Vietnamese wedding photographers hit by recession

From the Look At Vietnam blog, we can see that Vietnamese wedding photographers are suffering in a similar way to Australian photographers, and in much the same way as rock photographers worldwide.
Wedding recession | Look At Vietnam

“Nuptial photographers complain amateurs have flooded the market and couples hit by the global cash crunch can’t afford expensive wedding photos.”

“Today, anyone can be a photographer, but a camera isn’t enough,” he said “A real professional photographer does not let the lab produce the whole picture. A beautiful photograph is not only about Photoshop, its about aesthetics.”

Tokyo by night

OK – what day is it? What city am I in? What haven’t I told you about yet?  Hmmm – I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I’m going to tell you a little about one of the best places to be at night – Tokyo. You saw Bladerunner, right?  Me too. And Tokyo really isn’t like that. But it is full of bright lights and amazing signage that just draws the eye in.  It’s full of people all night long.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

It’s full of homeless as well. But the homeless in Tokyo still show pride in themselves. They are organised and clean, keeping their belongings well maintained and compact within their chosen transportation cart.  They sleep on the streets under umbrellas, but they seem to be left alone and they seem to leave others alone. It’s a bit sad, but nowhere near as sad as how the poor and homeless live in every other country I’ve been to, including my own.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

I was always looking for rock venues.  I rarely found them, but when I did I stayed all night.  Shibuya is home to the coolest, all-English rock karaoke venue. Great stage, awesome sound, a lot of fun.  But it always closed early, so I would head into Roppongi to find the only real rock venues around.  A tiny little bar (might have been called Ruby Red?) run by an Australian or an American – can’t remember which – holds open mic nights each week. That got me closer to the real Japanese musician, barfly or someone else less easy to label.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

Once that placed shut (still before 1am) I headed back to Shinjuku for an all-night dose of “dial your own” metal.  In a bar that was two levels below the street, held about 7 people, and was almost completely black, you would use a pen torch to pick out artists you wanted to hear,

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

be given CDs to choose from, then ask the barmaid to play the tracks of your choice.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

You would then sit on your stool drinking your choice of Japanese beer, loving your musical choice being played at a clean and punchy 2000 decibels whilst trying to communicate with Japanese metalheads. So much fun, and just what I’d love to do more of at home. Any local metalheads want to come over on a regular basis and do just that?

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

The metal bar is open 24/7 but you have to get sleep eventually, so off I trudge back through the early dawn, hoping I can find my way back to the hotel. Along the way I see that McDonalds has become more than just a fast-food outlet, doubling as accommodation for weary travelers.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

Oh Tokyo – I’d love you more if I knew I’d get more sleep whilst within your grasp…

Photo Challenge 3 – Blue

Our previous challenge was potentially a little difficult for a bunch of busy bees (although everyone rose to the occasion), so this time it was back to basics – “blue”.

Steve’s submission:

My thoughts: Personally I found it very hard to decide which way to go. I’m a fan of the Carlton Football Club, AKA The Blues, so the obvious way to go was with them. Then I had an idea to create an abstract shot of a blue sequined glam top I have, using a technique called light painting. I keep telling people I am not really creative, and my dismal failure with this idea proved it at least to myself.  Perhaps it was too late at night and I was using the wrong torch, but either way I hated the results.  So in the end I have gone with an image of a little girl at a market stall in Sa Pa, Vietnam.  She was sitting there for a long time, looking just miserable. Granted she may have been asleep as Vietnamese girls do work very hard from a very young age. What I saw surrounding her were plenty of signs of a daily battle to simply keep starvation at bay, so I read her body language as being a combination of both weariness and misery – she’s blue on life.

Shot on a Panasonic FZ18 at 1/320sec, F4, ISO 200

Mat’s submission:

My thoughts: I love this mirror, and I love the idea. I’d prefer for Mat to be more heavily exposed in the mirror, but I do get a rather ethereal feel from it, which by the sounds of it was Mat’s intention. I don’t see his blue expression, but I can imagine it from the body language. Without explanation I am more likely to think it is just someone walking through the frame. With a longer exposure or wider aperture I could see the expression more clearly.  I’d also like to see the walls whitened using curves and colour balance.

