Judy and Tim got in touch leading up to taking custody of their son, Nathan, hoping to do some family portraits after the big day. We chatted for a while and scheduled our session in for a Sunday morning. Thankfully, the typhoon had passed and it looked like we’d have beautiful skies for our session.
When we arrived, it was clear that Nathan was grieving a little and didn’t want anyone but Judy. I kept my distance and we made a couple of pictures, but in the end, we put Nathan to sleep and decided to reschedule our session. Adoption custodies can be emotional times and it’s just not worth pushing kids at these portrait shoots. Later in the afternoon, I got contact from Tim saying that Nathan had been sleeping well and we could potentially try the next morning. There was rain on the forecast, but we decided to brave it anyway.
Luckily, we’d made the right decision. The cloud cover gave us some nice soft light and cool air to work in. The rain also held out until the very end of our session. It turned out to be the perfect amount of crowd as well. There were a few people around, but nowhere near as many as we usually see at Gyeongbokgung. That’s just one more bonus for doing family portraits in less than ideal weather.
Nathan was still a little wary of the stranger with the camera but had spent some more time with his family by this point. I put on my long zoom lens to give myself some distance from them in the beginning. This allowed Nathan to play with his family and see that I was in the distance. We stayed under the awnings of the main palace building for the first section of the day.
After we’d warmed up a little and Nathan was a little more used to my presence. We ventured out into the courtyard for a walk. We discovered that Nathan loves it when his mum runs in and plants a kiss on his cheek and that he loves a good swing.
As the crowds started to thicken, we moved to a quieter corner of the palace to make a few more frames before parting ways. At this point, Nathan was getting a little tired and the rain was starting to settle in. I’m glad we persevered a little longer though, as I got some of my favourite images from this last section.
As always, a big thanks to Tim and Judy for having me share this moment in their lives. I hope to see you guys again soon!
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[…] my next session, a family morning with the Chens, we got the other end of summer’s weather: the rain. Despite the forecast, we decided to […]
[…] couple of years ago that I met Judy and Tim as they travelled to adopt their son, Nathan. We had a wonderful session, one that still remains one of my favourite post custody family photo shoots. Needless to say, I […]