Photos of Vietnam

Ramius75

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Hi all,

After all the procrastination, i will post some of my Vietnam photos. It it not the complete collection and not in chronicle orders. so please bear with it.

Well, i went to vietnam Ho Chi Minh City for 4 days 3 nights and stay in Saigon Star hotel.

I spent alot of time travelling around the city and its outskirt area. So i better let the photos do the story telling instead. And be warned that the sequence of photos will change from time to time as i upload more photos.


Mekong Delta from the sky on arrival.


V for Vietnam on a rainy Ho Ching Minh Street.



3 on a scooter


Fellow travellers


Municipal National Theatre
 

Colonial style Hotel


NotreDame Cathredel

Vietnam has won international fame or infamy by being the only country to win the war against the USA. Many has suffered in the process and the country paid a very high price for it.

Here are some of the war time related photos while i visited the Cu chi tunnel and the war time museum.



Shadow from the past


Gullotine


Into the Cu chi tunnel


Inside and backside


Engine


Save by the camera


To die for


Learning about the past
 
Street of Hoh Chi Minh

This is the most interesting thing about the city, how the people live, how they work and how they they move on. Some did very well, some not so fortunate.


welcome to Vietnam, Girl in Blue AoDai


Street-Side barber


Playing cards


Waiting


Waiting in Pano


Street boys


Morning News Reader


Look over here


Look over here 2


Bike Doctor


Street girl
 
More of vietnam Street.


Night traffic


Night Market


Family Dinner


Flower girl


Counting the money


Girl on Street
 
Trip to the Mekong Delta


Vietnam Hat, Thru the Mekong delta area.


Clouds


Captain of the boat


Bees in farm


XEOM Stand (Scooter for hire)
 
Damn, they're awesome (as well as the rest but I'll post in here to avoid spamming ;) )

Did you ever have any problems with taking pictures of people? didn't they ever object?
 
Damn, they're awesome (as well as the rest but I'll post in here to avoid spamming ;) )

Did you ever have any problems with taking pictures of people? didn't they ever object?

Thanks.

Street photography is definitely a very difficult subjects. Ppl in some countries are more friendly than others also.

For example, i got "little" problems taking photos in vietnam, but they are consider "more" friendly than some other countries. There are of coz restricted places like banks and gov offices. But they are friendly to just tell me off. They treat foreigners very well.

I got told off once in HK... maybe i took too long to get the pic done.. and hence appeared to bothering him. he scolded me "chi xin" which is crazy in cantonese. haha.

Ppl in india are the friendliest and most photogenic. They are seldom camera shy and almost most willing to be the subject. In fact, they are so eager, that they even approached us to have their photos taken :D so much so that me and my friends ran out of disc space. haha :D

I never like to take street photos in Singapore thou... quite unfriendly to locals.

of coz, the best language to ask them for photos is to smile at them 1st. Get them to be comfortable and then show them the photos later. :D its great feeling sometime.
 
Bravo! Bravo! :clap:

These are really great Ramius. I've been watching your photography develop over the months and years and I'm even more impressed than before with this latest series (will check out your other threads in a bit. edit: Having checked out your other threads, I'll say that these shots are easily your best, for the reasons given below).

As discussed already, what makes these really great is that they are of strangers, in public, often caught doing their daily chores. That's nowhere near as easy shooting plates of food, which just sit there and allow you to light and frame them as you wish.

My favourites are these:
Spoiler :


Street-Side barber

^ Your subject is relaxed and largely unaffected by your presence. It also reveals much about Vietnamese street culture and enterprise. The local weather is also well revealed here, by the fact he conducts his trade outdoors and the damp on the walls, which have a wonderful texture to them. The mirror on the wall is a great touch, adding depth to the shot, as is the motorbike standing by with newspaper on seat.


Waiting

^ This tells a story all by itself, which is what great photos do. Add to that the cuteness and coyness of the girl, and that she's totally absorbed in thought and therefore quite unaffected, again. The colour of the blinds is quite something too.
 
Bravo! Bravo! :clap:

These are really great Ramius. I've been watching your photography develop over the months and years and I'm even more impressed than before with this latest series (will check out your other threads in a bit. edit: Having checked out your other threads, I'll say that these shots are easily your best, for the reasons given below).

As discussed already, what makes these really great is that they are of strangers, in public, often caught doing their daily chores. That's nowhere near as easy shooting plates of food, which just sit there and allow you to light and frame them as you wish.

My favourites are these:
Spoiler :


Street-Side barber

^ Your subject is relaxed and largely unaffected by your presence. It also reveals much about Vietnamese street culture and enterprise. The local weather is also well revealed here, by the fact he conducts his trade outdoors and the damp on the walls, which have a wonderful texture to them. The mirror on the wall is a great touch, adding depth to the shot, as is the motorbike standing by with newspaper on seat.


Waiting

^ This tells a story all by itself, which is what great photos do. Add to that the cuteness and coyness of the girl, and that she's totally absorbed in thought and therefore quite unaffected, again. The colour of the blinds is quite something too.

Thanks alot ! really appreciate your comments here. have been trying to improve the skill each and everytime i pick up the camera and shoot. Sometime i get lucky, some times i dont. But im trying.

Love street shooting. Its really tough sometime coz when u hesitate, the chance maybe gone forever... happened to me many times in the India trip especially when its almost 90% photography. The vietnam and Hong kong trip was with a lady or friends, so i dont get much chance to go hunt around for photos.

Glad to see u like the 2 shots here. i personally also like the 1 with the school girl and think the green color blind is something special also. Among the vietnam trip, i like "look over here" the most. the baby and mommy is really cute :D
 
The second and fourth shots on the third set are really nice. They're excellent. As a whole, they are Interesting pics.