Mat says: For this shot I used the theme in three ways. The blue frame on the mirror, my blue shirt and the somewhat blue expression on my face. I shot this in low light with a 30 second exposure giving me enough
time to walk into the shot and pose for a few seconds before walking out of the shot again to give my reflection a faded ghostly appearance. It took a few attempts before I got one that looked ok.

Joepi’s submission:

My thoughts: I really like this shot a lot.  The blue dress sets off the little girl’s carefree smile just perfectly.  Joepi has captured her in a position that shows vibrant movement, and I can imagine her skipping. I’m not at all distracted by the background, which makes the blue dress really stand out.  If I was going to be picky at all, and this really applies less to travel photography as we’re often documenting fleeting moments the best we can, I’d like to see the rest of her front foot and her bag and right hand not hidden by her dress.  A bit sharper in the face would be ideal too.  But at f1.8 from a moving tuk tuk she’s taken a great shot.

Joepi says: I was being carried around the city on a little bike tuktuk when I had a chance to take this shot. I like how her blue uniform just stood out amidst the gray city background, not to mention her smile as she realized my camera was pointing at her. It was quite a challenge to have a moving subject and me moving at the same time. After several clicks I was happy to have gotten a few good shots of this pretty little Vietnamese girl heading to school with a ruler in her pocket and her lunch in hand.

Next challenge:

Asia Part II – Ginza in Tokyo

Time to post a few more thoughts about my recent travels.  For this second trip through Vietnam and Japan I packed both my Panasonic FZ18 and my Canon EOS 350D with the 50mm F1.8 lens.  This was so that I still had the overall flexibility of the Panasonic whilst adding the ability to shoot at night and in low light without flash. I am so glad I did, as shooting at night with much less camera noise was a joy.

From Asia II – Tokyo, Ginza

I’ve already posted the shots from southern Vietnam, so now it’s time to catch up with Tokyo.  Today we have Ginza. This is shopper’s paradise – assuming you’re from a rich country and have a very large credit card limit.  Whilst I didn’t go overboard on shopping I was entranced by the brands, colours, lights, people, and general intoxicating aroma of credit card plastic.  The watch zone consisted of six conicular elevators full of watches, that took you to their specific brand store.  I got into the Swatch lift, as it was too colourful to resist.

From Asia II – Tokyo, Ginza

I happened to be doing my Ginza thing on a national holiday, which coincided with the opening of a new fashion/department store named H&M.  I’ve never heard of it, and I couldn’t understand why there was a queue circling the very large city block to get in.  Police were managing entry into the store, and only allowing two people every two minutes to enter. This was clearly going to be a long day for the waiting Japanese, but it didn’t seem to bother any of them.

From Asia II – Tokyo, Ginza

To make the day into even more of an event, the streets were closed to cars, and outdoor settings were placed along the roads so people could sit and pamper their pooches under cover.  Taking small annoying dogs for “walks” (meaning carrying them in designer pooch pouches) seems to be the done thing on a Ginza sunday.  I spied this cute dad and daughter ensemble playing with Lego in the middle of the street as if this was a normal day for them.

From Asia II – Tokyo, Ginza

Heading towards the sunset to see what garish neon signs I could find I looked back to see a sight that only need Paul, John, George & Ringo in frame to complete it. Happily, this thoughtful businessman stepped into the breach.

From Asia II – Tokyo, Ginza

Next time we travel to the Tsujiki Fish Market – the largest fish and seafood market in the world.

