Target rich environment: Vietnam

[BrianA61]

It has been a very long time since I've posted. Since then, my wife and I spent 3 weeks in Vietnam last January. My first time there and I must say, the country is an extremely beautiful one. My wife's nephew took me for a motor scooter ride several times through the countryside. This is by far THE best way to see the real Vietnam. The places I went and got shots of were nowhere ANY tourist would've seen. And, it was an AMAZING adventure. Between my DSLR, P&S and cell phone, I captured 600+ photos. Can't wait to go back for more.

[joebranko]

The pictures are all beautiful. Great landscapes and cultural shots. Hope you share more!

[BrianA61]

The pictures are all beautiful. Great landscapes and cultural shots. Hope you share more!

Thank you. I will post more as I have plenty to choose from. The 3 above are a few of my favorites, especially of the two women conversing. No need to even ask what country that was taken in, either.

[Wavelength]

Beautiful places and beautiful people...

[lunarbo]

We were there last February and went North to South then on to Cambodia
Stunning and beautiful place and I'm so glad we made it before Covid knocked a hole in so many peoples' plans
Highlights for us were Sapa, Hoi An and the Mekong Delta.
We did get off the beaten track a number of times, (but not by scooter!) and I agree it's the way to see the countryside
But the streets and markets for people shots were also amazing.
Please show us some more shots!

[pschlute]

Sounds like a fabulous trip. I like the second image but would be inclined to square crop it to remove the chap on the left. With a bit of photoshop work you could hide his plastic bag and the red shoe.

[Chataignier]

Great shots of a fascinating country - one of these days I hope to visit.
Please post some more.........

[rpcrowe]

I have walked. flown and traveled by boat, carrying 16mm motion picture gear during the aggregate 26-months I spent in what was then South Vietnam as a combat cameraman during the period 1966 to 1972.

It is indeed a beautiful country and I loved the Vietnamese people. They are warm and friendly and there were brave men fighting on both sides of the war.

I would love to revisit Vietnam but, I am 80-years old, and no longer the "lean hard young man" I was when I spent my time in Vietnam. That is something difficult for me to accept but, I need to be realistic about my capabilities.

[pschlute]

carrying 16mm motion picture gear during the aggregate 26-months I spent in what was then South Vietnam as a combat cameraman during the period 1966 to 1972.

That must have been fascinating, although I say that with no experience at all of war Have you ever done a write up of your experiences ?

[BrianA61]

We were there last February and went North to South then on to Cambodia
Stunning and beautiful place and I'm so glad we made it before Covid knocked a hole in so many peoples' plans
Highlights for us were Sapa, Hoi An and the Mekong Delta.
We did get off the beaten track a number of times, (but not by scooter!) and I agree it's the way to see the countryside
But the streets and markets for people shots were also amazing.
Please show us some more shots!

I agree with you. It felt awesome to be in the markets and just among all the people. Although when we were there, it was during Tet (Jan 25th) and there were wall to wall people out everywhere. I don't like crowds much but felt right at home on the back of a scooter riding through little villages and neighborhoods. Being and having the "photographer's eye", my head was about to explode since I saw photo ops EVERYWHERE. Hoi An was a good experience, although packed with people. How did you travel through Vietham from Hanoi to the delta? My sister n law lives not 150ft from an active train track that passenger trains went by at all hours of the day. If you traveled by train between Hue and Da Nang, you went right by where I was staying. I thought that would keep me awake at night, but, for whatever reason, I slept like a baby, even with trains blasting past right outside our bedroom window.

[rpcrowe]

Peter... I have often thought about writing about some of my experiences, especially since my time in that country ranged from Summer 1966 when the U.S. and allied forces were just building up through to the end of 1971 or very early 1972 when the forces were being drawn down.

I spent my time in Vietnam usually in 90-day spurts.

I worked out of Saigon and deployed from there all over South Vietnam. Usually, I never spent more that three days at a time in Saigon but really loved that city.

An associate of mine wrote a book about our command. However, his book was a collection of sea stories since he spent less that six months in country. https://www.amazon.com/Those-Crazy-C.../dp/B0792VNM16

I met and worked with many South Vietnamese Navy and Army men and recognized that they had a very hard job to do. I respected many of them but, not all of them as I did not respect all of the U.S. Personnel whom I met and worked with.

I learned one thing early on in my deployments - always have a camera ready because often things would happen at the spur of the moment and if the camera was safely stored in a case - it was easy to miss the action.

One thing that I wish is that I could have had the advantage of today's digital equipment both for stills and video... That would have given me vastly superior ability to get coverage...

[BrianA61]

Peter... I have often thought about writing about some of my experiences, especially since my time in that country ranged from Summer 1966 when the U.S. and allied forces were just building up through to the end of 1971 or very early 1972 when the forces were being drawn down.

I spent my time in Vietnam usually in 90-day spurts.

I worked out of Saigon and deployed from there all over South Vietnam. Usually, I never spent more that three days at a time in Saigon but really loved that city.

