A glimpse into street photography
We like to travel. If we could spend all our time getting to know new cultures, places, people, we couldn’t be happier. We also love to take landscape photos, but during our Asia trips we felt that we are also attracted by people, expressions and capturing ephemeral moments. The culture in that part of the world is so different, so exciting, so full of life, we felt we missed the opportunity to capture it photographically in our previous trips.
Until now we had photography trips planned along the year. Most of them were landscape focused, but we always reserved one trip to get to know a new and different culture.
This year our plan was different, we decided that we would make a step forward, towards street photography, and see how our creativity is put into play by capturing people in their habitat.
So our plan was simple. Go to a place in Asia where we’ve been before (so we are not tempted to sightseeing), a place with street photography potential, that we would enjoy exploring.
We choose Vietnam because of its interesting past, promising future, happy people, not developed enough to loose its traditions.
We left home without big expectations, but with an urge to photograph every emotion that captures our eye, all that is authentic and real, and tells a story about that place and the people.
Before emerging into our new adventure we had to make a few decisions about how we would approach our challenge:
- We will not carry a lot of equipment with us. Instead, we will choose 2 prime lenses and stick with that – I had the 35 & 55 mm lenses, Ionut had the 40 & 85 mm lenses.
- Switch from our backpacks to smaller, shoulder bags, that will make our lives much easier at 40+ degrees Celsius.
- Be patient, stop where our eyes get attracted and work the scene.
- Stay longer in one place, get to know the streets, the people, take advantage of the opportunities we find in each place we explore.
Vietnam is such a colorful country, its markets are full of life and its streets so cheerful all day long that we found photographic opportunities every step of the way.
The nice thing about staying more than a day in a location was that you could return to the places that you found interesting. The vendors in the market had the same stalls every day so you could easily come back when light was better or when the market was not so crowded.
If you could deal with the heat, the streets were active all day long. People taking a nap or a rest in the shadows, street vendors walking with their rickshaw to try and make a living.
And then there were these holly places, where you could just sit, watch people pray and enjoy the silence.
There is a beauty in everything we saw in the 2 weeks we’ve been in Vietnam and a lot of inspiration in the people, streets, temples. A country so poor, but so full of life, history and openness that is indulging you to enjoy each moment you spend there.
Our trip was not only a great photographic experience, but a personal one. Vietnam is and will remain in our hearts forever.
