Roy Cruz
I have known Jennifer and family for a couple of years now. We worked together in Ulsan and Gyeongju, and now in our third family portrait shoot in Jinhae. Ever since our first session, Jennifer had already mentioned wanting to shoot amongst the cherry blossoms. This is a very popular season in South Korea and people flock to cherry blossom areas during spring to see the beautiful pink flowers.
Jinhae is home to the biggest cherry blossom festival in South Korea and I typically get lots of inquiries from couples and families who want to shoot there. However, the past couple of years have been quite different due to Covid-19. The festival has been cancelled for the second year in a row. I was a little worried about restrictions that might inhibit our shoot, so I did a scouting trip to make sure we could do our session. I visited the Yeojwacheon Stream and the Jinhae train station where the blossoms are located. Fortunately, visitors could still access the area and enjoy the blossoms despite cancellation of the festival. There were volunteers stationed around the area providing hand sanitizer and reminding people to keep a safe distance. Well done, Jinhae.
Our session was fun as usual. We walked along the stream and found nice corners to shoot in. Unfortunately, they blocked access to the stream itself so we couldn’t go down and get a nice low angle shot looking up at the blossoms. At the end of the shoot, I found out that this would be our last one for the time being, because the family was leaving Korea soon. It was definitely a nice ending to our series of sessions and a beautiful memory for the family. Below are some of my favorite images from that session.
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Roy Cruz is a freelance photographer based in South Korea specializing in event, editorial, and portrait photography. Available for assignments nationwide and worldwide.