Without an H

Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Posts from the ‘travel’ category

A few more from Bangkok

Back in October last year, I spent ten days in Bangkok, a trip that reignited my enthusiasm for photography.  Thanks to the nice people at WordPress, my Bangkok: ten days, one lens post was featured on Freshly Pressed over the Christmas holiday, and I was overwhelmed by the response.  A big thank you to everyone who commented on or liked the post, and a warm welcome to everyone who has started following the blog.  It means a lot to me to know that there are people out there who like my pictures, and I hope that you’ll enjoy my posts from Vietnam too.

The response to the Bangkok post prompted me to look again at my pictures from that trip.  Here’s a selection of shots that didn’t make it last time, not because I don’t like them, but because I don’t think that anyone wants to look at more than about twelve or fifteen pictures at a time (I assume, probably unfairly, that everyone else’s attention span is as short as mine).  As before, these are all uncropped shots, taken with a 50mm lens.

I love taking pictures in markets, big or small, indoors or out.

The rush hour in Bangkok seems to last all day.  A taxi ride is safer, cooler and more fragrant, but there’s something childishly thrilling about travelling by tuk-tuk.

Buddhas aren’t only found in the wats…

… although they are found there too.

They call him Amulet Man.

Fertility amulets are available in all shapes and sizes.

This monk was sitting in the back of a small truck, sprinkling water on passers by.  He was accompanied in the truck by a life size gold statue of himself.

Bangkok’s wats are crammed full of buildings and statues, not to mention people.  Rather than taking in the whole scene, I tried to focus on some of the details.

Life in the slow lane (POTW #11)

I spent a lot of the New Year weekend wandering around in District 3 in Saigon.  In between the busy main roads that stretch across the centre of the city, joining one district to another, there’s a network of increasingly narrow sidestreets, backstreets, alleys, lanes and… what’s narrower than a lane?  I promised myself I wasn’t going to use the word “labyrinth” in this post, but it’s a real labyrinth.  Houses and shops open directly onto the street, and food markets squeeze themselves into any available space.

Away from the chaotic main roads, people were busy with their shopping and cooking, but no one was rushing.  It was starting to get dark and I was thinking of going home when I took a right down this alley and saw the lady in brown leaning on her fence and chatting to her friends across the way (just out of shot).  Two curious boys stopped playing football for a moment to watch the tall, clumsy foreigner take pictures of their slightly bemused neighbour.

Saigon Street Portraits

I like taking people pictures more than any other kind of photography.  I’m always on the lookout for an interesting face or a striking attitude.  These pictures might not be street photography in the strictest sense, since I tend to ask permission before taking a shot, but they’re portraits of people I encountered on the street, so I’ll call them street portraits.  I try not to get too caught up with labels and genres.

To take people pictures that I’m happy with, I have to be in the right mood.  I try to establish some kind of connection with a person when I’m taking their picture, even if it’s just through nodding and smiling.  Sometimes, everything clicks, and I can’t wait to get home and look at the pictures on the laptop.  Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen, and I feel like throwing away my camera.  I generally find that the pictures I most enjoy taking are the ones that turn out the best.

These portraits were all taken in Saigon over the last couple of months.

This tailor was hard at work outside, near the bus station in Cholon.

This man runs a shoe shop in Cholon. I showed him his picture and he smiled a little sadly and said, “I’m very thin.” I couldn’t really argue with him.

With her broad smile and pleasant demeanour, she’s not a typical taxi driver.

These two lovebirds are music students, practising in the park after class.

Second Impressions of Saigon

I’ve been in Saigon for two months now, and it feels like time to take stock.  I was going to write about the differences between Saigon (as Ho Chi Minh City is still commonly called) and Hanoi, but it feels too early to do that just yet.  I need to feel more settled here before I can make a proper comparison.

I lived in Hanoi for two and a half years and felt very comfortable there, but I always thought that I took my best pictures when I left the city.  My favourite shots from that time were taken in Sapa, Bac Ha, Hoi An, Cambodia, even the outskirts of Hanoi, rather than the centre.  Perhaps there’s something about familiarity with a place which makes it harder for me to take good pictures there.

These pictures of Saigon were all taken in the last couple of months.  I can’t really call them first impressions, as I spent a fair amount of time here before coming here to live.  So these are second impressions – some of the scenes, people and details that have caught my eye.  How will my pictures of Saigon change as I become more familiar with the city?  Time will tell.

Round and round (POTW #8)

 

Does it count as a portrait if you can’t see her face?  I don’t know, and I don’t suppose it really matters.   I don’t normally like to loom over people when I take their picture, but I liked the pattern created by the hat and the tray, and the shapes made by her hand sweeping through the rice.

This was taken this weekend in Cholon, which is fast becoming my favourite area of the city to take pictures in.  The area is known as Saigon’s Chinatown and has markets, pagodas and streetlife aplenty.

 

Saigon alleyway (POTW #7)

This narrow alleyway in central Saigon is flanked on both sides by tall apartment buildings, creating a kind of urban canyon.  I took a few shots from crazy angles, with the walls slicing diagonally through the frame, but in the end I prefer this much more straightforward shot.

Four friends (POTW #6)

I spent much of last Sunday wandering the backstreets of District 1, between Tran Hung Dao and the river.  The backpacker area around Pham Ngu Lao was only a couple of blocks away, but could have been in a different city altogether.  The tall, clumsy Westerner with the camera got surprisingly little attention.

These two ladies were sitting together outside a kindergarten, checking each other’s hair for lice, a common sight in Vietnam, where people live much of their lives out of doors.  Everyday intimacies like this are a feature of life on the streets here.