Our winter this year has been relatively mild. Despite a couple of cold snaps and a lot more snow than usual, temperatures have been well above freezing most days. December was exceptionally warm and, for a change, conducive to family photography, especially with the double layers that choosing hanbok photos provides. For this session, we headed to the, relatively, empty Gyeongbokgung and had a session to celebrate the time the Ha family had spent in Korea.
Daisy and her family had been in Korea for several months as, due to the situation back home in the United States, their girls’ school was enacting remote learning. They decided to take the opportunity presented and live here for a while as it wouldn’t affect their education. So, for their time here, they’d been visiting family, exploring the sights, and enjoying relatively a worry-free lifestyle. What better way to culminate that journey than traditional-style photographs together as a family. For the course of our session, we stayed clear of other visitors and made the most of the empty courtyards. With older children, we can easily make our way all around the palace and make use of all the beauty it has to offer. So, that’s what we did on this warm winter afternoon in December.
When it comes to hanboks, there are a plethora of options out there. A few years ago, it was announced that entrance to all palaces would be free for those wearing hanboks. Immediately, dozens of entrepreneurial locals opened hanbok rental stores filled with the cheapest possible fabrics they could find. In the beginning, it was common to get a full set including shoes and hairpins for 5,000won! While these places quickly realised their rates were not going to sustain them in Seoul and raised their prices significantly, and stopped including accessories, a few more savvy places popped up and offered much nicer quality hanboks in more traditional colours and designs for a slightly higher fee. It certainly pays dividends to check out some of the nicer places when having your family photographs made. A hanbok that isn’t threadbare and comes with all the accessories included makes all the difference to your sanity and the quality of the images on the day.
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