Tongyeong Dongpirang Baby Photo Shoot, Ending at Sebyeongwan

These are photos from a 1-hour family photo shoot with a 10-month-old baby and their parents at Dongpirang Mural Village, Gangguan Harbor and Sebyeongwan in Tongyeong. The price in Tongyeong is 120,000 KRW, with 20 edited photos and 200 original photos.

Hi, I’m author S.
It’s been a while since I last posted on the blog. Today it’s a Tongyeong photo shoot, at Dongpirang. As I’ve done more shoots here, I’ve refined the sessions enough to offer a proper package. So I’ve created a separate package for Dongpirang.
While you’re visiting Tongyeong, come get a short photo shoot before you head off. It does get hot, but by now I’ve figured out every café and where to eat.. so if it’s too hot during a shoot, we take a short break and then carry on. It’s definitely gotten much smoother than my first shoot back in February 😀

This is a family I photographed in Prague before.
Come to think of it, I still get contacted from Prague asking me to come back.. Prague is fun for a short trip.. but if you live there for a long time it’s so boring that I have zero intention of going back..

I usually plan my routes so we don’t have to climb uphill if I can help it.. but the mural village does involve a bit of a climb. That’s because.. we meet at the nearest parking lot and walk up from there. Everyone comes by car, after all.. When I used to do photo shoots in Prague, Okinawa or Barcelona, I always insisted on meeting at Starbucks.. but the Starbucks near here is in a residential area, so it was out..
So I used an independent café next to the public parking lot instead, but that closed down last month too.. So now I use the shaded spot at the parking lot entrance as the meeting place.

An ordinary photo that can only be taken in Korea.
Overseas, even a shot like this keeps turning out special somehow.. so shooting in Korea can actually feel more special. The ordinary is the most special..

My photos are hardly staged to begin with.
Back when I did a lot of couples’ shoots, I’d set up everything down to the angle of each finger and foot, but these days I shoot things as they are. With babies, even more so: they do whatever they feel like, and I photograph that.

Babies usually stare at me a lot.
When I go to first birthday parties.. partly because my outfit is unusual, the babies stare only at me, so I’m always careful that the photos don’t end up lacking variety.
So.. when I shoot first birthday parties.. I like a baby who makes a racket, laughing and wreaking havoc, more than a well-behaved one. That way, there are little stories to capture, and the photos turn out special.

We came to Dongpirang, so I take one with the Dongpirang logo.
Okinawa has soft, lovely sunlight all day, but what Korea and Europe in the northern hemisphere have in common is that the early-morning sun is a bit harsh. It’s strong. I always have to watch for it.

Every single shoot, those flags at Dongporu make it tricky to find a spot.
And Dongpirang is.. fairly crowded on weekends. Well.. not as bad as Gyeongju, but plenty of people come to see Dongpirang and then rest here at Dongporu. Since I have to shoot with a view of the sea off Tongyeong as the backdrop, there’s a lot to keep an eye on one way or another.

In the old days I couldn’t have imagined a shot like this.. I’m shooting with the top of dad’s head and half his face cut off. Fifteen years ago the studio would have flipped out.
Ever since I went independent, I’ve always shot however I like.
There’s a physical size difference between babies and adults, so to make the baby stand out, this is what you have to do. If you pay too much attention to mom and dad, the baby can end up as a bit player. I really hate it when the baby ends up as a bit player in baby photos.

A lot of my photos have this everyday feel.
The difference is that I shoot so the photo quality still holds up in 20 or 30 years. Smartphone photos? They look fine when viewed at a small size.. but as phone screens improve, those photos eventually end up looking like old Cyworld photos (Cyworld was a Korean social network). That’s why photos should be shot with a big camera.

The family is taking in the view of Gangguan Harbor.
If I swapped that for a name outsiders would know.. the sea off Hansando Island?

This is a photo that shows what Tongyeong looks like.
I hope that if Tongyeong gets a little more famous, people will see this photo and know right away that it’s Tongyeong.
One good thing about Korea is that the baby can come back to this spot when they’re older and take another photo, which would make a really special memory.

The mural backdrop.
When I first shot at Dongpirang I paid a lot of attention to the murals.. but now I don’t pay much attention to them when shooting. The baby has to be carried the whole time, so we keep sitting down for a bit as we shoot. Bringing a stroller into the mural village is restricted. And of course wheelchairs can’t get in easily either.
When I used to do photo shoots in Prague or Okinawa, I had all my routes planned for stroller and wheelchair access.. but I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to get around with a wheelchair or stroller in Korea.

Next is the way to Gangguan Harbor. From here it’s downhill forever 😀

At Gangguan Harbor I keep it short, shooting with the moored fishing boats or the Turtle Ship (Geobukseon) as the backdrop.
Because.. almost every week.. it’s a bit chaotic with performances and events.

The last stop is Sebyeongwan.
This is the hanok with the largest single wooden floor in Korea. I think it’s also a good outdoor option for a baby’s first birthday photos.
I’ve found afternoons a bit more comfortable than mornings for shooting. The baby photos look lovely, but if you shoot in the morning the sky behind them washes out, which is a bit of a shame.

Weekday afternoons are more comfortable than weekends. On weekends, mornings are better.
Because.. anyone can step up onto the wooden floor, and on weekends all the tourists climb up and rest there, so weekdays are more comfortable.

The wooden floor is huge, so it’s great for hanbok shoots too.
But is there a hanbok shop in Tongyeong? I didn’t search online.. but I walked around every corner myself and found none. I think you’d need to get dressed in hanbok before coming to Tongyeong.
For people living in Tongyeong or Geoje.. Sebyeongwan is a really great location. Unlike the hanok studios in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, it’s genuinely traditional in style and above all it’s the biggest, so you can shoot with plenty of room.

This photo is from early May.. the caretaker does clean the floor, but pollen drifts around all day, so I noticed their bottoms turning slightly green.

This floor is far wider than the one at Jeollajwasuyeong, and far wider than the one at Gyeonghoeru in Gyeongbokgung. As I said earlier, it has the widest wooden floor of any surviving hanok. All that space gives me plenty of options when taking photos.

Oddly enough, I’ve noticed that Korean mothers like having photos taken with their babies on the wooden floor beneath a hanok roof. Nobody specifically asked for it, but I made a point of taking one as we moved over here.

The tree in the background is said to be almost 460 years old. A symbol of long life, and long life is a symbol of health, too.

Nothing staged at all. Whenever I see them playing with the baby, I just quietly snap away.

The last stop is Baekhwadang. This baby hadn’t been smiling much, but gave us a big smile at the end of the shoot 😀
I hope they grow up healthy. Somehow, I got to be part of the second shoot with this family too. I hope there’s another chance next time.

The price in Tongyeong is fixed at 120,000 KRW, and you get 20 edited photos and 200 original photos. Booking details and contact information are available on the Sarangbi Snap page.