Hanoi (Vietnam) street photos - October 2018

These photos are the result of walking around the centre of Hanoi clicking away at pretty much everything I saw. What a place! So colourful, so crowded, so different... The people I randomly met were unfailingly beautiful and friendly. Do click on the images; once to fill the screen and then again to go full size and see a ton of detail.

This lovely lady has everything a cyclist could ever need, including a megaphone.

A narrow street in Vietnam. I love the triangular pointed leaf hats, the "non la".

Hanoi has an immense number of scooters making the streets constantly noisy and colourful. The lack of any obvious rider rules makes for an initial experience of complete terror when trying to cross a road. But, everyone gives way to everyone quite nicely and you can walk across the widest, busiest streets with your eyes shut and not come to any harm.
Providing you move in a predictable way you will not get hit.

For all it's pollution, chaos and traffic, Hanoi is a peaceful place full of green.
This was shot quite near to the central park.

This lovely boy stopped me in a crowded street one evening and asked if he could speak with me to practise his English.

V for Victory. V for Vietnam.

A random street corner with beautiful trees in central Hanoi.

I found this tiny garden in "Train Street", right next to the railway track.

This is in the centre of a deserted park in the middle of Hanoi. There's an admission charge, which appears to keep everyone out, except me. All around the streets are heaving with millions of people, but the park is empty.

The proud owner of a little textiles shop down a very narrow side-street.

Scooter and motorcycle riders waiting at a red light. Quite often they don't stop.

I think this might be some kind of informal ad hoc fish selling scheme ...but who knows?

The topiary reindeer get a professional antler trim.

A fruit vendor with her trolley - part of the seething traffic in central Hanoi

This street gets pedestrianised from time to time and when it does it fills with people doing all kinds of things.

A few fish getting ready for dinner:
a big beautiful carp and some kind of snapper, three small catfish and some little carplets.

I often think that if I shoot enough photos in random directions every once in a while a good one will happen.
The streets of Hanoi are so busy and chaotic that trying to "see" a good photo in among the noise can feel overwhelming.
This is one of my favourites - and I don't even remember grabbing it as I walked past.
The baby and the mannequin both give me the creeps.

This well behaved dog must have an enormous appetite....

I love this one. I shot it from the back of a flimsy scooter driven by a tiny girl, hanging on for grim death with one hand and snapping away with my camera one-handed.
Extremely heavy and fluid scooter traffic, say 25 miles per hour = terrifying.

This teenager was one of the tour guides for the London Symphony Orchestra while we were in Hanoi.
A human face can instantaneously transmit so much information!

Sometimes I feel a bit of a voyeur, swooping in on a scene like this and snapping it up without the subjects spotting me. Other times it seems fine to do that. Either way, this lucky shot came out well. It's uncropped and in both timing and composition seems perfect to me.

I'm not sure which I prefer here - colour or monochrome (below)?

I don't really know why I did it but I turned this uncropped photo into a low-key monochrome and then added three different tones - shadows-purple, midtones-greenyblue and highlights-yellowish. What do you think?

You may also like