I don’t often get family photography sessions during the Chuseok time as that’s when Korea simply shuts its doors (except for the shopping districts, of course) and says “We’re done for a few days.” Locals take some coveted days off, expats head home for a while, and tourism is down a little because everything is closed. China, however, outdoes this by having an even longer mid-Autumn Festival that shuts the entire country down as well. This year, the Ataalla family decided to skip over from their base in China to visit Korea during this time. So, we got to make use of the beautiful September light.
We’ve had a gorgeous Autumn season this year. Pollution levels have been low and there have been stunning clouds in the sky. I’ve honestly never seen this time of year looking so nice in Seoul. Knowing this, we decided to have our session in the early morning to catch the best of that light and avoid the picknicking crowds that inevitably envelop Seoul forest on any given day.
This turned out to be a great decision as the smallest member of our group wanted to run, run some more, and in the breaks in between, go for a short sprint. Thankfully, mum, dad, and I had enjoyed our morning coffees and were good to go! We covered much more of the park than I was expecting, only stopping to look for fish, throw some leaves, and buy a Baby Shark balloon at the store.
I often work with active youngsters and parents are invariably apologetic about having me chase them all over the location. Many are also worried that we won’t get any pictures because their child is constantly on the move. The great thing about photography is that we only need moments. Yes, the sitting down together and laughing only lasted three seconds, but my shutter speed was 1/500 second. I caught a lot of moments to choose from in that three seconds. Sometimes, this is the way it goes with kids, but we still come home with a great collection.
So, don’t let the energy of your child be a factor in making your decision to have a family photography session. We can snag moments that you may not even notice happening. Please enquire above about having your own family photographed in Korea!
