Another portion of street shots from my favorite Vietnamese city, Hue. A month here already, and thinking of staying longer. π
How duck returned the joy of photography to me
Sometimes I come to a paranoid feeling that I will never get a single more good photo; I click the button and get random chaos in the frame; as soon as I see people, the only thing I want is to get away from them. But every time this knot is untied. Some kind of liberation occurs inside me, some springs get weakened. I think these springs are fears, anger, and resentment. That simple. Something can help to stop this, watching a good series or meeting a friend ...
On October 9, a duck made my day. I saw him (I think it was a guy) on the street and took a couple of images.
The owner poured him a whole washbowl of water, but the feathered person was appealed by the running water and preferred drinking from the puddle that had gathered at the curb. I can even hear his comment on this: "Because natural".
Yes, puddles are natural (unlike pink plastic washbowls), and, staring at them, you can imagine fish, algae, and rocky lake bottom.
The duck was saying something in Duckish. I decided to reply him in Catish first, just to clear the throat, and then began to master the bird's language: "wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa", but you must pronounce that through your nose.
Then, I saw something I had never seen before: the duck was wagging his rump in the manner dogs wag their tails while watching into my eyes! I felt it was the beginning of friendship! π
But I had to leave because the duck's owner was unhappy, as I noticed from her facial expressions, with my prolonged visit. She could worry that something could happen (we were a meter away from street traffic) or didn't like I loved the duck that much since she felt the same and didn't like this feeling - because this duck isn't a pet but for sale, most probably...
Leaving my new friend, I could not help but fantasize about how I would get my own white duck and travel with it around Asia. I understood perfectly well how impractical and unrealistic this idea was... But this fantasy completely took over me for a while. This experience healed me completely, and the joy of photography returned to me.
Pictures after the duck
At some point, I felt somebody was staring at me. A toddler! I immediately realized that I had not more than a second to take a photo so my camera jumped in my hands and I took an instant shot.
During post-processing, I thought about normalizing the angle, changing the composition by means of cropping but then: "No, let it look spontaneous".
A popular hobby in Hue as you see.
Sneaking through bushes... A cropped image - didn't want to disturb the guys.
Altars for offerings to ancestors, spirits, deities area everywhere in Hue.
Here, I focused on the pile of peanuts, and then the lady turned and spotted me. I told her cαΊ£m Ζ‘n (thank you) and she reservedly smiled in response. A passing female vendor asked me, playfully, to buy peanuts from her fellow, and I didn't mind (since I love peanuts) but they looked raw. But I was wrong, they were boiled (Thais often do the same crime against peanuts - boil them instead of frying them! π).
10.000 dong/0.4$ for a pack, a good deal. π
Keep walking.
Another street job: a security guard. Millions of them are in Vietnam. Visually, it's the second most common profession after street vendor in this country (and the third is an app motorbike taxi driver). This one might work for a nearby business to maintain security there and at the nearby parking area. Sometimes, parking is paid, and such security guards work as parking attendants.
The double red impressed me much and I immediately lifted the camera to take an image simultaneously thinking what I would say if the guy raised his eyes π
Sometimes, inanimate objects are no less interesting than people.
A lovely bouquet of banana leaves in a trash container.
An altar in an alley by the embankment.
The duck magic didn't end at this point. I had a great stroll at night on the same day; so great that I would share these images in the next separate post. While here I'll post more day images right from the same location: embankments and bridges over the An Cuu River in Hue, Vietnam.
More afternoon shots from the An Cuu River neighborhood
If you return to the peanut vendor image, you'll see the bridge railings are the same. It's because this is the same bridge few days earlier. Do you see this cart in the background? This:
Burning wood! A sort of dumplings in the pan, I should try them!
I don't know why I decided to openly take an image of this lady... Then I said "thank you" and "sorry"; in response, she raised her hands and slowly lowered them which looked unusual to me and could mean "Calm down, no worries". She was smiling at me. Vietnamese ladies often don't want to be photographed but not this one. Thank you, dear lady, for that! Such a reaction says that the person has a pure and noble inner self.
Returning to the river.
Another roadside station to pay respect to another world, with charming fallen leaves.
It was getting dark, I was tired and I wasn't sure I had the social energy for photographing these people but, nevertheless, I took a quick curious look at them. My interest was immediately noticed, and the men asked me to photograph them. Love how they were positive and laid-back. Of course, I wanted to step away to let more space in the frame but street traffic was behind me. Street photo adventures are always like that and that's why they are fascinating.
More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.
I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on October 1 and 9, 2024, in Hue, Vietnam.