This is funny as hell. My favorite part? When the shoelady tells our video star that his/her feet are too big.

The response? Priceless! 열나 웃겨!

Presented courtesy of YouTube.Thanks for pointing this out, Shoewawa!

Was walking across the sidewalk when I decided to go for a shot I have started to notice from my random street shooting – illuminations by carlight. I walked next to a young lady in a frilly dress to try to catch an interesting shot, which I was lucky enough to snag and present you you below.

By the way, I hate how JPEG compression strips the hell out of the colors. They’re so washed out by the time they get up to you guys on the site. The effect’s nice, right? Anyway, I like the fact that the one point in focus in the frame is her foot, but you get so many other cool details, such as the gravel of the ground or the patterns in her skirt. Cool stuff.

A quick quiz – I’m right-handed, so what does that tell you about which shot came first? Are these two pictures in order or are they not?

Please direct your answers to the comments section. This is an easy one, right?

This was a day to truly be remembered, as I got to meet an interesting girl and very likely model for the site, if she agrees. This post will need to be full of some feedback, if you please.

I had gotten on the bus and got crammed into the back when this beautiful young lady came to sit right in the middle of the high back seat, with her feet and legs all in my face. The temptation to shoot was too high to resist, and I figured that the sound of the bus could maybe cover the sound of the camera. It was quieter than I thought back there, but I took the risk anyway. To my surprise, I got the distinct impression that not only did this girl know I was taking her picture, but she was kind of liking it.  I’ll have to remember to ask her next time I meet her, which will likely be this week. In the back of that bus, though, I had the feeling she was kind of posing a bit for the camera, as she was kind of preening and seemingly moving her feet closer to the camera. I don’t know if I was just imagining this, but it certainly seemed so. She noticed I was sort of staring at her at times, and we made friendly eye contact once, which also added to my suspicions that she was friendly to this guy snapping pics of her, since none of it included her face. Now, I could be imagining all this – really, I could – so this is one of the first things to talk about upon meeting and trying to convince her to come onto the site. I am looking forward to that conversation as an icebreaker and something to report back to you all.

I had decided to get off the bus where she did, wherever that took me, but luckily, we were going to the same place, as were half the passengers, so it was no big surprise. So when she got off the bus, I was happy to note that she was actually traveling with the other passenger on the bus whom I had already noticed as being worthy FMS material. I also happened to be out and about with a female friend who knows about me and the site, so I decided to make the pitch right after getting off the bus. It was a group of four ladies, so it was a bit intimidating to explain and ask permission to photograph the footsies, but my new “friend” was quite obliging, although her counterpart seemed a bit more reluctant. The bus girl is a pretty tightly-put together woman, most likely in her late 20’s, as were her friends. I was eager to find someone who looks like a similar size to Rachel, but a little older and more sophisticated. Here were two candidates for the position, right here, together. Both were fashionable women, and both seemed to take care of themselves down to the details, even though I think the pedicures are either several weeks out-of-date or they simply do them themselves.

The girls were pretty obliging and got right down to business, being really cooperative along the way. Great job, girls!

Right now, I’m working on linking together the modeling with services, especially for smaller designer shoe stores and pedicure places. I talked to an owner today who seemed interested in throwing a few shoes our models’ way in exchange for advertising, linkage, and a web page – as well as anything else I can do to show appreciation to a potential sponsor.

I think this model will need a touch-up job and some good, continuous care, but will look quite good in shoes, as I think for her friend as well. What do you readers think? Care to drop a line or two? As always, comments are very welcome. And if you want to see her come on board, give me something to show her.

The thing about Korea is that women here just try harder to look good. For better or for worse, they are under more pressure to look as fly as possible all the time, so they are generally more formal, wear high heels as a rule, apply makeup to go to the corner store, covet designer labels, and spend an inordinate amount of their income trying to keep up with the new fashion trends every season. This means, that unlike men, they don’t get to wear certain shoes for 5+ years straight.

