It’s always great to get a recommendation from another family. In this case, the Hudecs had heard about me from my session with the Love family. I had a great session with them last year, so I was excited at the chance to work with some of their friends!
My conversation with Elizabeth was short and easy. We knew what we wanted to achieve so it was just a case of picking where and when we would meet. The family would be staying in the DMC area, so Peace Park nearby World Cup Stadium would be ideal.
As spring changes so quickly here, I headed out to the park at 8am the day before our shoot to scout the area and check on the flowers and foliage. It was looking great. There were still some cherry blossoms, the grass was green in parts, and the trees were coming to life. It was looking like it would be a great location for our session. Then, the Korean weather did what it does best. The forecast changed from sunny to rain.
In spring, we have a lot of unpredictable showers. However, just our luck, it rained all night! I got up at 6:30am to make my way over to the park only to find that even though the sun was shining, the ground was still extremely soggy. My sessions are active and fun, so this just wouldn’t do. We couldn’t have our little man slipping in the mud every few seconds. I quickly messaged Elizabeth and we moved our session to Gyeongbokgung.
To cover the extra distance to the palace, we would need to start the session at 10am instead of 8am. That would mean we’d be dealing with a couple more things: the crowds and the harsh sunlight. I made use of the extra time I had before the session to grab a quick cup of coffee and scout for the best locations around the palace that morning.
We could counter the two issues we faced by going the exact opposite direction that the tour groups go. By avoiding the main paths of the palace, we could manage to keep ourselves reasonably isolated and find shaded spots without too many people around. This would be perfect as we didn’t want to stress James at all.
The moment the Hudecs arrived, we exchanged a few high-fives and got straight into shooting. It was clear from the first set that James was comfortable with this stranger taking his picture and that this session was going to go extremely well.
We started with a few shots using the passages to the sides of the main throne room before ducking out into the gardens surrounding it. Then we looped our way back around to Gyeonghuiru to wind up the session. With all the construction going on at the back of the palace grounds, the area we could use was almost halved. That made the main palace area even more crowded. Luckily, we’d gone around the opposite way!
In the end, this session came together marvelously despite the challenges we faced. We kept the session light and playful to keep James interested, and just let the fun happen. I hope you enjoy looking at the session as much as I did photographing it. Please get in touch above to book your own family session!