The World is Just Awesome

During a time in Asia that I was hotel-bound, and possibly feeling a little home-sick with Discovery Channel my only constant friend, this new ad campaign appeared on screen.  A smile slowly came across my face, and after 30 seconds I understood exactly how I was feeling about my travels.  The times when I wasn’t happy were mostly due to the intimidation of being in a foreign country on my own and out of my comfort zone.  However, the more I think about it and with this TV spot foremost in my mind, I now understand that my intimidation was actually an expression of realisation of how awesome everything in the world is.

Now, everytime I see the ad or hear the song I feel a little nostalgic for that moment back in my hotel room (I’m guessing it was in the Philippines), and begin to daydream about the very many amazing experiences I went through over my 70 odd days on the road.  I am sure there are others all over the world feeling exactly the same way when they watch this.

All my Asian holiday photos will be posted at Picasa

I can’t believe how hard it is to get the rest of my holiday documented here. But what I have been doing is throwing up the unedited photos into Picasa so at least you can see them without the accompanying story if you want to.

So, instead of waiting forever for me to update this blog, check out my Picasa site for galleries of where I’ve been. I’ll be updating Picasa every day or two, so keep checking back.

Back home – Daily travel updates will still be posted below…

Well, I’m finally back home and the last few weeks absolutely flew by.  I’m very glad to be home but I will really miss many aspects of my trip.  Japan was by far my favourite country and I would really love to go back to Tokyo again – this time for much longer.  Maybe I can find a job that involves travel there…?

As I predicted, I simply didn’t have any time left at the end of each long day to update this blog.  SO.  I will be updating each day’s observations and photos after the fact, however I will be dating the posts according to the actual days I took the photos.  Therefore you will need to check below this post for new posts.  Expect no more than one post per day from Sabah (Kota Kinabalu) up until Japan (including a few hours in Cairns), with all Asian holiday posts ending on August 8.

I’ll try to kick things off tomorrow…

Quick Update

Sorry for the delay in updates, and there will be even longer to wait.  I’ve been crook with a gastro thingy since I left Sabah, but am still active enough to get all the things done I want to do.  However, whenever I am not diving or travelling I am sleeping – literally.

Right now I am waiting for a ride to see some of Cebu before I take a plane back to Manila.  Tonight I’ll be taking a private car to Anilao for my final dives of the Philippines. So far I’ve dived Boracay and Cebu.  My camera setup has proved to not be suitable for dive photography, although it is great for snorkelling.  If I do this again I’ll be buying a hard case and another camera body.

I still have to blog my entire week in Sabah, and I suspect I’ll be in Japan by the time I next get online.  That means Philippines, Vietnam and Hong Kong will all go by in a hurry.

Well, got to go.  Look out for my photography updates once I feel better and get time to edit photos and write guff to go with them.

Stoned in KK

No, it’s not what you think it is. The death penalty stands in Malaysia for such things.

I’ve been taken out to a hardcore seafood restaurant. One in which there is no menu. It’s much the same as the one in Penang, except this time we have a very large range of high quality and unusual sea creatures to choose from. With a lot of help from the main man, we chose a very large King Lobster, two very large Tiger Prawns (each about the size of a Coles lobster at home) and some “vegetable” which is actually some crunchy green thing that looks like a cross between a string bean and spring onion.

But that wasn’t all. We were walking around the tanks looking at what else was available, taking good care not to push any of the unsuspecting tourists – oops – diners, standing around photographing their dinner, into the drink. We were looking for oysters, and we found them, but not before stopping at a tank full of rocks. I was about to ask how they best prepare rocks for consumption when one of them moved. It turns out they were stonefish! I asked him why they were there, and he said they make great eating – if prepared correctly. He never did say whether the resident chef knew how to prepare them correctly. Regardless, I just had to try it.

Conclusion – a very tasty fish with a consistency not unlike scallops or crab meat. BUT, the entire skeleton is green! You have to see it to believe it, and I hadn’t brought my camera. Not only that, but I swear that as I sat at my table reflecting on my meal, my tongue and lips were tingling, my brain was a little fuzzy, and my body was very heavy. Could it have been the stonefish, or was it a combination of 660ml of guzzled Tiger Beer, mild sunstroke, tired contact lenses and sore paddling muscles?

