vietnam | Without an H

Posts tagged ‘vietnam’

Dalat: town and country (potw #35)

I spent last week in and around Dalat, in the central highlands of Vietnam. It reminded me a little of Hanoi in the autumn – it was hot but not humid, and cool in the evenings – but Dalat doesn’t really resemble anywhere else I’ve been here. Dapper gentlemen wear fedoras or berets, while children wrap up warm in woolly hats or balaclavas. The smell of coffee is everywhere – open-front cafes line the streets, and coffee fields surround the town. Lanes and alleyways meander up and down the hillside before leading you somewhere you weren’t expecting or petering out altogether. Vietnamese tourists arrive by the busload from Saigon and elsewhere. The town centre lake and the surrounding mountains give the place an Alpine feel, as if a little bit of Austria had been transplanted to Vietnam a hundred years ago and left to fend for itself.

I decided to test myself a little on this trip by only shooting in black and white. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, but never really followed through until now. The change of scene seemed to call for a change of style – black and white landscapes instead of colour portraits. I’m sure I’ll go back to colour before too long, but I’m hoping that taking black and white pictures for a while will make me think about colour in a different way in future. I’ve not given up taking portraits – I’ll be posting many from this trip at a later date – but I wanted this first post from Dalat to feature a landscape and a street scene.

More pictures from this trip to follow soon.

A sunny interlude (potw #34)

It’s been a very wet week – even when it wasn’t raining, it felt like it was about to start – but I found a little time during a sunny interlude late on Tuesday afternoon to take a walk round the block and shoot a few pictures.

Later today I’m heading up to Dalat for a week of mountain air and cooler temperatures. I plan to spend the week walking, reading, napping and taking photographs, probably black and white photographs, as that’s what’s interesting me at the moment.

Up

I really must remember to look up more often.

Incense coils suspended from the ceiling of Thien Hau pagoda

Guitars for sale in District 3

Uncle Ho watches over the Post Office in central Saigon

(potw #33 and a third)

It’s raining at Wimbledon, so here’s a bonus picture of the week.

Three’s a crowd (potw #33)

Taken outside one of the many wedding dress shops on 3 Thang 2 street, District 10.

Orange

A few weeks ago I brought you Mr. Blue, and today I present Mr. Orange. I’m on the lookout for Messrs. White, Pink, Brown and Blonde.

Neighbourhood #3

This is the third and – for now at least – final part of my Neighbourhood series. Over the last couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time – though less than I would like – wandering the streets near where I live in Saigon, hoping to capture something of the character of the people and places I see every day.

Inside outside, again (potw #32)

I was very flattered earlier this week to have one of my pictures included in this post on street photography on the WordPress.com News blog. There are some great sites included in the post – I particularly like 365 from the archive and A walk with my camera, but they’re all well worth a look. It’s brought a lot of new followers to this site, so welcome everyone, and a big thnk you to the nice people at WordPress for featuring my picture.

All the pictures in the street photography post, including mine, are in black and white. I’ve been thinking recently about shooting more black and white pictures but, like a small child, I’m easily distracted by bright and shiny things and tend to default to colour pictures. Today’s picture is a case in point. I think it looks good in black and white – you’ll have to take my word for it – but I’ve opted to post the colour version, because the pink of her top and the green of the gates seem to complement each other. This was taken in Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown, in between rain showers this afternoon.

Brick is Red (potw #31)

Neighbourhood #2

More pictures from my neighbourhood, taken over the last couple of months. I’m really lucky that so much of Vietnamese life is lived out of doors, and that so many Vietnamese people are happy for an awkward, foolish-looking foreigner to take pictures of them.