Free Photo Zone

So, once was the tradition in Turkey: You don’t pay for bread in a restaurant, be it a slice or two loaves of it – neither for tea, at least the first cup. This was the norm, everyone knew about it. If you were so hungry, for example, rather than buying two breads, you’d go to a restaurant and order soup for the price of two breads, and at least eat something more than just bread.

How many times did I say bread?

But this was the case, is no more. The change happened gradually as in any social change. This is what we learn in Sociology 101: Society resists change, and it dies without. We resisted the change. When someone asked for us to pay for the bread, we didn’t visit that restaurant any more. Another one asked? The same. But, what can you do when practically everyone asks? Well, get used to, of course. This isn’t an easy process because of two things: First, your habits, or the world that you once knew, changes and it’s no fun. Second, almost no one is decent enough to warn us in advance that they’ll want us to pay for the bread.

Not the former but the latter was a problem that I faced in Korea, which was the second last shock for me. Please, take a look at the photo below:

Nothing particularly interesting except one thing: The writing on the lower-left.

“Free photo zone.”

It doesn’t make sense, right? I mean, this is a photo from a location just few metres from here:

So, here comes the nasty part: Apparently there’s a daily limit for photos for tourists, 200 shots overall, and it doesn’t apply per person but per group – be it a family, friends, or whatever in between. We, my wife and I counted one person as a result. “How can they check” you can ask. Well, we all need to leave the country somehow, no? By ferry or train. At the border, just before passport control, there are photo-control points through which you have to pass. There a police officer takes your devices that can take photos and count each and every one of them and gives you a document without which you cannot leave the country. Your flight is few hours away, you probably are tired and cannot take fighting with them. “I’ll pay, then” you might think – that’s what we did at least. As of April 2023, the prices after the first 300 photos were as follows:

As I’m writing this, according to Google, 1 US$ is ~1.316 KRW hence it might not sound that expensive. But no, come on. I shot many things, some things twice and of course they didn’t care if it’s the photo of one and the same thing or different things. For ~12.000 photos we took there in less than two weeks, we paid ~200 US$. Can you imagine? A last minute goal we conceded. I bought my D750 from there as my previous camera died, I was happy that I paid less than what I’d pay here in Georgia, the country and not the state, and it ended up lot more expensive than I’d ever imagine.

Why doesn’t anyone tell about this, then? Two reasons. One, no one wants to rise against a government’s such ill deeds. Second, because you need to sign a document in which you explicitly say that you’ll not share this info with anyone for the consequences include, not only but also, being declared persona non grata in South Korea and its allies and facing imprisonment up to three years. You’re lucky that I can live with these and I share this information with you.

Oh, I should add: There are vouchers that you can buy before landing in Korea, about which I didn’t have an idea till that last moment, which gives you 50% discount for 50 US$, from photovoucher.gov.kr. Make your plan, see how many you’ll shoot, and consider getting it.

A last note: What about the photos I took from such free photo zones? Of course they didn’t care – neither we had the time to find which ones were from such sites. Oh Korea, you really are the land of smart people!