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Korean and expat volunteers help prepare a meal for the homeless at the Resurrection Center in central Seoul. They are, from the left, Danny Oh (Korean-American), BaekGeum-ja (supervisor) and Darryl Snook (Canadian). Matthew Lamers/The Korea Herald

By David Smeaton

Depth of field is difficult to ex-plain without diagrams andcharts. Its more about m athand physics than it is about pho-tography. However, I can giveyou some starting information,which is enough for most pho-tographers.

DoF, simply, is the distancebetween the nearest and far-thest objects which appear to bein focus. This is quite a subjec-tive concept, because its diffi-cult to always define the focalrange. Further, all photogra-phers have different views re-garding the use of DoF.

However, DoF is extremelyimportant to photography andfilm.

Focal range is controlled bythe cameras aperture. A smallaperture (e.g., f22) will have avery wide depth of field. A smallDoF will result in large ele-ments of the photograph ap-pearing in focus. Conversely, awide aperture (f2.8) will have amuch smaller depth of field. Asa result, the out of focus areawill be qu ite big. Yes, its ironicthat these concepts seem in-verse (small aperture wideDoF, wide aperture smallDoF).

When it comes to understand-

ing what par ts of the photo willbe in focus, th eres a two-thir dsrule applied to DoF. One-third ofthe area in front of the focalpoint will be in focus, but two-thirds of the area behind th e fo-cal area will appear to be in fo-cus.

So its importa nt to know tha tmuch more of the focal range isbehind the focal point, not infront. It s not evenly split (50/50)around the focal point.

There are a few other factorswhich can make the focal rangeeither larger or sma ller.

First, as stated, small aper-tures give wider DoF.

Second, shorter lenses alsocreate a wider DoF. A 50mmlens will give a much wider DoFthan a 200mm lens, if the sameaperture and sett ings are used.

Finally, the greater t he shoot-ing distance, the greater thedepth of field. This one is logicalreally. If photographing moun-tains, DoF can be read in kilo-meters. If photographing bugs(macro photography) DoF ismere millimeters. So the furtheraway your subject, the longerthe DoF.

Generally, photographershave two approaches to control-ling DoF. In most cases, photog-raphers prefer short DoF andlarge areas which are out of fo-

cus. This helps control the view-ers att ention by blurring theforeground and background ele-ments, while keeping the sub- ject in perfect focus. Portraitphotography is a good exampleof this. Most portrait photogra-phers use longer lenses andwide apertures.

Small DoF also creates morebokeh which is one of photog-raphys most important attr ib-utes.

However, there are manytimes when a wide DoF is desir-able, such as in landscape pho-

tograph y. A good landscape pho-to should appear to have every-thing in focus, from mountainsat t he back to rocks in the fore-ground. This can be achievedwith wide lenses, small aper-tures and focusing to infinity(which all cameras can do).

Those are the basics to depthof field. The important thing toremember is that DoF is easy tocontrol because the aperture,lens length and focal length allplay a simple part. Combinethem well and you can be a m as-ter of controling DoF, producing

great photos with very high im-pact.

Happy shooting!

Send David a message atdavid smeaton @gmai l.com orvisit his website atdavidsm eaton.com. If you wantto be a part of the weekly PhotoChallen ge, join the Seoul Ph otoC lu b g rou p at fl ic kr (flickr.com/ groups/seoulphoto-club) and for more informationsee Seoul Photo Club onFacebook. Ed.

18 COMMUNITYTUESDAYSEPTEMBER 30, 2008

PHOTO CHALLENGE Open to all entries The beautiful pavilion called Hyangwonjeong is reflect-ed in a pond at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. David Smeaton (davidsmeaton.com)

Summertime in Seoul, as inmost cities, is a great time forconcerts and festivals. Seo Tae- jis 2008 ETP Festival didntdisappoint; a wide range ofrock acts were brought toSeoul. On the same day, therewas Marilyn Manson, one ofPETAs 2008 Worst Dr essed, onthe same stage as the PETA-friendly band, Death Cab forCutie. For this band, which hasbeen on tour to promote theirlatest album, Narrow Stairs,such a study in contrast s isntnew.

