COMMUNITY
MARCH 6, 2009 19
Expat Living is a section dedicat-
ed to the daily living of expatri-
ates. To share stories about your
life abroad, send stories or story
ideas to Matthew Lamers, matt-
lamers@heraldm.com.
DJ Nakadia spins
in Seoul tonight
Regina Walton
Expat interviews
When you Google “DJ
Nakadia,” the first thing you
notice is that she’s a success-
ful female in a male-dominat-
ed profession. There are very
few women who make a liv-
ing DJing full-time, much
less make a living as a globe-
trotting DJ.
Nakadia’s home club, Club
Mint, is on the island of Koh
Samui in her native Thailand.
Since she started spinning in
2003 she’s emerged as the top
international DJ coming out
of Southeast Asia. Knowing
all this about her and learn-
ing that she’ll be appearing in
Seoul tonight at Club Vera in
Hongdae makes it an exciting
opportunity for expats in and
around Seoul that are into the
club scene.
Expat Living: I read that
you developed an interest in
DJing when you were in
Europe. Please tell me that
story. When did you decide to
DJ? Why electronic? How did
you learn to DJ?
DJ Nakadia: On my first
trip to Europe my friend took
me to a club and I saw a fe-
male DJ spin. I loved it so
much and I knew from that
moment that this is what I
had to do. It was not a dream,
but more like my destiny.
EL: I was really excited to
get the chance to interview
you because you’re a female
DJ. In what ways can this be
bad or frustrating?
DJ Nakadia: In my case it
is actually bad. Many of the
best clubs in the world did not
want to book me in the past
because they looked at me as
just one of these girls that
play commercial records and
cannot really mix. Over the
last year that started to
change when many people
heard me live and now they
accept me and book me. It is
frustrating if people just go af-
ter the looks — that has noth-
ing to do with my art at all.
EL: In addition to having a
home club, Mint Club, on Koh
Samui, you are an interna-
tional DJ. How many coun-
tries have you been to?
FRIDAY
DJ Nakadia: I only stay in
Samui about 15 weeks per
year to get some rest from the
tours, but at the moment I
play so much that I cannot re-
lax at all. Soon my tour will
start again and I will play 37
countries this year. So far I
have played in 43 countries
over the past three years.
EL: What’s the great part
about being a traveling DJ?
What’s the not-so-great part?
DJ Nakadia: By touring
around the world I really
learned so much about mu-
sic and how to read people
and make the party a suc-
cess. It took me over 300 gigs
around the world to be the
DJ that I am now. I am hap-
py I got this chance. The bad
part is that I get very tired of
the flying now. Sometimes I
wish I could just stay in one
city for a week or just a few
days.
EL: You were the DJ picked
to play at the 2006 World Cup
Finals in Berlin. What can
you tell us about that? How
did it feel to DJ for an audi-
ence from all over the world?
DJ Nakadia: It was very
exciting just to be there and PHOTO CHALLENGE WINNER — Transition — This photograph taken in February symbolizes the crossing of winter into spring. The juxtaposition of dark and light colors on
get a chance to look behind the opposing sides of this famous Seoul landmark represents the dark chill of winter and the bright new spring season. Photograph by Aubrey Leeker
the scenes. I was supposed to
play together with Sven Vath
and in the end I only had sev-
en minutes on stage. But it
was really great after all.
EL: You’ve also DJed for
the Love Parade in Berlin be-
fore. Can you describe that
In focus: Photography workflow
The Photo Challenge is sponsored by With JPG, your workflow will be sim- Before even starting to edit your
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there? 9599) and Babo Shirts (www.ba- vide much better value. RAW requires and remove the ones that are obvious-
DJ Nakadia: Loveparade boshirts.com). Winners of the weekly com- some more time and effort and could ly not keepers. Be ruthless. Unless you
is the biggest event you can petition receive a 50,000 won store credit lead to more drive space being con- have a special reason, there’s not
imagine. It was always great, at Hyosung Camera and a Babo Shirt. To sumed. The key to minimizing all these much point in keeping many different
but the last one in Dortmund take part in the competition, simply up- factors is having a system in place — a views of the same thing and it’s also
was a lot more than just a pa- load your photo at www.flickr.- good workflow. important to be selective about what
rade. The six-hour closing com/groups/seoulphotoclub — Ed. space on our hard drives? We don’t want Once we get home after a shoot we images you keep and choose to work
party was just unbelievable. to have to delete those precious movie have a many images to look at. Saving on before the editing phase begins —
It was also broadcasted live By Aaron Raisey and audio files, do we? space on your computer at home starts this will save you valuable space and
around the world. It is the The solutions to these questions starts with keeping the right images while time. You might have some specialized
most exciting feeling to play As a keen digital photographer, you way back when we press the shutter but- you are out there behind the camera. software that makes it easier to orga-
for nearly 2 million people! are probably shooting several hundred ton and can be summed up in one word: Take advantage of the digital medium nize, view, sort and delete your im-
pictures every week. That’s a lot of im- workflow. Workflow is the procedure we — browse through your pictures in- ages.
ages and that’s great, as your photogra- follow from the moment we hit the shut- camera every so often and eliminate Aperture and Lightroom are two popu-
Go to www.nakadia.com to phy is no doubt improving as a result. ter to the posting of the final image to our any glaring mistakes and out-of-focus lar examples of such software that make
learn more about DJ Nakadia. However, there are a couple of side ef- blogs, to our friends and family, or to the images. You will be thankful you did if the management of your image library
To get ticketing information on fects to this prolific production of pic- Seoul Photo Club site on Flickr. In other you begin to run low on space on your simpler.
tonight’s event, please either e- tures. words, our workflow is the production memory card. The next step is to take Next week, we’ll look at a few editing
mail seoulvibes@gmail.com or So, how can we minimize the amount line for our pictures. the images off your camera and onto techniques and storage options that will
go to www.myspace.com/seoul- of time we spend in front of the comput- The first decision is whether you will your hard drive, where it’s useful to hopefully make your time in front of the
vibes. er processing our images, and how can shoot in JPG or RAW. We addressed have a convenient folder structure that computer a little easier.
we manage the rapidly disappearing this question a couple of weeks ago. makes it easy to locate pictures. (raisey@hanmail.net)