Okinawa Family Photo Shoot: Hot Summer, Hot Smiles

It’s not hard. Anyone can have an easy, fun, and happy family photo shoot.

Hi, I’m SUKYOUNG, a photographer with Sarangbi Snap.
Today, let’s look back at some Okinawa family photos I shot in the past. I’m not shooting in Okinawa these days, but these should give you a good sense of the kind of shoot you can have with me now in Gyeongnam, Gyeongju, or other areas.
At places like amusement areas or festivals, I sometimes shoot candidly, paparazzi-style, and at landmarks or important buildings, we also take commemorative concept photos all together.
On a side note, back in the early 2010s I worked on paparazzi photos of Korean celebrities. They were called paparazzi shots, but they were actually arranged in advance with the celebrities and their agencies. The work was for distributing photos to news outlets and major Korean online communities. Agencies want to keep an air of mystery around their stars while making sure people don’t forget about them. Anyway, let’s take a look at the Okinawa family photos.

The booking was made through NAVER Shopping. We simply set the date and time, then met in front of the Starbucks in American Village for a very short briefing. With kids, most of the photos come from playing together rather than from a planned concept, so the explanation is actually short.
If you hold the kids in place and keep telling them to do this and that, the photos just turn out awkward. So everything follows what the kids want to do, and Mom and Dad join in and play along.

When the kids are cooperating, you have to grab shots like this quickly. That is always my mindset when I shoot. I work on the assumption that this moment won’t come again, and that five minutes from now the kids could suddenly stop cooperating. The mindset is simple: give it your all while you can.

We take photos with the giant cat plush, too. We also step into a few souvenir shops and shoot inside. In my early days of shooting in Okinawa, I’d ask the staff for permission and felt pretty self-conscious about it, but over time my clients bought so much that the shops actually became very cooperative.
American Village has a surprising number of shops selling one-of-a-kind dolls you won’t find anywhere else, and toys kids simply can’t resist.

This stretch is usually about capturing a very relaxed, natural feel while we wander the lanes of Depot Island, but when the kids suddenly throw up a V sign and strike a pose like this, I catch it in the moment. It’s the most natural kind of photo, because the kids are directing and expressing themselves.
Adults are one thing, but it’s pretty hard to get a shot like this by asking kids to do it.

This is what I mean by shooting while we walk. I keep shooting nonstop even while we’re on the move. It’s only a one-hour shoot, but the final photos look really abundant, and that has been a hallmark of Sarangbi Snap then and now.
Maybe that’s why so many people who had photos taken in Prague come back to book me again after they have kids. In fact, the clients above also had a shoot with me in Prague, and more than a decade later, here they are taking family photos in Okinawa with their kids 😀
To be honest, since I’ve done shoots for close to 5,000 groups, I had a vague memory of shooting with them before, but I couldn’t remember at all what we talked about or what kind of shoot we did.

This is Sunset Beach in American Village, home to Depot Island. How I shoot here changes with the season. Summer is when the most tourists visit Okinawa, but if you watch a summer sunset from Sunset Beach, it’s blocked by the breakwater you can see in the back, so it’s hard to see.
That’s because the sun sets a little to the northwest. So sunset shots take some skill. This shoot was in the morning, so there was nobody around… well, there were people, but I erased them all… When the sunlight is strong, we shoot with feet dipped in the water like this to bring out the emerald sea.
You can’t see scenery like this in Korea, so you could say it makes for a pretty special photo.

Here’s a quick look at everyone playing on the beach, too. There are plenty more shots, but I’m not one for showing lots of similar photos, so I’m posting just one. Of course, I wade into the sea up to about my knees to shoot. Partly it’s to capture natural moments, and partly it’s for safety, to keep the kids from going into deeper water.

As natural and relaxed as the shoot is, I do set up some shots. The setup is simple: everyone sits together and looks out at the sea for a moment. On a trip, who else is going to take a photo like this for you?

I stop the aperture way down to make the water sparkle a bit more. The point here is a relaxed mood rather than a grand, dramatic concept.

Here’s a shot on the way to the next spot. The building in the back is a place to stay that’s hugely popular with Korean travelers. It’s a bit pricey because of the sunset view, but the yen is weak these days, so lots of people book it.

About 15 years ago I shot a lot of concept photos like this at Olympic Park, but back then they weren’t popular at all. Around 2016, while I was shooting in Prague, this concept became the signature of Sarangbi Snap. Retouching these photos used to take a long time, but now with AI I can clean up tiny structures around the frame in about five seconds, so I sometimes work on several of them. In the morning the sunlight is strong like this, and at sunset the sky behind turns into sunset colors.
For now there are quite a few restrictions in Tongyeong, but I actually do this shot when I shoot at Huinnyeoul Culture Village in Busan.

We’re heading from Sunset Beach toward the beach side of the restaurant area in the Depot Island shopping district. This area is lined with palm trees, so you can get an exotic feel in the photos, which is why I always stop here. When it’s quiet, I take my time, and when it’s crowded, I open the aperture all the way and blur the background out completely. Mornings usually aren’t busy, so shooting is pretty easy 😀

There’s a big moon-shaped sculpture by the shore, and kids usually react to it. They try to climb up on it like this. It’s universal: kids from every country want to climb up there. So I capture that, too. I didn’t tell them to do it 😀

A photo that shows you were here in American Village matters, too. It comes in handy if your kids need to turn in a trip report for school. Having a landmark in the shot is what really makes it feel like you went on an overseas trip.

I keep shooting as we head along to the northern shore. It was a concept I shot a lot, because it really captures Okinawa’s hot summer.

To get those big smiles, I make funny faces and animal noises. So you really don’t have to worry about smiling shots. If you just come in good shape, you’ll usually leave with lots of great photos. This spot is… also the place that proves you’ve been to Okinawa. There are fireworks here on Saturdays, which is part of why I rarely took Saturday evening bookings. This is the prime spot for the fireworks.

Now we’re on our way to take the very last photo. I didn’t ask for this one either. They all teamed up like that on their own, so I quickly got a shot of it.

This is the final photo from the Okinawa photo shoot at American Village. Yes, this one is staged. There are several versions, but there weren’t many photos with a directed feel, so I chose this one on purpose. By the way, I pick the photos myself. That makes things easier for you too, right?
So that’s a look back at some photos from a shoot last summer. If we get to meet again, I’d love to work together once more. Right now I’m shooting in Tongyeong and Geoje in Gyeongnam, and in Busan and Gyeongju… so I’m not doing Okinawa photo shoots at the moment, but if you’re looking for this kind of feel, a warm and happy family photo, you can book through the Sarangbi Snap NAVER Smart Store.