I know… it’s February, and I’m just getting to this! Truth is, I’ve been hard at work re-organising my back-up system to make things more efficient this year. It also means that I have easy access to statistics about my work from the year, and can get to images a lot more easily. So, let’s start with those stats… in 2015, I shot approximately 130,000 images in 159 sessions. These total just over 4 terabytes in size. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2016 holds, but for now let’s take a look at the images from the last quarter of 2015.
We started October off with a trip to Bali for my wife’s birthday, which was a welcome break from the madness of September! The moment we dropped back into Seoul though, I joined the Orth family as they took custody of their second boy, Park. We had a great day at the agency, and then an even better one together the next day for their family session. These two loving parents and two boisterous young fellows were an absolute treat to work with again!
I then had the chance to work with my first Thai couple in Seoul, Pinky and Preaw. Battling the cool October winds off the Han River, we worked our way along and up into Yeouido park for the afternoon light. Thanks for an awesome session, guys!
Then it was on to work with the Walker, Chan, and McDonald families in some of the most beautiful autumn light I have seen in a long time. Autumn is a beautiful time in Korea, as you will see below, and in the upcoming blog posts for each of these sessions. For now, a quick look at some images from that time!
Autumn leaves were still beautiful by the time I worked with the Brooks family as they completed the adoption procress of their daughter. Although we’d moved back to Seoul’s usual overcast weather, both this session and my session with Mok and Sun still had the beautiful colours of Seoul’s autumn.
After all this work with families, it was great to see a member of my own family. My brother, Matt, came over to visit for a couple of months, and we had the chance to get out and see a little of Korea together.
Shao Wei and Edith were the next couple I got to brave the cold with! Never underestimate how cold Seoul can be if you’re coming from South-East Asia, even November can drop to 10-15 degrees, and with the wind that feels quite cold. Nevertheless, they were troopers, and a really fun couple to work with.
I then got to spend an afternoon with the Loomis family, who I had met when they visited Lori and Steve. All three children presented different challenges for me to capture them being themselves, which made the session a lot of fun! Here they are!
It was then time for the Walker family to visit again and take custody of their all-too-cute daughter Annalee. We caught the best of the morning light in their hotel room, as that was Annalee’s safe place, but as she seemed really happy, we decided to venture outside for a short while afterwards. 
I also made one of my favourite frames to date at this session. Davis’ love for The Polar Express is absolutely unmatched, and he just loves trains!
Just after this, I got an assignment that reminded me of how global the world really has become. My brother Matt and I were discussing before this 7 minute shoot just how strange it was for two Australians in South Korea to be photographing a Filipino girl who had flown to Seoul for a concert, and for a Finish newspaper to boot. Quite the evening!
Next up was something completely different, bottle shots for the designer at TiwiTrade to use in his upcoming ads for Barker’s syrups. Challenging subjects to say the least!
My final two assignments for 2015 were to be very special. After working with the Orth family on their second adoption, I was overjoyed to also be working with the Anderson family as they returned with their amazing son Ezra to add a sister to the family. Lydia took some time to warm to her new family, but the smiles we did see were a sure sign of the joy to come! Ezra also had a chance to meet with his foster family, to which he proclaimed “I am a lucky boy, because I have two omma (mothers) and two appa (fathers).”
Finally, I got to work with the Sharp family again. If you go back to the very first adoption session I ever did, you will meet their son Jae. Just over three years down the road, and Jae was back in Korea with his family to meet his brother Sam. To see how much Jae had grown, and to spend time with Kala and Gary again, was the perfect way to round out 2015. Sam and Jae spent their two meetings together playing and hugging one another, and at the end waved to his family and said “See you soon.” Due to hiccups in the system, it would be a couple of months until I saw them again, but the good times were still there, and their reunion was all the more special for it. Below is that love as I witnessed it.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me! I look forward to sharing more work with you as 2016 progresses!