You say you are interested in improving your shots. What camera are you shooting with? And what mode are you shooting? This appears to me like a lot of auto mode type shooting. Some shots are burnt out, and a lot of them seem really unfocused. Feel free to tell me off if I'm wrong.
 
The second and fourth shots on the third set are really nice. They're excellent. As a whole, they are Interesting pics.

You say you are interested in improving your shots. What camera are you shooting with? And what mode are you shooting? This appears to me like a lot of auto mode type shooting. Some shots are burnt out, and a lot of them seem really unfocused. Feel free to tell me off if I'm wrong.

hi thanks :D

im using a canon 350D DSLR with a 17-40mm len for the vietnam trip. Most of the pic were taken using Aperture priority. Im too slow to shoot all on manual mode atm. So i let the system decided on the shutter speed thou i will usually control the exposure. ya, think some were over exposed and i hope that i can do better next time.. i try not to use flash for street shooting thou. Thou that will give me a better exposure especially during the day but it will be annoying for the subjects. Some were taken while i was walking also and hence affected by motions... you're not wrong.
 
i hear the psychedelic rock scene in vietnam has been going steady since the war. did you have a chance to investigate any of that? maybe that is more prevalent in saigon?
 
Cool.

I shoot with the next version of your camera, the 400D. What kind of glass are you using? Do you have the money to drop on L-glass? I imagine so. If you have the money for the camera, and the money to do the traveling, you have $1200 to drop on a good lense. These pictures don't look like L-glass. The reason I say this is that you seem to enjoy shooting at night and in low light, and those series of lenses capture light fantastically. Often times with my lense, I really have to back down my F-stop, or else I'll be burning my censor. During the day in Djibouti I would have 1/4000 s exposures in the sun on F 4.0.

If you feel you are too slow shooting manual, then start shooting manual. Learn the camera, it's the only way to get better. You'll learn what F-stops to use in what conditions, and quickly be able to adjust your exposure lengths accordingly. It's like...when I go start shooting now, I basically already have an idea what my exif data will look like. You'll get used to the controls, which if they are like my 400D, are confusing and clumsy at first.

You like to shoot portraits, or at least people scenes. The very least you should do is set your f-stops, and let the camera decide the appropriate exposure. I shot like this for a long time, but gradually as I started getting better, I realized that I could get much better, properly exposed pictures doing it manually. But...when I am people shooting, I will keep in Av mode from time to time.

The other thing this does, is it allows you to take a swath of pictures. In some of your shots, you can't do that (mainly the good people shots, you got a blink of an eye to catch those). But in others, you could set the F-stop, and then take five shots over a range of exposures and then pick the best. I do this with my landscape shots. When I was out west shooting in the Rockies, Monument Valley, Arches, Canyonlands, there were shots that I may have taken twenty times over (and sometimes I hated them all anyway!).

But this is really the best way to get quality shots.

I completely, 100% agree with you on flash. I NEVER use flash. I hate flash. And I don't bring up my iso to compensate either. I think flash ruins pictures, whether it be studio, outdoor, night... It looks completely unatural and erases shadows. I have a friend that does interesting stuff with bounce flash, and there are some neat things you can do with it, but in general I hate it.

But in all seriousness, get out there and practice with those manual settings. You will probably be sad that you hadn't learned the skills before you went on this trip. I know I'm sad I was stubborn and didn't learn it quicker...
 
i hear the psychedelic rock scene in vietnam has been going steady since the war. did you have a chance to investigate any of that? maybe that is more prevalent in saigon?

No no, whats that ?? never heard of it... i only been to Ho chi ming during this very short trip also. Will really go to vietnam again when i have chance.
 
No no, whats that ?? never heard of it... i only been to Ho chi ming during this very short trip also. Will really go to vietnam again when i have chance.

shows you how much i know about vietnam,, ho chi minh city is saigon! sorry. i heard a report about the psychedelic music scene either on npr or the bbc. i can't seem to find it, still looking. from what i remember, the american gi's imported the psychedelic music, it took off in saigon, and ever since there has been an underground psychedelic music scene there whereas in the US and UK it sorta phased out after the war. i remember hearing the report and then i got lost in thought about imagining what it must be like. a new exotic with the added irony that it took its inspiration from the west. i will try to find the story.

EDIT: Here are the pages of a book by what seems to be and anthropologist on the beginnings of this subculture in saigon. i located a couple of other articles about heavy metal in vietnam, but it seems that possibly that music is distinct from the acid-rock subculture i am talking about, or maybe it was influenced by it.
 
shows you how much i know about vietnam,, ho chi minh city is saigon! sorry. i heard a report about the psychedelic music scene either on npr or the bbc. i can't seem to find it, still looking. from what i remember, the american gi's imported the psychedelic music, it took off in saigon, and ever since there has been an underground psychedelic music scene there whereas in the US and UK it sorta phased out after the war. i remember hearing the report and then i got lost in thought about imagining what it must be like. a new exotic with the added irony that it took its inspiration from the west. i will try to find the story.

EDIT: Here are the pages of a book by what seems to be and anthropologist on the beginnings of this subculture in saigon. i located a couple of other articles about heavy metal in vietnam, but it seems that possibly that music is distinct from the acid-rock subculture i am talking about, or maybe it was influenced by it.

oh yes, indeed. such embarrassment :D
OIC... thou usually i spent my time in the cultural sites... i wanted to change and visit the disco or underground pub of each and every major city also... hope i will get the chance next time.

My friends arent the happening type thou.
 
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