Vietnam

This was another quick grab shot that worked our really well. The well lit hat is the focus and it shades the woman's face and body as well, making a wonderful juxtaposition of the hat and the motorbike. I had to tone down some of the reflections and highlights in the background and added some vignetting to emphasize the hat as the focal point of the picture.

This is one of the hallways in the Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi - also known as the Hanoi Hilton - in which John McCain was a POW. It was a tricky shot, as I had to handhold at 1/13th of a second and didn't have much depth of focus to play with. I like the feeling of the shot, despite the nature of the place. It was actually built by the French and was the scene of executions and torture of Vietnamese resistance fighters and political prisoners.

The markets in Vietnam (and other places as well) tend to have vendors selling similar things next to each other. The Sapa market and the chicken vendors were no exception. The light dead birds and the dark backgrounds made for some interesting compositions, but the light on these chicken legs and the out of focus, dimmer shapes in the background made a very dramatic composition. The color didn't add anything to the picture, so I much prefer it as a black and white.

We spent two mornings on the Mekong at floating markets. Getting good shots of moving boats from a moving boat was difficult and I had to go to a high shutter speed. This was one of the more interesting detail shots.

The Sapa market is a wonderful place to photograph — people, abstracts, colors, textures, a great variety of subjects. These batches of sugar cane were tied with a fiber that is a nice but subtle contrast to the stalks. The soft light and repeating patterns of the stacked cane make a good composition.

The Sapa market has an amazing array of people to photograph. This Hmong woman was sitting on the railing of of the stairs for several minutes. She had a wonderfully contemplative look. I took several shots, but liked the composition of this one best.

In the same wonderfully lit room at the Sappa market that I took some of the other shots, this woman was very cooperative. What a wonderful face, and again, the light is fantastic.

There is one area / room at the Sapa market where many Hmong women sell clothes, hats, and anything else they sew. The light in the room is fabulous, from high windows all the way around. You have to buy something from them for them to let you photograph. As a result, I have quite a collection of Hmong caps. Even then, they are somewhat reluctant to pose. This women insisted on continuing to work.

I loved the women sitting in front of their shops in Hanoi. These two obviously spend a lot of time together and don't need to say much to each other.

Part of the cycle of growing rice is to burn the stalks on the field to return the minerals to the soil. At this Hmong village, the task was handled by the young boys, who had a lot of fun with it. This was shot after the sun went down at ISO1250, at f5.0 at 1/60 second.

As we were leaving the Hmong village of Sin Chai, I looked back and caught this sunset shot. The underexposed, slightly mysterious foreground is set off against retreating layers of hills and clouds. The late afternoon light illuminating the smoke from the rice burning adds subtly to the drama.

On the hike between Lao Chai to Ta Van villages near Sappa I saw a farmer building a bamboo fence. He had a wonderful face and the composition had potential, with a dark foreground, light background to contrast with the farmer. I took several shots, and this one caught the right moment for his body and hand positions and the arc of the bamboo.

We made several visits to the Black Hmong village Sin Chai from nearby Sapa. This was taken on our first visit, very late in the afternoon, when we had wonderful light. The interplay of curves between the field and the fence and the quality of the light make this a lovely shot.

As part of the cycle of growing rice, when the crop has been harvested, the stalks are laid out to dry and then burned on the fields to return nutrients and minerals to the soil. This picture was taken near Sappa with a 24mm setting to emphasise the foreground.

On our drive from Sapa to our hike to Lao Chai village, we stopped several times at scenic spots. This ridge, with the rythmic placement of trees and the echoing of the shape of the ridge in the distant mountains made a nice composition. I tried merging two different exposures to get some detail in the hills and sky, but couldn't get a good mask that didn't leave a halo around the trees, so I used a gradient in Lightroom to darken the sky and opened up the hillside with some additional exposure, all on one shot. It worked.

On our return from Halong Bay to Hanoi, our bus had a flat tire, and we got out to wander around. Many of these shots were the best pictures of the trip - completely by chance. We found this beautiful older woman who was very patient as several of us took pictures of her. I asked her to sit so the light was coming from her right (she was under an overhang) and used a large aperture (f5.0) to blur the background and isolate her face. I also applied a slight vignette in Lightroom, again to move the visual focus to her face.

