Will Robb Photography

Seoul isn’t warm at this time of year. Sitting in the hotel room now and on the weather forecast we have just been told it’s getting warmer now, only minus 9 outside today. Every other day has been minus 12 and that’s just during the day. Night certainly is bitter.

Other than the cold, the weather has been pretty good. The sun is really harsh in the morning and early afternoon, but at night there has been some good sunsets and the night sky is pretty good for photography.

The other day I wanted to get some shots of Seoul at night, so I trekked up the path to Nam Sam tower which rests on a mountain in the center of Seoul to see if I could get a good view of the city. On a previous trip I took a trip up to the top of the mountain via cable car and I found the view was often blocked by trees, whih forced you to go to the observation platform of Nam Sam tower, which does give a great view, but I am never a fan of shooting through glass windows if I can avoid it. After about 40 minutes of walking up the 2 km of stairs in the minus 12 cold with a strong wind blowing, I wasn’t finding anywhere with a good view and I was beginning to think I had made a bad move. Then I turned a corner and came to an outcrop on the mountain with nothing obstructing the view. It even had a special viewing platform.This spot was only 5 minutes down from the top of the mountain, but the effort of walking up made the find more rewarding. The sun was beginning to set, so I went up to the tower for a wander whilst there was still light and I got treated to a nice sun set over the south part of Seoul.

After that I headed back down to the viewing platform as the sun was disappearing and I took some nice long exposures. It was freezing cold, no-one else was about, so I was pretty happy having the spot to myself to take my time getting things right. I even forgot about the howling wind and the freezing cold. After wards when I got back into town I had a nice spicy hot pot full of seafood and a beer and I soon heated up again.