Note to the women still wearing the overlong, pointy pumps from the late 1990’s – your ajummaness is showing, in that the ajumma is defined not just by being old, but more exactly, by my “ajumma rule.” My rule postulates that the real ajumma is defined by someone who still wears the shoes that were attractive when she was still an agassi, and but she is now too practical/stubborn/cheap to want to continue keeping up with the fashion trends. So she will say – and she’d be right – “Why waste money buying all these new shoes every season? The ones I have are pretty enough!” Yes, you’re right. But you’re also officially an ajumma now.

Anyway, I was walking down the street when I spied the loveliest leggy sight walk past me at the crosswalk. I was also suddenly reminded how much there is to look at for a man on the average Korean street. Foreign male friends visiting me always remark at how good the women look here. And no, it’s not the standard “Asian fetish” thing, but more of “Did you see what she’s wearing?” or “Do girls always dress like this?”

Fortunately for me, the answer is, “yes.” And the girl who passed me was definitely just a “average” on the Korean appearance scale. But on my getting-dressed-up-means-putting-on-a-suit-once-a-year scale, Korean everyday fashion – especially for women – is pretty impressive.

Let’s be real – most Korean women (as with men) didn’t grow up playing team sports and exercise for women has only recently become an acceptable idea. So most adult women spent their childhoods thinking that jogging was going to make their calves huge, or lifting weights would make them look like Little Miss Arnold S. So you get girls who are skinny but don’t look healthy, and who have even less shape than genes would allow. Although Korean men like it, I don’t like my women looking pigeon-toed and weak, with flabby arms and legs that are still inexplicably thin. “Skinny fat” is not my thing.

But time here has changed some things, so my standards are…umm…different now, yet still pretty varied. And, as fate seems to dictate, I tend to find girls in their mid-to-late 20’s the most desirable, although girls in their early 20’s tend to show more of it off. Here’s an average late-20’s girl, just walking down the street. Would you ever get to see a single person look like this at a Walmart back home?

I’m not saying that there aren’t shapely girls back home. I’m just saying that they’re not making much of an effort to look their very best, all the time, which I don’t think is a bad thing to not be doing. But you gotta admit, Korean girls do know how to work it. Here’s a lovely “sideswipe” shot that I’m getting better much better at taking.

And here’s the standard “shoeflip” shot to round things out.

Korean summers are truly hot!

Summer’s light (and unbearable heat, thank God) is fading and I’m fast snapping away to build up some storage for the long fall and winter. This is not to say that there won’t be lots of girls wearing skirts even on the coldest day of winter, but even the shortest skirt doesn’t feel as revealing as a girl in a similar summer one, but with nothing on below but barely a pair of shoes. The fun part of the Korean summer is that, except for the skirt, the only thing going on under there is panties and a pair of naughty slippers.

Here’s a nice swatch of blue, white, and gray to make your day. Notice the “bearpaw” effect that becomes more visible when a girl with pretty much a straight rack of toes all the same length across (more common in Korean women than other ethnic groups) chooses a shoe designed for a Western foot, which tends to be more pointed or tapered, accommodating toes with greater variations in length. Too often, a “bearpaw” girl chooses a shoe because it’s pretty, but not necessarily on her; when she steps into a more tapered shoe, you get uncomfortable overhang or even the “little piggie” effect, with a little toe sticking out from between the straps of a summer sandal. Since she’s in a pair of mules with vamps, she didn’t have that problem…well, that day.

Bad form, bad form. But still, some girls don’t seem to care, just as certain people wear stripes and plaid together. Whatcha gonna do? Enjoy these couple weeks of temperate weather and the last of the miniskirts.

But don’t despair – FMS is gearing up to give you summer-like warmth even on even the coldest winter night!

(P.S. – Is this girl “thick” enough for ya? She was quite shapely, I seem to remember.)