They also played at thisyears Pemberton Festival inBritish Columbia, Canada,which featured acts fromColdplay to Ja y-Z.

After consistently recordingand touring for over 10 years,Death Cab ha s finally reachedrock-star sta tus.

Before their show in Korea, Iwas lucky enough to get thechance to sit down and speakwith two members of the band,Jason McGerr and NickHarmer. The group took itsname from a satirical song ofthe same name by the BritishBonzo Dog Doo-Dah Ba nd.

Death Cab started inSeattle over 10 years ago.Because Ive been abroad formost of that time, I missedtheir rise to fame, until I ranacross a video of theirs onYouTube and put it on myblog. I also missed t he OC phe-nomenon in which Seth Coh-en, one of the main characters,named Death Ca b for Cutie ashis favorite band. The OC fea-tured the bands songs, andeventually the band appearedon the show.

When I asked them to de-scribe their music, Harmersaid, At the core of our music,I guess, were just kind of arock band. Were just playingmelodic songs. There is reallynothing too overtly aggressiveabout the mu sic that we play. Ithink that the themes of ourmusic tend to be around rela-tionships and the interactionsbetween people and the jour-ney that happens as you getolder and figure those thingsout.

Id say th at were a littlebit more intellectual than not,at times. I guess the hardestthing is to capture what ex-actly you sound like. Wevebeen really fortunate to seeour audience grow over theyears since we started 11years ago.

McGerr added that he seesDeath Cab as a career band.He explained that the guys inthe band ha ve known each oth-er for 13 years. And, as muchas weve been placed with cer-tain lifestyles or televisionshows, weve still been that ca-reer band that spans beyondthose thin gs. It doesnt seem tobe slowing down, and I thinkwere going to continue to do itas long as it makes sense, hesaid.

Harmer and McGerr playedtogether in a band for threeyears before joining DeathCab. McGerr mentioned howthe Pacific Northwest is, ingeneral, is a very small musiccommunity. We would be inother projects, passing in thenight, playing the same shows

and venues together, and itwas only a matter of time be-fore there was a ppropriate tim-ing and our schedules linedup.

After their show in Seoul,the band immediately headedto Australia for a few concerts.While they were there, theyalso helped MySpace TVAustralia launch their onlineTV channel by playing an on-line concert. Harmer ex-plained: Its definitely forAustralia. Australian MySp-ace is just getting started in alot of ways, so our connection,and t he reason were doing it,is mainly for the Australianfans.

It will probably be availableon MySpace worldwide be-cause th ats how MySpace is.That led me to ask them aquestion about Death Cabtelling their fans to downloadmusic when they signed withAtlantic Records in 2004. Ivealways encouraged download-ing. Ive never encouragedstealing, and I think there is adifference. A label sells al-bums.

We live in a world nowwhere everyone is using thecomputer to discover musicand to shar e music. Thats anintegr al part of any bands ca-reer, any mu sicians career orany enter tainers career, saidNick. You cant rea lly ignoreit. The internet has been in-valuable in helping us growand helping spread th e word ofour band.

The band also has blogs ontheir website, and both McGerrand Harmer admit that theyvenot really been able to keepthem current.

McGerr adds, Weve beenfortunate enough to be savvyenough to understand how im-portant it is. But, for us, werefortunate that we became aband before all that mattered.We actually had to work hardbefore an yone found out aboutwho we were. We needed tophysically drive across thecountry for someone to hearabout the band. One writercalled us a pre-blog band. Iunderstand. I totally get that.You can have so much not ori-ety with a click of a button,but do you have staying pow-er?

However, for their autumntour, Harmer said hell use tryto use Twitter for updates.Twittering would be a lot easi-er because I can just do it whenI can do it. That way, fans cankeep up with what this hard-working career band is up tonext.

