18 THURSDAY
JUNE 26, 2008
Expat living is a page dedicated
to the issues that affect expats'
daily lives. It is your page,
where you can share stories about
your life in Korea. Send story
ideas to Matthew Lamers
at mattlamers@heraldm.com
In focus: Taking
care of blurry pics
I have lots of problems with
blurry photos. I think it’s main-
ly due to the fact that I can’t
keep the camera still. How can
I fix this problem? Anna,
Daegu.
By David Smeaton
This problem is commonly
referred to as “camera shake,”
and can be a huge problem for
photographers. Often, this
problem can be easily fixed by
using a number of techniques
or photographic tricks and by
learning good habits.
The best advice is to use a tri-
pod. If your camera is heavy, it
can cause camera shake. Also,
shooting with longer-distance
zooms can result in shaking.
Mounting the camera on a tri-
pod will take the weight off and
give you a stable platform for
heavy equipment or zooming.
If a tripod limits your mobil-
ity too much, consider a mono-
pod. Monopods are very easy to
use. While the monopod won’t
help with level shots, it will
greatly reduce camera shake,
which is why sports photogra-
phers use them so often.
An alternative to a tripod or
monopod is to use your sur-
roundings. Rest the camera on
a table, or lean on a fence or
against a wall. Find something
sturdy that you can put the
camera on and give it some
more stability.
Another technique is to con-
sider your camera settings.
The general rule of thumb is
that your shutter speed must
be higher than your focal
For substantial fat
loss, efficiency rules
Conventional wisdom holds
that slow and steady workouts
are the best way to burn fat. This
is why you sometimes see people
on the treadmill when you first
get to the gym that are still there
when you leave. These same
people follow the old-school max-
im of high reps and low resis-
tance when it comes to weight
training. But recent research
suggests there is a more efficient
strategy for overall fat loss.
The “slow-n-steady” strategy
toward cardio certainly burns
calories, but the amount of
calories you burn is entirely de-
pendent on how long you’re ac-
tive. In other words, you may
burn 300 calories in an hour
and a half, but that’s the limit
for the calories you’re going to
burn for the day.
By incorporating high-inten-
sity interval training you’ll be
able to burn more calories all
day. How does HIIT work? It’s
done by working out in inter-
vals. You can think of this as
one minute of exercising near-
ly as hard as you can (80-90
percent of your maximum ef-
fort) followed by one minute of
“active rest” (at about 20-30
percent effort). Active rest does
not mean complete rest. If your
HIIT training is running, then
you sprint during the hard in-
terval, and take it down to a jog
for the resting period.
The good news is that you can
get a full HIIT workout in less
than 20 minutes. Don’t think
for a moment, though, that it’s
easy. Similarly, you can look to
efficiency to provide an answer
for your weight lifting workout.
By using exercises that incorpo-
rate multiple joint movements,
you’ll use more of your body’s
length. So, if you’re shooting at
a 300mm focal length, you
must stay above 1/300th of a
second. A slower speed will
likely result in camera shake,
unless you have incredibly
steady hands.
If you are having difficulty
keeping your shutter speed
high, then adjust your aper-
ture or increase your ISO. Both
of these changes will give you
more freedom in shutter speed.
Unfortunately, cheaper lenses
are slow for this very reason
(their apertures don’t allow for
fast shooting), so investing in
higher-quality lenses will defi-
nitely help. Nowadays, many
lenses (and some cameras)
come with built-in stability
systems. Anti-shake and vibra-
tion-reduction technologies are
advancing quickly and are sur-
prisingly good.
There are also a few ways
you can try holding your cam-
era to increase the stability. A
good method is to crouch on
one knee, put your elbow on
your knee and use that arm to
support your camera. This will
enable you to use your whole
body as a platform and will
give you more stability.
Happy shooting!
Send David a message at
davidsmeaton@gmail.com or
visit his website (david-
smeaton.com). If you want to be
a part of the weekly Photo
Challenge, join the “Seoul Photo
Club” group at flickr
(flickr.com/groups/seoulphoto-
club). — Ed.
Steve Ward
on Fitness
muscles. By structuring your ex-
ercises in circuits, rather than
blocks of sets, you’ll start work-
ing on a different muscle group
while the previous group rests.
In the meantime, you’re keeping
your heart rate up. This makes a
weightlifting workout as much
about cardio as it is about lifting.
Here’s an important tip:
Don’t be afraid to go heavy.
Building muscle means that
you will have more lean mass
to use burning more calories 24
hours a day. By building mus-
cle, or at least maintaining
what you have during fat loss,
you are helping your body help
itself loose that gut. In my case,
my bare minimum is three lift-
ing sessions per week, with
about 48 hours in between to
give the muscles time to recov-
er (recovery time is where your
muscles get bigger). I can do
them over my lunch break.
