Youngmin Kim

Finding my way forward, one frame at a time.

Life is a sequence of little moments, some forgotten, some monumental. These are the ones I kept.

A personal note

My life changed after my stroke. Before that, I was caught up in the motions of everyday life, meeting everyone else's expectations — afraid, in a way, to take a chance on my creative and adventurous self. I'm still in the middle of that story. But I know this: I am not my illnesses or injuries. I am the person who keeps getting back up.

If you're in the middle of your own story, I hope these frames keep you company.

Aerial view straight down of an orange excavator on cracked dry mud, next to two portable toilets, one yellow and teal and one teal — Aurora, Ontario · May 2022

Working note / 009

Site Amenities

I have always been fascinated by the idea of flying. Becoming an aircraft pilot was my childhood dream.

When DJI released its first FPV (First Person View) drone, I knew I had to have it. It was the closest thing to actually flying. In Canada, this meant getting an RPAS pilot certificate first. That was the start of my aerial photography journey and seeing from a completely new point of view.

Not becoming a pilot didn't stop me from flying. It took work: the studying, the exam, compliance testing and the flight review. I pushed through all of it. Now I have several drones of different types, and an Advanced RPAS certificate, which allows me to fly drones in controlled airspace.

Sometimes ordinary things turn extraordinary, just by looking at them a different way. It is all around us, even a construction site that might be right next to your house.

Earlier entries

A Cooper's hawk with a rusty barred breast and a fierce yellow eye, perched on a lichen-covered branch among bare winter twigs

08After I Packed Up

Two Radical prototype race cars cresting a corner at Mosport

07First Race

A red-bellied woodpecker with a bright red cap and black-and-white barred back, perched on a wooden post topped with bird seed

06Red Diner

05One Night in Toronto

A red-and-white lighthouse at Jackson's Point, reached by a diagonal stone breakwater across blue water

About

I'm Youngmin Kim, a student in the Visual Content Creation program at Seneca Polytechnic. The last ten years have handed me more health battles than I'd like to count. I heal through the images I create — this journal is the record.

Gallery

The gallery opens when the work earns it.