Gangnam Station Intersection

Some Gangnam Fun Facts:

• Real estate in front of Exit 11 of Gangnam Station costs 43 million won (about US$37,500) per square meter (as of late May 2012).
• Some 70% of Seoul’s plastic surgery clinics are located in Gangnam-gu. I don’t know how many that is, but considering that one in five Seoul women get work done, it’s a lot.
• On a related note, Gangnam might have more hot women per square kilometer than any other place on the planet. Or so I’m told. Being married, I didn’t notice, of course. Besides, everyone knows the hottest women in Korea come from the Daegu area.
• One blogger says coffee houses in Gangnam charge between 200 and 1,000 won more for a cup of coffee than they do north of the Hangang River.

This was my first time photographing Gangnam Station Intersection, one of those “must photograph” spots the night photography folk all seem to visit.

It’s a landscape made even more remarkable by the knowledge that just 40 years ago, this was nothing but rice paddies.

This shot was taken with a friend last night. The moon added a nice touch.

The glass skyscrapers in the center of the photo comprise Samsung Town, the corporate headquarters of the Samsung Group. It’s a lovely complex designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox—when the time is right and the weather cooperates, the all-glass facade does wonderful things with the light.

The skyscrapers to the left and right are quite picturesque, too, but from this point, not even my Sigma 10mm could fit them all in.

BTW, not far from Exit 1 of Gangnam Station is a camera equipment rental shop, SLRRENT. You can reserve equipment online at www.slrrent.com. Or at least I think you can—the site seems to be throwing me a malware warning on Chrome.

UPDATE

Went to another nearby roof last night. Got thrown off of it, so returned to the same spot as above. This shot is a bit later in the evening, obviously:

It was nice to meet Kwangkyoon Shin from Nightview up there. Justin was up there with the fisheye, too.