This is just an introduction
to how you can use the latest
research in fat loss to your ben-
efit. Before embarking on a
routine, you’d be well-served to
see a doctor, and then go on-
line, where you can find any
number of workouts developed
to maximize efficiency. A couple
great places to start are the fo-
rums on MensHealth.com and
Bodybuilding.com.
Both places have loads of in-
formation on building a work-
out schedule that works for you.
Steve can be reached through
his blog at www.seoulsteves.-
com — Ed.
COMMUNITY
PHOTO CHALLENGE — Open to all entries — In Gapsan-ri, Gurye-gun, Jeollanam-do, farm workers plant rice. Having sown the field with a rice-planting tractor, these peo-
ple then use the traditional method to fill in the spots missed by the machine.
Cycling and the Han River
By Edward Stern
SEONGNAM — In October it
is still mild enough to find bik-
ers on paths along the Han
River. It was on such an October
day my wife and I, two Israeli’s
living in Seongnam, met Yoon
Jae-guk. Little did we know at
the time the wonderful path
that this meeting would open up
for us.
I have moved past my 60th
year and have been a serious
biker for over 40 years. Over the
years I have cycled through
China, Korea, Canada, Israel
and the United States.
If at the age of 60 a man
should begin to understand the
threads that have weaved his
life together, for me, biking is
certainly one of them.
Needless to say, when my
wife, Etty, and I arrived in
Korea in the late summer of
2006, one of the first things we
did was to purchase two new
Black-cat bikes.
For us, the discovery of Han
River bike paths was analogous
to Christopher Columbus dis-
covering America. It opened up
a new world. Indeed, as we rode
the streets of Seongnam and
discovered the city, we gradual-
ly became aware of various
ways of reaching the Han River
though the streets of Seongnam.
Koreans dressed to the hilt in
complete biking uniforms zip-
ping along the Han on fabulous-
ly expensive bikes. We saw jog-
CD RELEASE PARTY — At Club Freebird in Hongdae, The Forty Days, a popular expat band, will launch their second full-length al-
bum “The Legend of The Forty Days” on Saturday, June 28. The 10,000 won cover charge gets you entrance into the venue and a
copy of the album. To get to the show, which is also supported by The Spiritual Hustlers, go to Sangsu Station (Line 6, Exit No. 1).
For exact directions, go to www.clubfreebird.com. The show starts at 10:30 p.m. For more information on The Forty Days, see their
website (www.myspace.com/thefortydays). They are also playing at Stompers in Itaewon on Friday (10 p.m.) and The Rocky Mountain
Tavern on Sunday (6 p.m.) for Canada Day.
“The International Hub of Podcasting” — SeoulPodcast, sponsored by Expat Living — See SeoulPodcast.com
A letter from
Seongnam
gers, dog walkers, families with
young children, bird watchers,
and they all part of the con-
stituency that populate the bike
paths. We discovered people at
play — very different from the
hard working, serious people we
had come in contact with at
work.
It was at one of the many rest-
ing spots that the man who we
come to know as Mr. Yoon intro-
duced himself. Yoon asked us in
near perfect English if Etty and
I wanted to join the Han Gang
Cycle club. I did join, but be-
cause of the approaching winter,
Etty decided to put her rides on
hold.
The Han Gang Cycle Club is a
biking club of Koreans and a
smattering of non-Koreans that
formed in 2002. It has about 165
members, ranging from their
late 40s to late 80s. One of the
most notable members is Lee
Whan-soon, still an active rider
at the age of 89.
The club’s motto is “nagaja,”
or “go ahead, for the country, for
the family and the love of bik-
ing.” As Etty and I were to dis-
cover, this motto was regularly
chanted upon the consumption
of a class of soju or a bowl of
makgeolli.
I rode with the club once a
week through the dead of winter
with the hardiest members of
the club. Each ride was along
the Han River and though its
connecting towns. The rides
were between 50 and 75 kilome-
ters. Every ride was broken by a
wonderful lunch at a restaurant
that a member was familiar
with; and of course soju was a
part of those lunches.
I slowly learned about Korean
geography and food. More im-
portantly, I began to learn of the
wonderful spirit and generosity
of the club members. A flat tire
along the route for one member
was a flat tire for all. No one
moved until the flat was fixed.
Riding was always done with
consideration for the weakest
riders. Stops were frequent,
with this in mind.
Saturdays and Sundays be-
came special days for me.
As special as these weekend
rides were for me, they were
balanced by the fact that my
wife was left at home. The evo-
lution of my wife in to a Han
Gang rider is something that
she and the club can take great
pride in. As winter turned into
spring, more members of the
club participated in the
Saturday and Sunday rides. My
wife was among the new partic-
ipants.
At first riding with a pillow on
her seat, my wife slowly but
surely increased her endurance
and speed with the encourage-
ment and protection of the club
Mario Taradan (flickr.com/photos/helje)
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She raised her glass and
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