It’s raining like hell here in Seoul, which means loads of not fun, wet pants, and an absolute son-of-a-bitch environment to take pictures in. But your fearless leg-bent leader kept the camera out, even as the umbrella barely kept water off of everything. Luckily, I spied many women with their sandals on – Korean women tend to wear sandals when it’s wet, following the logic that it’s like wearing slippers, anyway – which meant I had to keep my equipment out.

I saw a hapless young lady clicking her way between the puddles. I laid down a series of shots, which resulted in one stand-out shot that I really liked, despite it being out of focus. The girl’s not a Glamour Gam kind of gal, but her Ghetto Fabulous skinniness and cheap shoes makes it so that when she’s in the right pose, it looks oh, so – very Korean, 20-something, round-the-way girlish.

At the same time, it feels very urban, fresh, and “dynamic.” Is this the true “dynamic Korea” everybody’s talking about? Well, for a lot of young non-Koreans living here in Korea and Seoul – yes, in a very special way that’s hard to explain.

Let me just add the “Watercolor” filter in Photoshop and let’s see if the image gets a little fresher:

Click on either image for a perfect 1024X768 wallpaper background for your computer. Save the larger version and use that for your desktop, if you’d like.

And cheers to you on this rainy day in July, during what I consider to be Korea’s worst time of the year. They say the monsoon season’s coming to a stop this weekend; if they’re wrong, grrrr. At least you’ll have this wallpaper to remind you that good things can and do pop up,even on the rainiest and dreariest of days.

And – girl in the rain – whoever and wherever you are, thanks for giving me a bit of inspiration on an otherwise wet and gloomy, monsoon season day.