The Cultural Heritage Administration marked the G20 summit by letting the public into Gyeongbokgung Palace at night on Nov 10—12, allowing visitors a rare chance to see Seoul’s biggest royal palace by moonlight (and pretty Korean lantern-light and ugly white floodlight). Now, the official line was that this was the first time in 615 years that the public was allowed into the palace at night, but a diligent netizen at OhMyNews found that this, ahem, might not be entirely correct.
Needless to say, pretty much everyone in Seoul with a camera and a tripod was there, and more precisely, they were lined up several rows deep along the pond surrounding the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion (see the last two shots). Ordinarily, shooting in a location like this at night would be a real pleasure, and it was certainly fun. But when you’ve got a tripod at your left elbow and a tripod at your right elbow and a crowd of people behind you waiting to take your place, it does take a bit of the joy out of it.
I’ve also got to say, damn it gets dark quickly this time of year. It seemed “blue hour” lasted about 10 minutes. Would have liked to have gotten the Gyeonghoeru when it was still blue out (see, for example, these shots). The “blue” shot above was taken at the same time as the “black” one, just with the white balance set as cool as it goes. Not sure if that counts…
MAP: Gyeongbokgung Palace
View Gyeongbokgung Palace in a larger map
Very nice. It takes on a whole different feel at night. Perhaps this is something they should do once a month (like a first Friday kinda thing).
Amazing shots! I wish I had had the energy to get out there. Living South of the river actually sucks.
Fantastic, Robert! I particularly like the second-last shot. It’s too bad there isn’t a picture of the *hordes* of cameramen and tripods, though. Anyway, great stuff.
Your photos look fantastic. One thing, you might want to look into making HDR photos via Photoshop.
Thanks, everyone.
BTW, whatever happened to your photoblog, Max? It was one of the first photoblogs I really followed.
Max had a most dope photoblog, it is true. I miss it as well.
I also miss Max Watson’s blog. I remember being mesmerized by his photographs of a Japanese temple, among other places. While I’m on the subject, I also miss another blogger whose initials are the same as my own–but it’s not me and he didn’t blog photographs!
i was there the last night on friday pushing through the crowds of families and grandpa photographers in hiking gear!
wasn’t able to get any decent shots. but completely worth seeing the pavillion for the first time.
i’m amazed that u were able to capture photographs that look so serene
u were lucky to get there at twilight~ those pictures look amazing
I like your blog. I’m looking for as much information I may gather about South Korea because I will take an 8 days trip to Seoul next April. I will come back here
Those photos are stunning. The illumination brings different beauty to the palace.
Beautiful night shot. Love everything on this photo, the ilumination, the blue you get on sky, the reflection… Just perfect
Thanks! I get lucky sometimes.
“Hi, I am travelling to India from Korea / Netherlands on March 2nd this year and looking for some help when applying for my visa, I am on a strict budget and don’t want to get ripped off by travel agents!!! Just need a tourist visa.
I have been doing some research and it seems like a complete minefield. Does anyone know or can recommend a simple way of applying, and can you do it without actually visiting the embassy, i.e. – online or by post? Meanwhile does anyone try http://www.evisaasia.com to applying visa? Please advice.”