What a wild ride 2024 has been. It started out relatively slowly as our winter usually does, allowing us a little time to breathe and perhaps even take a personal trip somewhere before the year really winds up. In this first installment of my Year in Review series, we’ll take a look at a few of those shoots as well as some of my personal work from that time. As a few shoots from this time are still under embargo with clients, there are quite a few shoots missing from this part of the year. But, I hope you’ll enjoy beginning this journey with me, nonetheless.
January – Couple, Proposal, Event, and Travel Photography
To kick off the year, I had a couple session and a proposal in the frigid winter weather. Then I went inside a resort for a week with the team from Zebra again to photograph their latest SKO event in Korea. This time, we were in Incheon for a full week of seminars, hands-on learning, and, of course, celebration. The Zebra crew are always wonderful to work for and it was great to be a part of their events again. A bit thanks to my friend and colleague Roy Cruz for being my second set of hands and eyes at this one. It wouldn’t have been possible alone. After a few days locked in the editing cave, I headed over to Japan to enjoy some slightly warmer temperatures for our annual winter holiday. It was great to revisit some of the places I visited as a teenager while studying in Japan and see show my wife a little of the touristy side of Japan. Hopefully, my embargoed sessions will be released soon and I’ll be able to top up January so it doesn’t look so bare!
February – Travel, E-Commerce, Proposal, and Event Photography
February began with two days of flying and another two days of driving to begin the last trip that I’ll be taking for my Tattoos of Asia project. I’m excited to finally be putting together a book to document the journeys I’ve had and the people I’ve met for this project. Please follow my personal Instagram account if you’d like to keep abreast of developments on that. There will be plenty of stories and images shared there over the next few months. For now, here are a couple of images from my time with the Aka and Miji peoples of India.
After a few sad goodbyes with the people I’d met and worked with, I headed back to Seoul and wrapped up the month with some e-commerce work for Foot Locker, a proposal on Jeju Island, event coverage for ICEF at their Seoul fair, and another job that I hope to share soon!
It was still very much winter down on Jeju Island and the landscape was still the bronze of the colder months, as it would stay for a couple more weeks. Thankfully, Jeju is significantly warmer than Seoul, so Jarel and Denise were able to spend a little more time outside than we usually aim for up north. Songaksan really delivered, as it does in every season, with a gorgeous view of the island and the splash of colour offered by the ocean and sky. Look out for the full blog of this one coming in the new year.
In amongst all these jobs, I still had to bring back a little fitness after the long winter, so I got out in the bitter cold that the northern half of the country was still in the grips of for some gorgeous mountain cycling. It might be cold, but it’s worth it for the views!
March – Event, E-Commerce, Proposal, and Family Photography
As spring begins here in Korea, things start to ramp up again. The temperatures get warmer, Jeju and the southern provinces start to turn green and show some flowers again, but Seoul is still quite dull and brown until April rolls around. With the warmer weather, my shooting schedule takes a quick upturn and primes me for the busier months. This March involved several trips to Jeju Island, some family photography in Seoul, and my first cycling Gran Fondo for the year.
To kick things off for this month, I spent a few days with the Governor of Michigan and a delegation from the Michigan Economic Development Council during their Seoul mission. We scooted our way all around the capital area for a few very busy days, meeting up with the various partners that Michigan has relationships with both here and back in the States. The job was to document the visit for both real-time social media sharing back home and a trip report when all was said and done. All in all, a great group of people to work with who are pushing to make the world a better place.
As soon as this wrapped, it was back into the studio for Foot Locker to produce more images for their e-commerce sites. For me, these shoots are always a great insight into what is selling right now and how designers are taking the humble shoe in new directions.
Next up was Lavent’s proposal to Lena at Changgyeonggung’s greenhouse here in Seoul. We had a lovely morning for it and getting in just before the elderly photography teams arrived meant that we had the place all to ourselves for a few short minutes. These moments were captured just before tourism in Seoul hit new heights and all the palaces got extremely busy. It was a pleasure to have such a wide expanse with no people present one last time!
Over the next two weeks, I found myself on Jeju Island four separate times for four different proposals! I’ll group them all here so we can get a sense of how Jeju’s weather plays out at the change of seasons. We can very quickly go from bright sunlight to lashing rain and no real way to predict it. Sometimes, we rescheduled for a different time of day to attempt to avoid certain weather and on others we embraced it. The one constant? Wind. Jeju is known for its wind! So, here are four proposals from the month of March, all with full blogs coming in the new year, so do follow my Facebook and Instagram accounts for announcements of those as they go live.
Around these shoots, I did manage to sneak in a few personal images of the locations just before flying back up to Seoul. Jeju’s weather makes a great subject in and of itself at the change of seasons.
I also had a great family shoot with the Mann family in between these just as Seoul had started to warm up. We’ve usually got positive temperatures throughout the day by mid-March, so it’s a good time to get back outdoors for a famly photo shoot.
Wrapping things up this quarter was, as I mentioned at the top, my first cycling Gran Fondo of the year and here is a picture of the real reason I chose that one as my first. How could I not?
