Photo shoot at Gimhae Nakdonggang River Rail Park

When Ashley asked me to do a photo shoot, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean apart from random photos being taken of me by friends or family, I have never really been the subject of a shoot. I was a lil nervous but also very excited! What was I going to wear? Which wig? Will I have time to fleek my eyebrows? Eish!

Anyway, she made the plans for us to go to a really cute park, north of Gimhae City, called Gimhae Nakdonggang River Rail Park. There you can ride a rail bike for about 3km while taking in the beautiful views of the Nakdonggang River.

We arrived there around midday and to our surprise, we found out that there was more to the park than the rail bikes. In the vicinity, there was also a cute train café as well as a Raspberry Wine Cave. We soon realised that the cave was the perfect place to do the shoot as there was just so much to see and do. We spent hours taking photos at every inch of that place and we really got our money’s worth hahaha.

Ashley was great, she directed me on what to do and made me feel like a Queen boss- it was great. There were many times where I felt awkward hahaha but I pushed through because that’s what models do, right? hahaha. It was also really tough to keep a straight face but I guess after a lot of takes, Ashley got the shots she wanted.

Here are some of my favourite shots:

Thereafter, we took a ride on the rail bike and pedalled our way over the Nakdonggang River. The ride was super fun but also tiring. Ashley did most of the pedalling, shem, but I helped nyana hahaha. I came off that ride feeling like I had thunder thighs, hahaha.

We also visited a greenhouse and I was able to get a few shots myself. My model was an unsuspecting ajumma who sells the succulents grown in the greenhouse. When I showed her the pics, she got so excited that she immediately gave us her numbers so that we could later send her the pics. I haven’t really been taking many photos since I moved to Korea, so it was great to be behind the lens again.

Anyway, we made our way out of the park and came across an empty traditional Korean gazebo. That was the setting for our next round of photos. At this point, I was more comfortable with the camera and so we didn’t take as long to get great pics.

Cav the poses:

We wrapped up the day and headed back to the bus stop. We checked the bus app and it said that the bus was coming in the next hour. HOUR!! Imagine. The park is outside of the city, in the more rural area, so there was nothing to do but wait. We decided to call a taxi. The taxi lady eventually arrived and picked us up. Then she tells us that she is going to pick up an old lady and her husband. We said it’s fine because we were under the impression that we were going to share the fare. Ah, this lady was a chancer! Not only did she get money from the oldies and not subtract it from our fare but she also passed our drop off point to drop off the oldies before us, thus increasing our fare. Ai!

Overall, it was a day well spent. I got to learn a lot about Ashley and I also got to get out of my comfort zone by being a model. I thoroughly enjoyed being in front of the camera and hope that more opportunities for me to do so arise. Who knows, maybe lenna one day I will be an Instamodel!

A word from Ashley:

One day I was on a trip with friends and they asked me to take their pictures. I was capturing their beauty over and over from different angles. There's nothing more satisfying than showing someone a picture you took of them and seeing them smile. So, I began to notice I was kind of good at it.

That was a year ago. Since then, my love for photography has blossomed into something magnificent. I really enjoy bringing out the best in people through pictures. Photography has the ability to capture memories and you get to experience a different view of people.

You can find some of the other amazing photoshoots Ashley has done by following her on Instagram: @aya.tography