portrait | Without an H

Posts tagged ‘portrait’

Mekong Delta portraits

A week in the Mekong Delta in the build-up to the Tet holiday. A week of friendly people, fresh seafood, very few cars, floating markets and flower-lined streets. A week that wasn’t long enough.

Floating in the Mekong Delta (potw #14)

I’ve just come back from a two week Mekong trip – one week in the Mekong Delta in the south of Vietnam, and one in eastern Cambodia. I have many pictures and memories to sort through, which I can’t quite begin to do yet, as I’m back in Saigon and my brain hurts. So here’s just one to be going on with.

This picture was taken in the floating market in Phong Dien, near Can Tho, the main city of the Mekong Delta.

Parklife (POTW #13)

Exercising in the early morning sun.

This is one of a number of shots from a few recent early morning park visits. I’ll be posting a longer series of shots soon.

In the meantime, I’m away for a couple of weeks over the Tet holiday, traveling through the Mekong Delta and into Cambodia. I’m currently in Vinh Long. I have my camera with me, of course, but not my laptop, so no more pictures of the week until I get back, when I hope I’ll have plenty of Mekong shots to share.

Chuc mung nam moi!

Dumb redheads (POTW #12)

I could post a whole series of shots of shop window dummies from Vietnam. They’re always willing subjects for a portrait, though it’s hard to get a smile out of them. Perhaps my Vietnamese isn’t good enough. These two redheads were just standing around doing nothing outside their friend’s clothes shop in District 3 last weekend.

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.

Saigon street pyjamas (POTW #10)

This lady runs a street-side noodle stall near the river in District 1 of Saigon. One of the things I love about Vietnam is that it’s prefectly acceptable to wear your pyjamas to work.

Iconical hat (POTW #9)

Here’s a more traditional take on the iconic conical (iconical?) hat shot. Next week, I’ll try to make it ironic and comical as well.

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.

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.