The Custom "Korea Magazine Shoot" Package

REAL Korea, done RIGHT. Miranda in a custom-made, modern-style hanbok made for young, fashionable people, made in the style that best fits HER.

There are a lot of hanbok and hallyu photo studios and other packages designed for Asian tourists that deliver the basics: the cheap façade of Korean things, cheap hanboks, and a cheap look. It's fun, but everyone gets the same thing: the bare minimum, the generic photo experience of the tourist. It's not a bad thing -- it's inevitable, really. When thousands of people at time all want the same experience, it has to become standardized and simplified, no? 

TOURIST Korea, done WRONG. Our model Jihye poses in one of the standard korean hanbok often rented out to tourists, which are considered by many actual hanbok designers an affront to the idea of the original hanbok, made as they are with hoops like found in a western-style ballroom dress and fabrics and patterns that, while pretty, are not even traditional Korean patterns or materials but rather look like those found on window drapes. 

A proper hanbok has some volume from an inner, padded skirt but still hangs down naturally. A properly made hanbok should have volume, but still flow when the wind blows. This is Korea; this is the subtle difference that the real, proper thing allows, and which is often lost on tourism paths traveled by thousands of people a day. If you can't even find a proper hanbok on your trip what else are you missing? 

Our studio provides that one thing that's hard to find on the many, well-beaten paths of the tourist industry in Korea: uniqueness. A unique experience and the photographs that come from it are generally hard to come by. The industry here is simply not designed to provide such a service for so many people. But that is why so many cheap, easy options exist and can easily be find on the Internet and in tourist guidebooks. There is an old American saying, "You get what you pay for." This is very true when it comes to the tourism experience in Korea, a place where busloads and planeloads of tourists from all over Asia come by the thousands, day after day, week after week. 

Sara was a model who visited Seoul for a week. We set up a shoot for her in one of the most famous tourist spots in Korea -- the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. WIth an experienced photographer who knows the site and its rules, the Korean language, the lighting and the angles, as well as how to push the subject to the best of her abilities in front of the camera, we were able to take a picture that shows the grandeur of her custom-fitted hanbok from a local designer who even matched it to best fit her skin tone, which we matched with the mood of the site and its structure.

The best way to experience and keep a beautiful memory of Korea is by making one that best fits you and the place and the mood you want. Tourists are not experts on the places they go, so it's often hard to know how to find this. And even if you can, there's a realistic limit to how good selfies you can take. And even if you are a decent photographer, you can't take pictures of yourself. And what's more, even a photographer working for the tourists generally works most efficiently by taking the same successful and popular shots again and again, over and over. After all, why wouldn't they and who can blame them? They have to do their job the best they can, with minimal stress and strain.

Miranda is a Finnish girl who wanted to wear a modern hanbok but with a traditional feel, along with edgy, high fashion-style photography. So we put her in a local modern hanbok designer's hanbok and found a 1970s-style Korean dabang coffee shop and used it as the perfect place to do Korea in the way she wanted. 

How do you get this real, customized, Korean experienced that will be unique to you, what you want, and your personality? You book this package, which provides a customized experience based on your preferences, and we plan and consult with you on a course of places/experiences/photo styles before you arrive, then do a checkin/consult with you upon arrival, then arrange the shoot. The package will consist of:

• 25-30 final, full-resolution images that you can keep for yourself, forever
• a selection of pictures that mix headshots, full-body shots, and environmental shots that we will edit to suit you best. 
• a final edit of those images in magazine style, presented as a mini-magazine (with you on the cover, of course), some of which you should surely keep, some you should give to friends
• a pack of picture postcards comprised of your favorite images 
• Korean dress consultation with local designer(s) if you'd like, planned to fit your personality and style
• planning of locations at which to shoot you 

It all depends on you. We design the shoot around you. The only thing that your package of pics will have in common is the fact that more than one customer has used it. But since we are a small team, we do not strive to provide this service for thousands of people. We plan and price it to fit the needs of a very, select few -- you. And considering this, the cost of 2 million Korean won (approximately USD $2000) is not so much. You'll have a truly unique experience in Korea for a day -- and the unique pictures that will last a lifetime. 

We shot Kelly in the dynamic, flashy environment of a Road FC arena to provide both a new experience and the best possiblebackground for a shoot. It was a night (and a set of pictures) that was unforgettable. 

Of course, if you want to put your pictures on Instagram with filters and effects to enhance them, such a look often fits the feel. Here, Instagramming her picture made it match the mood of the never-ending, dynamic, nighttime feel that matched both Kelly's mood and style. 

Isn't it time to book your own unique experience of Korea, in which you can both look and feel like a local?