I say it’s the stonefish.

Can I get jail for consuming a fish of dependency in Malaysia?

Footnote: Warning, truth follows. Stonefish venom is contained only in the dorsal fins, and is destroyed by heat.

Now, onto Japan where I hope to try some Fugu…

Sabah – Über-tourists and White Water Rafting

My friend Veena booked me onto a white water rafting trip, sight unseen by me. Sounded like a good idea, so off I trotted to the van this morning at 8:15am.

The trip started in dubious fashion, but proved to be probably the most fun I’ve had since being away. White water rafting in Malaysia, on a hot day, in warm water, is absolutely fantastic!

On entering the van I proceeded to the back where the one remaining seat was. On my way I passed an Asian couple, the female telling me I can sit in the front. How nice of her to suggest that I sit in the child seat in between the driver and the guide, when there is a perfectly good seat available behind her. I muttered a polite “I’m right thanks”, and kept going. I don’t know whether she was looking after her Hong Kong mates (I found out later they were all from HK) or simply had a brain fade, but either way I was going to sit where I wanted to sit. The girl who’s belongings were taking up the last remaining available seat seemed terribly offended at having to move them, but my raised left eyebrow seemed to get the message through. Ultimately, I got the best seat in the house, with room to stretch my legs on what turned out to be a three hour ride. For the best part of these three hours, the Über-tourists (1 Portugese, 1 Macau, 2 very HK, 2 modern HK) alternated between Nintendo DS, iPod and sleep, behind either ridiculously Japanese super-sunglasses or those plastic sunvisors that pull down to create tinted welding masks, with towels placed over legs and any nearby windows (except mine – and they wouldn’t have wanted to try!).

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

Meanwhile an absolutely fascinating, thrilling and at times nerve-wracking ride through Malaysian villages over twisting, turning, rising, falling and bumpy roads ensued. It seemed that the driver was getting us in the mood for the rapids. The tourists missed the lot. I didn’t.

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

I tried to begin a conversation at a meal stop with the girls who were sitting next to me, and I initially thought they were just plain rude as they looked away then walked off. I discovered later that they simply didn’t understand English and didn’t know how to say so. Conversely, the girl who suggested I sit in the front turned out to be very nice, and we chatted about photography for a couple of hours on the trip home. Asians certainly aren’t anything like me, but so far they all seem pretty good once you get to know them. I am a little more nervous about Hong Kong though, now that I’ve met a couple of them. It could take a lot of work to make friends there.

Pedro and Donna turned out to be good company throughout the day. I approached Pedro as we waited at the train station for the final transfer to the rafting location. His accent led me to believe he may have been German, and he could speak good English, so I thought he would be worth getting to know. Turns out he is Portugese but with a German mum. His partner, Donna, was very quiet but sweet, and is based in Macau (effectively HK). I’m going to a nearby island tomorrow with them to do some snorkelling.

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

Pedro and I were the two front paddlers on our craft, led by Snoop Dogg. So named because that’s exactly who he looks like. It seems that tour group guides in both Thailand and Malaysia never have real names. They always go with something memorable.

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

The rapids themselves were rated 3-4. This made them moderate, and although I was apprehensive when first seeing them from the train, once I got into the water I felt totally at home. I think I’m a natural at this as I was able to easily ride the waves and used my paddle intuitively to keep balance. Three or four of the half dozen rafts capsized during the run, so I think we did well to remain in control for the entire 30-odd kilometres. I took four opportunities during the trip to leave the boat for a body-ride down some of the more gentle rapids, as the water was warm and my camera was in it’s waterproof case.

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

The second half of the day was spent in torrential rain, making it even more fun. The ride home was via large speedboat and the surrounding dense tropical mountains were very much Jurassic Park. All in all, it was an awesome day, and one that I could repeat daily if time and money allowed.

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

From Asia – Malaysia, Padas River rapids

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