Gangnam was recommended by one of my lab-mates as a good place for a photo walk. So, I and some of my other Indian friends thought of exploring Gangnam through a photographerโs point of view.
HOW TO GET THERE?
From Bukjeong, we took the yellow line subway till Seolleung and transferred to the green line from there to Gangnam. We got off the subway using the exit 8 near the Korea Development Bank.
Could you guess the time at which we reached there? Just make a wild guess! 7 freaking oโclock in the morning and that too in January! Yeah, your guess was nowhere close right!
So, the main reason for getting there early was I wanted to capture the reflections of the sunrise from the tall buildings. So, from the exit 8 we headed to the east side. Although it was still quite dark yet, I managed to click some pictures of the other buildings which you can say are some of the main attractions in Gangnam.
Finally, the sun rays were getting brighter and till then we had reached the Samsung head office and it was a really tall building. Therefore, we did not go any further and I started trying different compositions for the shot and managed to get these 2 beautiful pictures.
After this we thought to have a cup of coffee so as to tackle the cold. Although there were traditional options like Starbucks, The Coffee Bean and others but we found a quite unique kind of a cafรฉ which neither of us had heard of earlier. The cafรฉโs name was Terrastory and it had a quite peaceful and chill kind of a vibe. We went in and it had a quite an aromatic kind of atmosphere, not the genuine coffee houses kind but a pinch of melony kind of aroma. We all liked it and got some coffee, talked for a while and caught hold of some warmth for the rest of the day ahead.
After this, we started shooting some portraits of each other because of the location. Most of the people passing by were keeping an eye on us to see what kind of stuff we were doing. Some were even polite enough to wait and not come in between the camera and the person who was posing. It was a lot of fun there. In one picture you can see me using one of my friends as a tripod. ^^
We went ahead and went to the exit 11 to cross over into the famous Gangnam Square. It has a platform with PSY, the singerโs famous YouTube hit song Gangnam Styleโs dancing pose. You can head over there and click your pictures with PSY. It is quite attractive in its existence I must say.
The Gangnam Square has a lot of wide open space because it is one of the busiest places and there is a lot of hustle and bustle there. It is a place of commotion during the middle of the day and even in night time.
So, one of my friends is a huge BTS fan and the time we visited Gangnam, the House of BTS was open. The House of BTS was a creative museum and art gallery formed by the Army as a place to explore, get to know BTS better and buy official merchandise first hand. It was located on the K-POP street of Gangnam which during the entire opening of the House of BTS was the busiest street of Gangnam by a mile. You could see fans not only from Korea, but all around the world.
It was a mind boggling experience. It would have been a lot more fun if we had got there earlier because by the entry time we got was at 6 PM in the evening and it was just 11 AM in the morning there. Fortunately, my friend had visited it earlier and experienced it all so we didnโt have to stay there till that late. We decided to just enjoy the place a bit and move ahead.
So, while returning, we saw this vintage kind of a cafรฉ named Beansple. It had a proper antiquey kind of a vibe from the outside and even inside. We just went in to have a look around. It was jam packed. 5 people were already waiting their turn to find a seating place. So we decided to skip it and just move ahead. I am telling you, the K-POP street is till date the busiest street I have ever been to here in Korea and it was still a lot of fun.
After, this we just roamed around here and there and then the girls went for a shopping round and I thought to explore the streets a little more.
I had bought this cool lens ball after seeing amazing pictures of it online and thought of trying some new things on my own too. So, it took me around half an hour to get the right picture. People standing around me and passing by me were continuously feeling kind of odd. I could sense their strange feelings upon seeing a guy do weird stuff on the street. But, I managed to get a beautiful shot to top the day off. It was quite an amazing day and this picture was the icing on my cake.
After the shopping we all decided to have some chicken nuggets and a burger at McDonaldโs. So we headed there, had a hefty meal and then headed back home.
For Me, Gangnam still remains unexplored and I would like to visit it once again. If you found this article interesting, share your views in the comments and if you know some other attractions of Gangnam which a photographer like me will enjoy, kindly share!!
