GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM

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DSCF4916FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/8, 1/30 sec, ISO320)

In the evening we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I knew what to expect and didn’t really know at the same time. I know that HCMC has 8 million citizens (almost as much as Austria) and that the city is also the famous for its 2 million motorcycles. But those are just figures. You need to experience it!

8 million people, 2 million motorcycles, no subway or effective train system. Not much of a public transport at all. Imagine Moscow without it’s subway system to get an idea.

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Before breakfast I went out of the hotel and start shooting the endless stream of people on motorbikes passing by. I always wanted to take these pictures. To give them a more dynamic look I decided to use a longer shutter speed of 1/60s (I changed to 1/125s later). To avoid AF I shot in M-Mode, chose a aperture of f8 and set focus manually.

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I like the results. OK. There could be better sharpness on the main subject but to pan a motorbike that is passing by extremely close it tricky. And they all ride at different speeds. It’s not easy to get a sharp shot but the good thing is that you can try again and again and again. I think I stood there for about half an hour taking hundreds of shots. When I left I had to cough. There is a reason why most of the people wear masks.

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Sometimes I could not believe my eyes. I saw families on one bike. 2 adults plus 2 kids. I saw people eating their breakfast or kids sleeping in between their father and mother. Everybody seems totally relaxed.

But what amazed my most was how friendly the people are. Some were smiling at me or were waving their hand. I can’t images to take this kind of images somewhere else in the world and get the same reactions. On my very first morning I started to love Vietnam.

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