The Beach

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/500, ISO 456, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.8 50mm LTM)

A Walk Around Hue

I planned a walk around Hue to take some photos for a while but didn't get round to until today.

I took my Ricoh GXR with A12 M Mount module and the Voigtlander Heliar 15mm f4.0 lens with me.

It's been quite a while since the last time I went for a walk to take photos here in Vietnam so it was a nice change.

Street photography is not as easy in Vietnam, given most people are on their bikes and few walk but if you go to markets you'll find plenty of opportunities for street photography.

Another reason for not waking around much is the heat and it's been pretty hot but still fun to go for a walk and I need to start doing it more often.

Fireworks over the Harbour

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

Fire and Smoke

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

Motorbike Tour

I spent the day taking photos and driving around Da Nang and all the way to Lang Co to check some routes for my upcoming motorbike tours.

I started off with a drive to Son Tra and around Monkey Mountain in the morning.

Monkey Mountain is great, it has some great roads, it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere at times and there are many different sights scattered around the mountain. You can spend the whole day (and more) exploring all the different roads and paths here.

After a lunch break, I continued to the Hai Van Pass. The Hai Van pass is the must-do for every visitor to Vietnam and especially for everyone renting or buying a motorbike here.

It's a great road (despite he fuel and pig trucks you'll encounter) with even better views, no matter if you get here on a sunny day, a rainy day, a cloudy or foggy day or even at night.

You'll also find some roads to explore here if you don't stick to the main road to go up and down the mountain only.

There are plenty of photo opportunities and it's worth taking your time and not rush too much.

Lang Co again provides great views over the sea, the lagoon and also over the local life if you explore a little bit.

While I usually take my Honda Wave around everywhere I go, I had a Honda PCX for the day to try it out. It's a bit more photogenic and it's good to have a different bike in my photos so they don't all feel the same.

My tours will start soon and there will be plenty of different routes to take and explore with some fully individual tours coming up, too.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2016

Drumming, traffic jams and teenagers driving on fully loaded trucks around. This can mean only one thing. It's mid-autumn festival time again.

Hue more so than other cities I've seen celebrates the mid-autumn festival a lot more with more drumming, more lion dances and more traffic jams.

It is fun and exciting, the kids certainly love it and even adults like to stop and see the different lion dance performances.

There are quite a lot of different performance groups with various size, skill and entertainment factor. No matter which groups you end up seeing, it's always worth it and very entertaining.

All photos (except the last one) have been taken with the GXR A12 mount and GR lens, the last one is a Moto X Play photo.

Orange Light

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/30, ISO 3064, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm LTM)

Under the Bridge

GXR A12-M, f6.3, 1/320, ISO 250, RAW, 21mm (Heliar f4.5 15mm LTM)

Boats

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/250, ISO 617, RAW, 21mm (Heliar f4.5 15mm LTM)

Evening Street Food

GXR A12-M, f2.0, 1/200, ISO 3200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

More Street Food

GXR A12-M, f2.0, 1/125, ISO 2283, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Hangout Coffee - Pre-opening Night

When I decided to leave London and my job there to move to Vietnam without having a job or anything lined up, people thought I was crazy. Their opinion didn't improve when my only plan was to see how tings go and maybe open a coffee shop and teach some English.

Now just over 4 months later, I'm teaching English full time and this is the night before my coffee shop is officially opening.

Sometimes it's good to just go for something and do it even if people don't agree with your idea. It might turn out to be a bad idea or it might work out but you never know without trying.

There have been problems along the way and the small coffee shop idea has become a big 3 floor coffee shop, bar and live music venue. The result of all this is Hangout Coffee in Hue, Vietnam.

Now the question is how good or bad will it be once it's open but if you never go into anything with the intention of getting rich but of enjoying the experience and learn something in the process it will be difficult to be disappointed.

Construction Machine

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/3500, ISO 200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Father and Son

GXR A12-M, f2.0, 1/68, ISO 200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)

Rain by the Wheelbarrow

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/3200, ISO 3200, RAW, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm LTM)