Towards the City Lights

GR, f2.8, 1/125, ISO 25600, RAW

Two

X Play, f2.0, 1/476, ISO 50, JPG

Evening in Saigon (or the 2nd Worst City in Asia)

I’ve been to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City twice but never spent any real time here. While I really like Hanoi and spent a lot of time there, Saigon never really clicked with me.

Since I had a few days off and it was Get holiday in Vietnam, I figured another visit to Saigon could be fun and I can see more of the city.

Well, my first impressions were even worse than what I remembered, people who try to cheat and overcharge you, a backpackers area that looks like the worst areas in Bangkok, people trying to stele things and nothing to see of the Vietnam I love and that made me move here.

Maybe it’s just the first impression if you stay around the backpackers area but Bui Vien seems to be the worst street in Vietnam and so far Saigon is just above Manila for being the worst city in all of Asia.

Hopefully my impression will change during the day tomorrow. So far I can’t wait to leave the city again and never come back.

Ga Hue

GR, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 18000, RAW

Blue Lights

GRD IV, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 3200, RAW

Coffee & Subs

GR, f2.8, 1/125, ISO 4000, RAW

After spending the evening in Greenwich and becoming slightly annoyed by the drive to monetize everything since it became a Royal Borough, I had to change trains at Lewisham which seemed to undergo some changes itself with new apartment buildings popping up.

Evening Street Photography Walk

During the week it’s sometimes difficult to not only find the time to take photos but also keep yourself motivated. This is always worst in the winter months when the weather is grey and it gets dark early.

So when Kesh asked me if I wanted to go for a photo walk after work with the Simple Street Photography group in London it sounded like a great idea to go out and shoot withy likeminded people.

It was indeed a very fun evening out despite the freezing temperatures and we all managed to stay together while photographing, which meant we didn’t really walk very far in the end.

We took a walk along Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street and Soho and it was fun to see everyone using different cameras and having a different approach to street photography. I was not the only person with a Ricoh GR camera though and most people were quite impressed by the little GR and how well it coped with the low light shooting.

Overall it was a fun, cold and late evening but a nice change from the usual daily routine or just meeting someone at the pub for beers. It’s always great to meet other photographers and just go out to take photos.

Penguins

Took this photo while out for a walk in the evening with the Panasonic GF1 and the Canon FD 50mm lens. It’s funny how using these old cameras again feels so different now, still it’s nice taking them out every now and then and see if it’s still worth keeping them around.

Day 171 – Lights of Hoi An

It’s been a great day with sunshine and blue skies so it made sense to get up early and go for a relaxed ride over the Hai Van pass through Danang to Hoi An.

I took my time and enjoyed the ride and great weather, especially once I was in Lang Co and having a coffee and breakfast by the lake.

After a nice ride over the Hai Van pass and a quick stop in Danang, I took the road along the coast to Hoi An and even made a detour to Cua Dai.

Another coffee and a hotel search later it was almost sunset but this is where it got interesting. People come to Hoi An for the old town and the lanterns. For m it was the first time I saw Hoi An without it being flooded or after  typhoon blew through.

The lanterns were always nice but now without any damage to the town and in preparation for the Chinese New Year, the lanterns were very impressive. The downside of this was that the town was heaving with tourists so it was quite packed.

Hoi Am is a very nice place for a visit despite it being a bit touristy and everything costing more than in other places in Vietnam. You should definitely visit it but don’t buy anything here as the prices are always at least double, especially if they quote them in US$.

I enjoyed taking photos of the lanterns and people around but quickly got a bit frustrated with the poor Auto ISO of the NEX as I don’t want to have to change the ISO manually anymore, or most parameters other than Aperture and EV compensation really.
The slow kit lens was also a concern but thanks to the IS and pretty good high ISO of the NEX it was not a huge problem, I still wished for my Nokton lens though ;). I did also miss the better Multi-pattern WB from Ricoh but the Sony handled it pretty well so it was not as bad as on the Panasonic GF1 before. The AF in low light struggled quite a bit and was not overly fast most of the time so I kind of wished for a better MF implementation or maybe a Snap AF mode.
Overall, I kind of wished I had a GXR A12 Mount with the Sony NEX-3N sensor inside and my Nokton lens attached to it.

Day 157 – Rainy Evening in the Citadel

It’s been another grey and mostly rainy day so I was not hugely inspired for photography but strange enough in the evening when it was raining I felt inspired to go and take some photos in the Citadel.

The local kids were undeterred by the rain and were out having fun biking and rollerblading on the square. They did not mind getting a bit wet or even falling down on their attempts to learn rollerblading.

It was nice to see all the kids having fun and some even came over to practice their English or just say hello.

It is something you don’t get very often in the Western countries where kids don’t usually just play and have fun together and you don’t get such a relaxed atmosphere. This is one of the things I like most about Asia and think its a bit sad that the Western countries seem to have lost the social aspect.