Blue

TG-4, f3.2, 1/250, ISO 500, RAW

In the Treetop

X Play, f2.0, 1/302, ISO 50, JPG

Lightning Storm

X Play, f2.0, 1/15, ISO 1600, JPG

The saying goes the best camera is the one you have with you but sometimes it's great to have a backup camera with you just in case.

There was a lightning storm over Hue tonight, not wanting to miss out on some good photo opportunities I took my Ricoh GR with me to the Huong river to take some long exposure photos.

Not being a fan of carrying much gear or big cameras the Ricoh GR is the ideal camera to take along for any kind of photography. It is versatile thanks to the 28mm f2.8 lens, has great image quality and fits in a jeans pocket.

Not having a tripod with me means I always need to find a ledge or something stable to place the camera on. Lucky for me there was a place to sit down and place the camera on with a good view over the river and the bridge.

I set the GR up in full manual mode for long exposures and used the timer to avoid any camera shake, I experimented with different exposure times but found that 8 seconds yielded the best results.

Lightning might never strike twice in the same place but tonight, it did strike 4-5 times in exactly the same place and my GR was recording this as it happened.

This might have been the best photo of my outing tonight but just as the GR was busy recording this long exposure shot of the lightning strikes, I looked behind me and saw a guy sitting on his cyclo watching the lightning storm.

I liked the light and the way he was sitting and wanted to take a photo. My GR still busy with my long exposure shot meant that I had to resort to using my Motorola X Play phone to take the photo.

Sure, the quality of the phone camera is not very good, especially in low light but I figured it will be better than no photo. Sometimes getting a photo is more important that the technical quality.

Just as I was about to take the photo of the guy, a very close lightning strike just behind him illuminated the sky purple and provided a great backdrop. This made the phone photo my favorite photo of the evening and it shows that it's good to always be prepared and have a backup camera around.

Speaking of lightning or more accurately 'Light', I recently came across the Light camera and think it looks very promising and has some interesting ideas behind it. It's good to see something fresh in photography. It could prove to be an excellent backup camera to have on me and since it is weatherproof, it should survive a lightning storm and some rain without any problems.

Hopefully I will get to try the camera out and get a better idea of what it can do and how it works.

GR, f8.0, 8 sec., ISO 100, RAW

Shadows

X Play, f2.0, 1/568, ISO 50, JPG

Boy with a Coconut

X Play, f2.0, 1/120, ISO 80, JPG

Before the Rain

X Play, f2.0, 1/17, ISO 1250, JPG

Riding into the Sunset

TG-4, f4.9, 1/100, ISO 1600, RAW

Rainy Day & Floods

Some clouds moved in in the early afternoon and some thunder was heard before it started pouring down.

I do like heavy rain and stormy weather as it's more exciting than the usual light rain and I like the sounds of the pouring rain on the roof.

Well, I figured I go out to look at the rain and maybe take some photos of people wearing raincoats on motorbikes.

Imagine my surprise when I saw waterfalls running down the staircase of my coffee shop and the road in front of it flooded.

In a way it reminded me of the very first time in Hue in 2011. It wasn't as bad this time round though but still a lot of rain and flooded streets.

After managing to stop the water and clean up the coffee shop the rain also stopped and the water started to retreat.

What impressed me the first time about Hue and people in Vietnam and still holds true is how quickly everything goes back to normal. What would be a big deal in Europe, is here literally just brushed off (or 'broomed' off? ;) ) and people go about their usual business as if nothing happened.

A completely flooded street (or streets) causes no big problem here and things keep on moving but a little bit of rain (or sun, or snow, or wind, or some leaves, or smoke, or ...) manage to bring the whole rail network in London to a halt.

The positive aspect of the flooding is that now most of the dust has been taken care of.

Taking a Break

X Play, f2.0, 1/15, ISO 800, JPG

Walking Past

X Play, f2.0, ISO 50, JPG

Clowns

TG-4, f4.9, 1/100, ISO 2000, RAW

Construction

X Play, f2.0, 1/15, ISO 1600, JPG

Gold

X Play, f2.0, 1/238, ISO 50, JPG

To Da Nang Again

It might not be the most exciting thing to do anymore but a trip from Hue to Da Nang on the motorbike is still very nice no matter how often I've done it before.

The weather was very good for a road trip since it was a bit cloudy and not too hot, this also made the views nicer.

Every time I take a ride on my motorbike somewhere I feel like I should just keep on going and explore more even if there's not much time for that. It's great to have the freedom a bike provides here.

Cloudy Day

X Play, f2.0, 1/2273, ISO 50, JPG

Huong River Boats

GR, f5.6, 2 sec., ISO 400, RAW

Dance for HCM

GR, f2.8, 1/125, ISO 400, JPG

Moon Over Hue

X Play, f2.0, 1/30, ISO 320, JPG

Horses

X Play, f2.0, 1/30, ISO 160, JPG

Over the Dam

X Play, f2.0, 1/877, ISO 50, JPG