot that I did on my own, mentioning that ‘[He] would never send an unsharp image to a client.’ Again, issues with my curating the images. I took very few photos out and almost sent the entire batch of images except for blazingly obvious misfires or eyes-closed images.

On the plus side, he mentioned that he had quite a few photographers reach out to him to come along and learn with him or to help him out as a second shooter. But out of ALL the photographers that reached out to him, I was the only one that SHOWED UP!

He told me he found out very quickly how interested in the prospect of being a photographer. He would hear from someone wanting to work with him, he would reach out to them with a day/time/location of the photoshoot that he set up but would be met with excuses left and right. After so many times, he would assume they weren’t that serious. When it came to me, he would reach out, I made the appointment a priority, showed up early, and stayed for the entirety of the photo shoot, helping and photographing. After the 3rd or 4th time showing up, he told me about the others and how he could see that I was serious about working as a photographer.

Lesson learned!
Show Up! That’s the first goal.
The photographs might not be perfect just yet, but show up and learn!

Although things didn’t turn out exactly how I would have liked at the time, I did enjoy the experience and learned a lot from it.

I was perusing photos on a Facebook group when I came across a photograph that caught my attention. It was Taken by Toan Thai from California. I simply reached out to Toan and got permission to share that with you today.

So, this is the image that caught my eye:

A few details that Toan provided in his post:
The photograph was taken in Joshua Tree, California of the Milky Way, and was created using tracking, then stacking and blending the exposures.

He even provided some of the specific Exif details:

Canon 6D (astro modified)
Sigma 28 art f/1.4
Star Adventurer Mini
Sky: 3 panels. 50s x 3, f/4 @ 3200iso
Foreground: 3 panels. 50s x 3, f/4 @ 3200iso

For me, this is amazingly interesting. I love the resulting image. I also don’t know a lot about astrophotography. Such images have caught my attention before but I wasn’t in a position to experiment with it, living in Seoul, light where the light pollution is horrid. I only returned to Canada last year. Since returning, I’ve gone out and tried a couple of times to take photographs of the stars. But came out with nothing spectacular. I always figured that at some point I’ll learn a bit more about how to do this type of work, but I still haven’t done so just yet. Now it seems like the time to give it a shot!

Just checking out more of Toan’s work on his Instagram (toan.thai.astro), I discovered that Toan began his journey with Astrophotography at the beginning of 2022! He’s certainly doing amazing in such a short time!

There are a few things that I just learned since discovering and exploring this work. Toan mentioned using a Star Adventurer Mini, it’s a bit expensive, but basically, it seems to move and adjust to the movement of orbit to keep the stars from trailing in the images. This allows you to use longer exposures without those effects. If you have tried to take photographs of stars before, you’ll know that the startrails happen quite quickly. So, this will be on my gear list when I can do so.

Additionally, I discovered that special light pollution filters can be purchased to enhance the images while reducing the negative effects of artificial light, which I’m curious about!

I’m quite excited to give this type of photography a shot! Toan has inspired me!

This is a second image of Toan’s that I enjoyed from his Instagram:

He detailed the adventure to capture this image.

Canon 6D (full spectrum)
IR cut clip-in filter
Rokinon 135mm
Star Adventurer 2i
Siril/ Photoshop
Sky: 50s x 230, f/4, 2000iso
Idaz-NBZ: 120s x 28, f/4, 6400iso
Ground: 60s x 11, f/4, 3200iso (focus stacking during moonset)

It seems like quite the procedure to create just one final image, but certainly well worth it considering the amazing result!

Check out more of Toan Thai’s work on his Instagram.

Have you tried astrophotography to any degree?
If so, please share some of your results. You can reply to this newsletter and send me the images directly, or send me a link to your website or social media where you have posted them!

I’m looking forward to seeing them!

*You may always reach out to me at any time, reply to this newsletter, or leave a comment on my substack. Feel free to share your views, photographs, questions, or other insights you have. I look forward to chatting with you.*

Start a Substack

A New Beginning

Welcome to this new platform where I’ll share my thoughts, experiences, and photography tips for aspiring artists. For years, I’ve been online and dabbled in various projects. I got into photography with the purchase of my first DSLR camera back in 2014 while I was living abroad in Seoul, South Korea.

In addition to my own photography, I built a few websites showcasing other aspiring photographers' work. This included interviews in addition to selected photographs from their collections. It was an interesting learning experience that I would now like to fully explore through this publication.

I moved back to Ontario, Canada last year after 11 years in South Korea. I feel that it’s now the time to fully focus on something that can be inspiring for future generations of photographers, and thus The Photo Memoirs is reborn.

The Photo Memoirs Community

It is my goal to build more than a simple publication, a blog, or even a website that just gets my work out there. I’d much rather build a community through this platform that involves you! I would like to learn and grow in this space together! I’ll be working on content that will be motivating and inspiring to aspiring photographers to help you grow as an artist. I will also be starting photo challenges and a photography mentoring program for the benefit of all but with more interaction and opportunities for paid subscribers.

These programs will be more clearly outlined in the coming weeks.

What to Expect with our Newsletter?

I will be sharing articles and photography in this publication for your inspiration 2~3 times a week, with photography tips, comments, and featured works of fellow photographers.

I hope this will truly help you grow as an individual and as a photographer.