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anyone ever shot in Vietnam?
tips, suggestions etc headed there Feb 13-March 1. Spending good portion of the trip in Saigon but will travel. In addition to street life, will try to do model-type pics , maybe some artistic nudes as well. Wondering if I should hire ..ah, working girls to be my subjects as did artists such as Egon Schiele, Picasso, and some big name photographers that have done the same in order to get glamour pics Thanks Jan 21 17 07:08 pm Link Street photography is pretty much the same there as anywhere else. Play the tourist, you'll be OK, cross the usual social lines and you may find trouble. Can't help in finding models. Jan 21 17 09:18 pm Link I shot an M16, an M60 machine gun, and an M79 grenade launcher, but that was a long time ago. That may not be what you're looking for, though. Jan 23 17 06:48 pm Link WCR3 wrote: I was wondering if anyone was going to "go there". Jan 23 17 08:52 pm Link Just a Hobby wrote: One of my cousins got shot there. First thing I thought of when I read the heading. Jan 23 17 09:24 pm Link i''m in Hanoi. did help some MM members to shoot here. Saigon is a different story, but for street-life, everywhere here could be good for you, just to be careful when you are in Saigon, when you go alone, always remember to protect your gear, avoiding robbery. contact me if you wanna visit Hanoi Jan 23 17 11:29 pm Link You can also find female models in Vietnam on MM. https://goo.gl/zSMqCn Jan 24 17 03:36 pm Link I found my model on vietnamcupid.com, which has many members in HCMC. We had a few silk ao dai made for her in Can Tho. Check out my portfolio where all I have is this one Vietnamese woman. I went back the following year and we took more pics in Da Nang and Hue, we even found THE famous "Boom Boom Rock", on Monkey Mountain (near lightpost 74), now hidden behind some shrubbery. I have galleries also at phpcat.com/vacation if you want to see pictures of floating markets, the monument at the top of Hamburger Hill, the Rockpile, Khe Sanh, Camp Carrol, the firebase at Con Thien which is now a rubber plantation, etc., all places I read about as a kid. This is a very nice country to go to, with excellent food and wonderful French Indochinese architecture as well as very interesting trees. Do not let your guard down if you go to Ho Chi Minh City, because if you are going to be robbed, it will probably be there. I brought a Pac Safe wire mesh bag to lock up my gear when I was out of the hotel, just made sure to lock the cable to something permanent. Get a nice hotel with video cameras in the halls. Park photographers will approach you and marvel at your gear. The internet will tell you what time of year to go to what area if you look. I had loads of fun in the Mekong Delta where you can get your own boat for half a day for dirt cheap, everything was dirt cheap. I usually go for three weeks and stay in one city and it makes me forget about all my troubles. Enjoy it. Be sure to take your mobile phone. Get a sim card. Use google translator, because hardly anyone there speaks your language. Use google translator on the vietnamcupid.com to facilitate your conversations and surprise the ladies (just be sure to tell them they have to use diacritics else you won't be able to translate back). Be prepared to change hotel rooms if you don't smoke. Anything that depicts pornography is illegal in Viet Nam. People you deal with may be superstitious about cameras and in general. Everybody may seem to think you are gullible or that they know exactly what you are talking about, particularly taxi drivers. Don't let this upset you. Never yell at anyone, including the shoe shine boys. Don't talk to people about money too much, and learn about other such subtleties and nuances because it may help if you are there for a while. At any park you may find lots of people wanting to practice English or willing to pose for a portrait. Jan 27 17 06:06 pm Link WCR3 wrote: LOL, I was having the same thought from back in '64 > '65 Jan 28 17 02:52 pm Link Going all the way to Viet-Nam to shoot models?..... I went to Viet-Nam a couple of time in the last 8 years as a tourist and loved it! People, food, landscapes... If you can make it to Sapa near the Chinese border it is a photographer's dream and visit the H'mong people even better! Jan 28 17 05:29 pm Link WCR3 wrote: studio36uk wrote:
Jan 28 17 07:37 pm Link rfordphotos wrote: The war has been over for a long time. While politics always has it full range of views, you will find many who fought for the north wishing the Americans had won. Because the communist government has failed the people and is corrupt and brutal to those who want reform. Vietnam works because they now allow free enterprise and capitalism. I was a bit apprehensive when going but found they love tourists because they spend dollars. Some things never change. Jan 29 17 05:40 am Link WCR3 wrote: Likewise: 1967-68. Jan 29 17 08:44 am Link  Jan 29 17 03:13 pm Link Model Mayhem Edu wrote: All the models seem to live in "Ho Chí Minh City, Pomorskie, Vietnam". Where is Pomorskie? Jan 29 17 04:50 pm Link Michael Sowsun wrote: Ho Chí Minh City is the official name for Saigon but our GEO database provider is listing Pomorskie as the state/region and that is clearly incorrect. Jan 30 17 10:09 am Link I was there two years ago for a corporate photography project. I was in Ho Chi Minh City, and was staying at one of the nicer hotels. I did some walking around on my own, both during the day and night and didn't have any problems. But I did see where you could get in trouble quickly if you turned down the wrong street. People were very friendly and street photography wasn't a problem. At one point while scouting locations we decided that we did need a model for the background of one image we were working on. Our driver actually found us a couple of perfect models for the next day. I can't remember how much we paid, but it wasn't unreasonable. Another location we scouted was more rural- about two hours outside the city in the rice fields. We didn't have any problems there either. Overall, I had a great time. I definitely wouldn't mind going back.  Feb 01 17 07:01 pm Link |
Last photos I took were of Phu Cat AB, receding in the distance as I flew out... Most of the countryside looked more like the moon than the reputed "Jewel of the Orient". 
