As you may have seen, I recently got engaged to my other half. Shorty after our engagement, I left for my travel adventures, but I met up with him in South Korea. Because travel has always been such an important part of our relationship and our time spent living abroad bonded and instantly connected us, I knew I wanted to document our first trip as an engaged couple in a special way.
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Just silly selfies won’t cut it
Originally, I had looked into hiring a local studio in South Korea to do a photo shoot. I had read about the phenomenon in Asia where couples get dressed up in a variety of outfits and backgrounds to take their pre-wedding photos. This article is about Taiwan, but I’ve heard about these studios in tons of countries in Asia, including South Korea. It’s just like an engagement shoot in North America, but on steroids. Multiple wardrobe changes, numerous backgrounds, beautiful hair and makeup. All the glamour you could ever want. As much as I would have loved to get all dressed up and made over for the shoot, they were simply just out of our budget.
I thought that was the end of it until I stumbled upon the idea of vacation photographers. Enter Localgrapher.
Localgrapher is a vacation photographer service that matches you up with a local photographer (see? Localgrapher – brilliant!) to help you document and preserve your special travel memories. Whether you’re traveling solo and want some nice photos of yourself or wanting to capture a special moment on your vacation (ahem, a proposal perhaps?) or like us, just want some cute coupley photos to remember the trip by.
Seriously! How cute is this?!
The Shoot
Which is how we found ourselves wandering through the streets of Seoul’s Bukchon Hanok village with Steve, our photographer for the day. We ended up at the BaekIn-Je House museum for our photo shoot which turned into a great backdrop for the shoot.
I had a fantastic time working with Steve. He acknowledged that the first little bit of the shoot would feel a little awkward and uncomfortable, but that feeling would go away and he was completely right. As a blogger, I’m usually the one behind the camera so it’s always a little strange when I’m in the spotlight.
He gave us great direction on what to do for each of the poses and backgrounds. Where to look, where to place our hands, how to sit. It all made it very easy to be in front of the camera and feel natural.
So cutesy and cheesy, but I love it!
Through it all, he talked to us about our trip, shared about his time living in South Korea and made us feel at ease.
The session lasted just over half an hour which felt both like a long time and yet, all too short. He managed to get a bunch of different poses and was very efficient at moving us along. Despite not being super familiar with the area, he was able to look at the surroundings and compose a nice photo.
As promised, I received my photos within four days and was completely blown away by how fantastic they turned out. Localgrapher provided me with a private online gallery complete with a password to access and download my photos.
My password protected online gallery
We went with the Bronze package which came with a 30-minute photo shoot session and 20 hi-res edited images after the shoot. This package is $250 USD. They have two other packages depending on how long of a shoot and how many photos you want at the end of it. There is also a design your own package option which allows you to book something longer if you want.
How does it work?
Booking is super simple and really easy:
- Select your destination and photographer
- Fill in the short booking form
- Arrange all the details of the location and time
- Have your photo shoot
- Receive your photos in 4 business days
- Share your memories!
I really enjoyed my session with Steve and the service I received from Localgrapher. I would definitely recommend Localgrapher if you’re looking to document your travels in a special way beyond just your own photos. I love the photos that I received from my session. My time in South Korea will always be the first trip towards a lifetime of many and I’m so thrilled to have these great photos to remember it by.
With our photographer Steve. Check him out on Facebook!
If you want to book your own session with Localgrapher and preserve your travel memories, Localgrapher is offering a discount code for Pack Me To readers. Get a $25 USD discount on any package, valid for payments made until 31st May 2017 using the code packmeto25 at checkout.
Have you ever hired a photographer to document your trip? How did you like it? If not, would you consider trying it?
Disclosure: Experiences in this post were made possible in partnership with Localgrapher. As always, all raving reviews and opinions are my own. I truly enjoyed this experience and would love to have them be a part of my honeymoon!
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Congratulations!!! I think this is a brilliant idea. I’ve been trying to think of ways to commemorate our time living abroad in Lithuania since we are moving soon, so perhaps I should look into this!
Thank you! Yes, definitely take a look into setting up one of these. The photos definitely made my time in Seoul feel more special.
First, Congrats! Second, what a brilliant idea! The pictures turned out great and it allowed you a chance to be playful and just hang out. I love this!
Thank you! It was a lot of fun to just be silly together and let someone else take the photo!
Your photographer has done a wonderful job! Great memories framed for lifetime!
Congratulations to you both! 🙂
Thank you Indrani!
I would think you got your $250 worth for this photo package. It looks great. I would highly recommend people doing this. So many people go on amazing trips only to have bad photographs for their memories. We hired a photographer when we were in Sandals, Nassau and those pictures are some of our all time favorites.
That’s fantastic! So glad to hear you had a positive experience with something like this as well.
Awesome! First of all congratulations on your engagement, and second thanks for sharing this info!! It’s specially convenient when you travel solo! I’ll definitely use this service next time I’m traveling!
xoxo, Pilar
http://thelifestylehunter.com
Thank you! And yes, do check them out on your next trip.
These are great photos and yes, such a good idea when you’re travelling! Thank you for sharing! xx, C.