An associate of mine wrote a book about our command. However, his book was a collection of sea stories since he spent less that six months in country. https://www.amazon.com/Those-Crazy-C.../dp/B0792VNM16

I met and worked with many South Vietnamese Navy and Army men and recognized that they had a very hard job to do. I respected many of them but, not all of them as I did not respect all of the U.S. Personnel whom I met and worked with.

I learned one thing early on in my deployments - always have a camera ready because often things would happen at the spur of the moment and if the camera was safely stored in a case - it was easy to miss the action.

One thing that I wish is that I could have had the advantage of today's digital equipment both for stills and video... That would have given me vastly superior ability to get coverage...

Richard, you were there when my wife was rescued by a patrol and evac'd out of the country in 1968 between Da Nang and Hue. I also had the same mindset as you with always having one of my cameras or my cell phone handy at all times. There a LOT of things that happened on the spur of the moment and I was able to get some pretty amazing shots. I cannot wait for all this COVID-19 crap is finally over. I want to go back to Vietnam ASAP. I really loved it there both as a photographer and just being among the Vietnamese people. And also the beauty of it all.

[rpcrowe]

Brian...

As far as having a camera ready at all times was reinforced by an episode during my first project in Vietnam... I was going to film a Naval Construction Battalion (Sea Bees) on a job inland from Danang and hitched a ride with a Marine Corps convoy.

I had always been taught (erroneously it turned out) that we should have our cameras packed away when we traveled on the roads in Vietnam since these roads were dusty and "God Forbid that we should get our cameras dirty!".

Anyway we got hit in an ambush and this is how it played out...

An absolutely beautiful day with blue skies and billowy white clouds. The firing was coming from a line of hills about a hundred or two hundred yards in the distance across beautiful rice paddies. An earth embankment separating the rice paddies from the road with the Marines and Sea Bees taking cover behind it and returning fire with a pair of helicopter gunships spraying the hills with rockets and machine guns...

Nice picture right - but what might have made the image Pulitzer quality was that here was a young Vietnamese lad in conical hat and black pajamas carrying a stick with baskets of canned Coke at each end. The kid was totally oblivious of the action going on and was trying to sell the coke to the American troops firing at the hill line That image will remain indelible in my mind over 50 years later!

From then on, I always traveled with a camera ready...

BTW: In line with your comment bout your wife being evacuated. I have a Vietnamese friend whose mom has a very interesting story... She worked as an interpreter with the USAID Agency and his dad was a Vietnamese Major who flew helicopters. During the fall of Saigon, his dad "borrowed" a helicopter and flew it to his house in Saigon where he rescued his entire family. The chopper did not have enough fuel to fly out to any American ships off the coast so he flew it to Vung Tau on the coast where the family boarded a ship. After several months at sea, including pirate raids, the ship sailed all the way to Virginia where the family settled.

Now that would make a great book!

[BrianA61]

Brian...

As far as having a camera ready at all times was reinforced by an episode during my first project in Vietnam... I was going to film a Naval Construction Battalion (Sea Bees) on a job inland from Danang and hitched a ride with a Marine Corps convoy.

I had always been taught (erroneously it turned out) that we should have our cameras packed away when we traveled on the roads in Vietnam since these roads were dusty and "God Forbid that we should get our cameras dirty!".

Anyway we got hit in an ambush and this is how it played out...

An absolutely beautiful day with blue skies and billowy white clouds. The firing was coming from a line of hills about a hundred or two hundred yards in the distance across beautiful rice paddies. An earth embankment separating the rice paddies from the road with the Marines and Sea Bees taking cover behind it and returning fire with a pair of helicopter gunships spraying the hills with rockets and machine guns...

Nice picture right - but what might have made the image Pulitzer quality was that here was a young Vietnamese lad in conical hat and black pajamas carrying a stick with baskets of canned Coke at each end. The kid was totally oblivious of the action going on and was trying to sell the coke to the American troops firing at the hill line That image will remain indelible in my mind over 50 years later!

From then on, I always traveled with a camera ready...

BTW: In line with your comment bout your wife being evacuated. I have a Vietnamese friend whose mom has a very interesting story... She worked as an interpreter with the USAID Agency and his dad was a Vietnamese Major who flew helicopters. During the fall of Saigon, his dad "borrowed" a helicopter and flew it to his house in Saigon where he rescued his entire family. The chopper did not have enough fuel to fly out to any American ships off the coast so he flew it to Vung Tau on the coast where the family boarded a ship. After several months at sea, including pirate raids, the ship sailed all the way to Virginia where the family settled.

Now that would make a great book!

WOW Richard!!! That is an incredible story about your friend. My wife and I have been married almost 35 years and she has never told me her entire story until just recently. When we were there visiting with her sister, we walked a great distance around where she grew up and she pointed out all kinds of things and explained what was going on, what she did, what she saw, the whole nine yards. It was a real emotional roller coaster for me and I was thinking the same thing you just mentioned. She should write a book about her life. Maybe that's a part of the reason I fell in love with the country and the people on my first visit. I'm sure on our next trip, there will be a lot more to see and hear about my wife's early life. I'm looking forward to that moment, too.