Gyeongbokgung, Seoul’s number one tourist stop, sees thousands upon thousands of visitors a day and can get particularly chaotic at the prettiest times of year. Peter and Jenny’s trip was right in the middle of one such time and his chosen location within the palace was one of the hotspots for tourists to stop by and appreciate the beauty of Korea’s royal architecture in amongst nature.
As with all my sessions at Gyeongbokgung, we scheduled this one for opening time. Especially for a Gyeongbokgung proposal when you might want to have a specific place with few people around, this is key! As soon as the ticket machines fired up, I tapped into the palace and scooted ahead to mark the spot where they’d need to stand for a perfect photograph of the moment. The couple would be following along behind me, unbeknownst to Jenny, and would arrive just a couple of moments later.
One thing we couldn’t have predicted was that the cleaners would be in to wipe down the pagoda that morning. As the couple approached they stopped to admire the view and it seemed to me that they were watching the cleanup. So, my first frame of the day was this one.
Then, Peter launched into his speech and I had a minute or so of adrenaline-fueled photography before he turned to me and let me know that he’d succeeded. I offered my congratulations and then enquired as to if they’d seen the cleaners. “That’s what we were talking about,” he replied. We got a good chuckle and I promised to send them the above image as well. But, on to the proposal.
The light that morning was the gorgeous direct sunlight that we get in early autumn. At that time of year, there are often thin clouds around and the air has a slight haze that ensures our shadows aren’t too deep and harsh. It makes for beautiful images, even a couple of hours after the sunrise as we found ourselves here.
This really is a wonderful time of year for a photo shoot. It’s not too cold or too hot at any time of day and the light remains flattering for longer than any other time of year. Following the proposal, we made several images in the vicinity before moving on to another area of the palace that Peter and I had discussed as a potential location for his proposal.
We headed over to Gyeonghoeru and stopped at the far corner that the tour groups hadn’t made it to yet. Once we arrived there, immediately Peter understood why I had recommended against it for the proposal. There were vastly more people in the area but, more importantly, the small fence around the pond has been replaced with a tall iron fence that would have ruined the images for us. It didn’t stop us from making a half-body shot and cropping it out, though!
To wrap up, we made a couple of additional images with the surrounding buildings and, of course, the lovely columns that all the palace walls have.
Again, a big congratulations to Peter and Jenny. I hope you guys have a great start to your lives together.
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