Vietnam Photo Tour: The hard working people

One of the highlights of our photo tour to Vietnam was the photographing the people from this country. And let me tell you, these people work really hard!

After spending a couple of days on Ha Long Bay, we spent some time in the surrounding area. We came across these women working hard in their fields. You can see the green onions in the foreground and the banana trees in the background.

I was shooting with the Canon R6 with the Canon RF70-200mm lens set at ISO 160 (the cleanest ISO for these cameras) and at f/2.8 to create as much separation between my subject and the background. We watched these ladies watering this large field by hand, filling these water buckets at a nearby watering hole and then walking through the fields. They repeated this over and over. This would be strenuous for a younger person, and I was totally impressed by their strength. 

This woman was harvesting the green onions, one bunch at a time.

After harvesting the scallions, she brought them to her husband and another woman who cleaned them and got them ready for sale.

I encouraged everyone to get down low so we could see their faces. For this shot, I decided to focus on the scallions instead of the face. 

After photographing the people in the fields, we walked through one of the small towns. We came across this woman who was drying the rice in her courtyard. As I watched her tossing the rice in the air, I mentioned to the group that this would be a great time to slow the shutter of the camera to show the motion of the toss.

Speaking of hard working people, this is a photo I took of Nguyen (our awesome and hard working guide). I saw this curved stairway with the blue doors and thought it would make for a perfect background for portraits. I ended up taking portraits of all of our tour attendees here as well.

One of our guests, Bob P, even took a photo of me in this location.

It was fun to watch these men playing their game. 

The people of Vietnam were very friendly and welcoming. 

They had no problem with having their photos taken (unlike some other countries where it is discouraged).

This artisan was putting together what was to be an amazing ceramic wall mural. 

Being that the country has only been open to visitors for 25 years, we were really impressed by the friendly and welcoming people. A couple of people have asked me how we were received, as Americans in Vietnam. I can tell you that there was absolutely no negative interactions. As our guide told us, the people of Vietnam look forward, not backward. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the people of Vietnam. 

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