I bogarted a cool picture from a Flickr site that I got from a link from The Marmot's Hole. Apparently, this is a shot from someone's personal archives, scanned from the original slides. Since the original hadn't seemed to benefit from a good Photoshopping job, I decided to throw my basic skills in and bring back the reality of the moment a bit, minus the faded original film and having turned decidedly green, either over time or because of originally using the wrong color temperature slide.
My touch isn't super-deft, but competent; I hope the original photographer likes the job I did. Compare with the original:
I admit that my version's a bit pumped up, but it feels like it brings me back even more to the moment, a year before I was born. I wish I had time to do this to all such precious photographs. It's interesting how much photos can act like a time machine. Here's another frickin' killer link (go to it, please, for the markers) pointed out by Mr. Marmot, one showing an amazing shot of Yongsan from the 1940's (according to the author), "amazing" because the area remains so recognizable.
Know where you are? Right at the base of Samgakji Station, going up past up where the US base is to Noksapyeong, on up to Itaewon. Great picture. I didn't photoshop it, since there's not much to do beside boost the contrast and sharpness. Don't forget to click over to the original page to find out more about what's in different parts of the picture.
What I'm curious about is where the photographer is standing, but let me venture a guess.
I don't think there are any natural features of the landscape (hill, mountain) that would afford a shot from this angle. Helicopters showed up in the late 1940's, no? They were definitely in use by the Korean War, but not during WWII. Am I correct in that? Could this picture have been taken from an early helicopter? More likely is this picture perhaps being shot from a plane window, no? I know that Yeouido was a landing strip for US planes for a long time, but not sure if 1) this picture was indeed taken in the late 1940's, and 2) if it was, when the US airstrip in Yeouido appeared. Still, it seems like this shot would make sense if a soldier snapped a shot while on approach for a landing in Yeoiudo. The picture seems like it was taken from around the right altitude, from my experience as a civilian plane traveler. If I were on approach to land in Yeouido, it seems like this would be a very possible snapshot to take.
Now, let the guessing and conjecture begin! See ya'll in the comments!
