Okinawa Photo Shoot: With the Kids at American Village

Family photos from the Christmas decorations at American Village to the sea

Hi, I’m author S.
More photos from a shoot at American Village today.

An easy start in the shopping area.
Just walking together is enough. Playing with the kids is even better.

As usual, there’s hardly any posing in my photos. With couples preparing for their wedding, I give lots of direction.. but with kids, that only makes things more awkward, so this is how I photograph them.

When I took photos in Prague, they tended to look similar.. but in Okinawa, everything feels new, every day.

There are plenty of little everyday moments like this too.

This wasn’t posed, but I do take photos against this backdrop quite often. I’ve always liked including trees in my photos.

One of the few posed shots. For a report to hand in at school.

Slurp
If it’s mom and dad with the kids, I have the kids share their ice cream with them. If the grandparents are there, they get priority. With just an hour for the shoot, I have to work very quickly, so I’m constantly deciding which shots to take.

Mom and dad can have photos taken with the kids again anytime, but grandparents don’t get as many chances, do they?

I took this while they were here. The weather was nice and there were no seats downstairs, so they came up here.

Nine times out of ten, kids eating chocolate ice cream like that end up looking like bearded bandits.

Palm trees are always a must for the backdrop.

In about 7 years, when puberty hits, they’ll deny this photo ever happened.

Hold hands or don’t, whatever feels comfortable..

Photos from this spot.. often end up framed. It feels more like Okinawa than anywhere else.

They were up to something, so I took a photo.

No squeezing the younger one’s hand to torment them, at least,,

A bit of an American Village landmark in its own right.

A posed shot by the sea.

Taking photos from a distance in the shopping area.

This spot was always on the list.

I keep taking photos between locations too. Just capturing them as they are.

This family did a lot of arms-in-the-air shots.

When I take ‘walking against the sky’ shots, lens distortion makes the kids look small, so I have everyone sit down together like this. They’re family photos, but I put a little more of the focus on the kids.

Time to chase the waves and run back again.

No idea why they’re so excited.

In the end, shoes off and straight into the sea.

Still having a blast.
Me.. I didn’t tell them to do any of this. I just drop a little hint and let them interpret it and do their own thing.. That’s my leave-them-to-it approach.

And that’s another family’s shoot wrapped up.
I hope they always stay healthy and happy.
I’ve got another shoot right away, so I’ll be off now.

My Okinawa packages were 250,000 KRW for 1 hour during the day or 300,000 KRW for 1 hour at sunset or at night, with 20 edited photos and 300 originals. I’m not taking bookings at the moment. I might resume someday, but there’s no date set, so I’ll post a separate announcement if I do. I’m currently doing shoots in Gyeongju, and my base is Tongyeong, Geoje, Changwon and western Busan. For booking information and contact details, please visit the Sarangbi Snap page.