Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year everyone!

Have a great year!

Fireworks over the Harbour

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1 sec., ISO 200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Fire in the Rain

GR, f5.6, 1/20, ISO 1600, RAW

Fire and Smoke

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 2 sec., ISO 200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Da Nang Fireworks

GR, f5.0, 1/13, ISO 3200, RAW

Green and Purple

GR, f2.8, 1/125, ISO 1600, RAW

Chuc mung nam moi! Happy New Year!

Happy new year of the monkey to everyone!

This is the view of the fireworks in Hue from Hangout Coffee & Bar.
Two years ago I've watched the fireworks by the river but this time having my own coffee shop and bar was more special although the view wasn't quite as nice.

Vietnam Independence Day - 70 Years

After lots of preparations in the past days and a practice parade on the 29th, Independence Day came along and the parade started early in the morning.

While I didn't plan on staying in Hanoi that long, it didn't make sense to leave without staying for the parade and the fireworks in the evening.

Not being organised enough meant I arrived a bit too late and since it was packed I didn't get the best views. Still, I did manage to get some photos of the parade and the people around.

The parade was pretty cool and something different although I had hoped to see some tanks and other military vehicles included, too.

The fireworks in the evening were packed and it took ages and climbing over lots of motorbikes to get to a place with a decent view.

As soon as I made it to the square and had the view it started really pouring down so the fireworks were not as spectacular as they could have been if it would have been dry.

Still, it was cool to see the celebrations and be around Hanoi for the day.

Day 372 - A Sunny Day in Edinburgh

It was a great start to my stay in Edinburgh, it was sunny and warm so very pleasant to walk around and be outside.

Day 177 - 'Chúc mưng năm mới' or a Hue Happy New Year!

The last day of the old year according to the Chinese calendar and after having quite a long and wet pre-party yesterday, I took it easy during the day and chilled a bit.

It was pretty quiet around Hue for most of the day anyway but once the sun set, people came out and enjoyed some of the entertainment or some last minute sales shopping.

This was also the last chance to pick something up at the flower market and thanks to discounted prices, quite a few people took home some more flowers.

The traffic was pretty much chaos despite the attempts of police to control it but as usual it kind of works and is a controlled chaos. The traffic in Hue is also much easier to manage then in Hanoi and there are also less people on the roads.

To see the fireworks at midnight I chose a place on the other side of the river as so many other people, too. It is the best spot but I did not think to arrange a chair or table to use as a makeshift tripod for my camera.

The fireworks were quite nice and the spot I picked is certainly one of the best places to see them from but you would need a tripod for your camera to take better photos.

The Sony NEX-3N handled it pretty well and the image stabilizer helped but having no way to et the focus to infinity was frustrating and I had to resort to the poor manual focus without distance markings and which focuses past infinity, it was fiddly and not very nice to say the least.

The fireworks tonight also signaled that the end of my Vietnam stay draws near and it will be time to move on soon on the open road and on to new adventures.

Paradise Gardens Festival 2012

Spent the day wandering around and taking pictures of the Paradise Gardens Festival, this is near the Millennium Mills and London City Airport. It was fun and people were enjoying themselves, there were different music stages and fireworks in the evening.

I took the GXR with the Heliar 15mm and GR 28mm lenses, both are small and lightweight and complement each other well.

Royal Greenwich

The snow came overnight and after all the fuss at airports and the weather warnings around the country it was disappointing to see only 2-3 cm of snow which had mostly melted away by the afternoon. The British always like to make a big fuss about any weather changes and Heathrow showed again why it rightly is the world's worst airport and run by incompetent fools. Good thing I did not need to travel in this 'severe' weather ;).

Despite the snow, Greenwich held it's celebrations for becoming a Royal borough. I had hoped for more things and events but there was only a parade, some music and fireworks. It was ok but not too spectacular.

I went out and took my GXR A12-M and the Voigtlander Nokton f1.2 35mm lens with me to capture some scenes. I initially planned to have only pictures in square format but some did not work well in square so it ended up being a mix.