On our return from Halong Bay to Hanoi, our bus had a flat tire, and we got out to wander around to take pictures, many of which are the best pictures of the trip - completely by chance. We found this beautiful older woman who was very patient as several of us took pictures of her. Everyone was focused on her face, which is quite wonderful as you can see by my other shot of her, but I spent the first few minutes focusing on her amazing hands. They tell a story of a long, hard life. Because I was close to her and using a 180mm setting on the Canon 50D (almost 300mm equivlent) the depth of focus was very shallow, so I used a high pass filter layer with an overlay blend to increase the apparent sharpness in her fingers. One of the best shots of the trip.

Halong Bay in northern Vietnam is a most spectacular spot. Fortunately, we were there before the crowds started just a few weeks later. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good for scenics, overcast and rain, but great for people and small scale shots. This shot, of a sailor fishing in front of a barge, is a great combination of gesture, pattern and color.

At the back of one of the stores in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, we found a bird in a cage in front of an old oven. I liked the blackness of the bird juxtaposed to the blackness of the oven opening. The shape of the oven opening is wonderful as well.

On one of our excursions from Sapa, we stopped for lunch in LaiChau. The restaurant was touristy, and a wedding celebration had just finished on the ground floor. On the way out, I saw the tray and tea setting that had been set out for us. The shapes, colors and sidelighting made a nice composition.

In the old quarter in Hanoi, there were many vendors who sold these small birds, I'm not sure for what. The whole booth was sheltered by a translucent, purple plastic tarp which lent the cage this wonderful color. The focus was tricky, about half the time the camera would focus on the cage and not the birds. The pattern of the out-of-focus cage works well in contrast to the sharply focused, green & white birds with their somewhat whimsical poses.

This was shot at the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi at an exhibit of tribal houses and interiors. The interior was not well lit and I had to brace my head against a wall. The shot is quite sharp despite being shot at 1/8 of a second, thanks to Canon's image stabilization technology.

Between Sappa and the Black H'mong village of Sin Chai, there is a somewhat rundown forest station. The lower back side of the station was an amazing (to a photographer, anyway) wall. I spend well over a half an hour shooting this area. I liked this window with the toothbrushes and porcelain cups in contrast with the textured walls. I also like the mysterious darkness behind the cups.

Bat Trang is a small village near Hanoi that is famous for its pottery. I found this wonderful wall on one of the buildings. I am not sure what the building was used for, or how these patterns were generated, but I love the colors and textures on the wall and the contrast with the shape and texture of the gravel pile.

One of the more interesting spots in Hanoi, historically as well as photographically, was Quoc Tu Giam (National University), originally built in 1076. I was fascinated particularly by the roofs and tiles. The two facing roofs and the background trees make a nice composition in this shot. I struggled with separating the foreground and background visually in Photoshop, ultimately settling on blurring the background.

The pottery village of Bat Trang near Hanoi turned out to be an interesting place to photograph. This wall with its ubiquitous numbers, water stains, textures and inset tiles revealing a bright green garden behind makes an interesting composition.

On our first day with the group in Hanoi we ate at a lovely (and delicious) little restaurant on a small street. After lunch we all started photographing this amazing wall across the street. Everything works here, the colors, the textures, the writing on the wall, and the little mysterious window at the top.

On our first day with the group in Hanoi, we ate at a lovely (and delicious) little restaurant on a small street. After lunch, we all started photographing this amazing wall across the street. I like the juxtaposition of the greenish window and yellow walls and the flow of the lettering and white parts of the wall towards the window.

The walls in Hanoi had lots of numbers stenciled on them in various colors. We were told that they were some kind of licensing/permit system. We never did find out what they were, but they certainly made for interesting photos.

Between Sappa and the Black H'mong village of Sin Chai, there is a somewhat rundown forest station. The lower back side of the station was an amazing (to a photographer, anyway) wall. I spent well over a half an hour shooting this area. This is the best shot. It was hard to get because there was only a narrow walkway around the builiding beyond which the ground fell away steeply. I shot this with a 23mm equivalent setting on my 50D. Luckily, I am tall enough so I didn't have to point the lens up and have converging lines.