You can find clips fromDeath Ca bs Australia concertat my blog: expatjane.blogspot.com

For more information onDeath Cab, see their website:deathcabforcutie.com, andtheir MySpace page: myspace.com/deathcabforcutie

Regina can be reachedthrough her blog at expatjane.blogspot.com E d.

By Rob York

Can one choose to volunteerfor selfish reasons?

American Danny Oh hasbeen living in Korea since lastMay. He had begun volunteer-ing before he left his home inLos Angeles, California, andby Chuseok 2007 he had start-ed a volunteer organization,PLUR (short for Peace, Love,Unity, Respect), which visitsorphanages, hosts charityfund-raising events and, onevery other Friday feeds thehomeless.

Also, he has helped with aneffort led by Korean citizenshelping the poor who camp outin subways stations late atnight.

After so many years of volun-teerin g, however, its still n oteasy for him to explain why hehelps the needy.

I just enjoy doing it, he saidafter a long pause. I just feeltha t its something we should bedoing.

Oh can, however, cite aBiblical reason for his actions:Matthew 25, where the Son ofMan praises those that havegiven food to the hungry, drinksto the thirst y and clothing to thenaked, while condemning thosewho have not done so.

I assure you, when you did itto one of the least of these mybrothers and sisters, you weredoing it to me! reads Matthew25:40 (New Living Translation).

He also feels that, throughvolunteer efforts, PLUR volun-teers can see the peace, love,unity and respect the group wasformed in order to spread.

Thats what we tr y to bring,Oh said. Like him, a lot of thevolunteers come to Korea asEnglish teachers a fter complet-

ing their college-university de-grees.

Alot of them ha ve never vol-unteered before. I think withinthat group a lot of people comehere to make money, he said.

Once you explain about vol-unteering they come here with achanged attitude. It just bringsa whole different perspective.Its not just about ma king mon-ey; they feel like theyre givingback.

Justifiably or not, Oh callsthese sentiments the selfishreasons that result from inter-acting with the grateful recipi-ents.

They talk to us, they try tospeak English, he said. Andthey smile.

A smile is really r ewarding.After a Korean friend re-

searched where Oh and hisPLUR friends could contributetheir time and efforts, they set-

tled on the Resurrection Center,near Sookmyung WomensUniversity in Seoul.

There are usually betweenfive and 10 foreigners who meetat the center on every otherFriday at about 6 p.m. Servingbegins at 6:40, with the volun-teers dividing duties such aswashing dishes, serving foodand collecting trays. They onlywork for about an hour, butwithin that time, they can feedabout 200 people.

Because of space limitations,the number of volunteers iscapped at 10 per night. Onnights other than Friday, highschool- and college-age Koreanvolunteers donate their time tothe shelter.

Being a Korean-American,Oh can communicate in Koreana little, he said, which ishandy for the PLUR memberslooking to help out. Due to po-

tential communication prob-lems, PLUR members are theshelter s only non-Korean vol-unteers, and those who speakKorean are preferred.

The expats who join him onFridays are a fairly diversegroup, however. They are most-ly teachers, and mostly NorthAmerican, but have had par tici-pants from places such asAfrica. Their ages range fromearly-20s to 50s.

Around 8 p.m., when the vol-unteers have cleaned up andchanged out of the aprons andrubber shoes provided by theshelter, they often meet togeth-er in Ita ewon for dinner and so-cializing.

For more information onPLUR and how to contribute,contact Oh at oh_daniel21@hot-mail.com or visit the Volunteerfor PLUR! page on F acebook.

(rjamesyork @herald m.com)

Expat living is a page dedicatedto the issues that affect expats'daily lives.It is your page,where you can share stories aboutyour life in Korea.Send story

ideas to Matthew Lamersat mattlamers@heraldm.com

Helping to feed Seouls homeless

An exclusive

with Death

Cab for CutieRegina WaltonsExpat Interviews

Death Cab for Cutie in Seoul ETP Festival

Depth of fieldIm h aving a lot of difficulty un derstanding d epth of field. Can

you explain it m ore clearly? Peter, Seoul.