The period between late September and early October is the season for buckwheat flowers on Jeju most years. These little white blooms are what Chester was hoping for when he initially sought me out. We discussed a few possible locations and settled on the Waheul Buckwheat Village as our location.
A site recce is included with each of my packages, and we agreed that I would do this much closer to the date because of the short lifespan of the flowers. Typically, they only last a couple of weeks at best.
As with all things Jeju, we’re at the mercy of the weather. So, after our August rains were done, I visited the buckwheat fields and had a chat with the grounds staff to see how things were coming along. They mentioned that they’d only just been able to plant the seeds and it was likely that we wouldn’t see flowers until the first or second week of October. Unfortunately, this would be after Chester and Victoria had returned home, so we wouldn’t even be able to reschedule. We’d need to find a new location.
Thankfully, we had a collection of locations we’d already discussed, so that process was straightforward. Chester settled on Songaksan, but wanted to get a slightly different view than some of the other shoots I’d done there before while also minimising the potential walking and hiking that might be required.
I made my way over to Songaksan to explore and find a location that might satisfy all of those conditions. I found a few spots a little further along the walking path that not everyone makes it to, which would keep the coast clear while still giving us a nice view to work with. It was an easy spot to reach, but as with all my proposals, I provided Chester with a step-by-step guide to bring him right to the location.
With that in hand, all that was left was for Chester to get them to the location and deliver his speech. I had prepared a bouquet of flowers and shared some tips with him so he could focus on the important things.
As he arrived, he stopped to take a photo of Victoria at our chosen location. This allowed him to put all their bags aside and pick up the bouquet I’d hidden behind a nearby tree. We’d discussed this in advance as he was hoping to make this moment a heartfelt surprise and this would hopefully mean she would suspect nothing right up until he asked her to turn around.
They arrived at the spot just after the sun had settled in behind the hill next to us, which left a soft wash of shade on the couple. The background still had the light from the setting sun hitting it, giving the scene a lovely end-of-day feel without too much harsh light on the couple.
After the proposal, we made some soft-feeling images in that same light before walking back up the hill to get some higher contrast, more dramatic sunset images to end the day. The sky was absolutely stunning, so we wrapped a few minutes before sunset to allow the couple to watch the sun kiss the ocean together on this special day.
To Chester and Victoria, congratulations again on your engagement. I wish you all the happiness that life can bring you. For those of you reading, I appreciate you spending the time with my work and if there’s any way we can work together in the future, I’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to follow my Instagram, as well!