Wednesday 30 September 2015

Brickworks


This is just a bit of advertising next to some photography to show the nice bokeh of the Jupiter-8 lens.
Just showing some progress on my soon to pen coffee shop in Hue. So if you're in Hue come and visit from mid. November and check out the Facebook page for more updates here.

Tuesday 29 September 2015

Monday 28 September 2015

A Drive Around Hue


I finally had one day off and time to go for a drive around Hue on my motorbike, I really missed that after being busy or it's been raining in the past weeks here.



I did take my Epson R-D1 along to get a change in cameras although the GR is easier to use when driving.




It's been a great drive on some small dirt roads in the middle of nowhere before heading to a park overlooking the river to get some photos of the sunset.




I will have to take more drives like this in the next weeks and take more photos around Hue.


Saturday 26 September 2015

Mid-Autumn Lion Dance


When you hear drumming and see traffic jams everywhere in Hue, it's not the daily rush hour as you would think coming from London but the Mid-Autumn Festival.


The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival gets celebrated in quite a few countries in Asia but in Vietnam it mostly means Lion Dances everywhere. There is also Moon cake of course but mostly it's about Lion Dances.


People drive around in small lorries with all their gear ready to hop off and perform their dance routine in front of shops and restaurants.


This means that as soon as they start dancing it will cause a traffic jam and even the police trying to regulate this is not very successful.


It's pretty cool to see overall and good fun. It's funny how many different Lion Dance groups there are and you see sometimes 3 or 4 different teams all around the same area.


Thursday 24 September 2015

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Lovers at the Gate

R-D1, f2.8, 1/8, ISO 1600, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm LTM)
This is a situation where the Epson R-D1 is not really very usable in, the limited high ISO abilities coupled with almost no way to make sure you nailed the focus make these photos almost impossible. Still, with some pushing of the RAW files it did give me a usable photo and I actually like the colours.

Sunday 20 September 2015

Handover

OPO, f2.0, 1/756, ISO 100, JPG
Back on my way to Hanoi for a few days. It will be nice to get a break and it's always great to be travelling.
Taking the train is one of the best ways to travel around here, by motorbike is best but also takes a bit longer.

Thursday 17 September 2015

Viet Nam Rail

GR, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 400, RAW
In a few days I'll be on this train on my way to Hanoi for a short trip.

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Monday 14 September 2015

Sunday 6 September 2015

400km to Hue


After getting up early and enjoying a local breakfast and coffee it was time to hit the road for the 400km to Hue.




I usually try to limit the daily drive in Vietnam to 100km to have time to do it comfortably and taking the scenic road. Doing 400km in one day sounded like a lot but I knew it wasn't too difficult to do with an earlier start and shorter breaks in between.




Despite having a long distance to go, I chose to go via the best route and take the Ho Chi Minh Road south. It's really the best way to travel in Vietnam.




While I didn't want to miss out on taking photos but didn't want to stop for this, I just took photos while driving.




The journey is great and very scenic but you need to watch your petrol since you can easily run very low and not have any town or petrol station around.


After a long drive, I made it back to Hue a bit earlier than even expected and without being too tired but in need of a cold beer.