The story of breakfast - photo workshop day 3

We left at 4.15am and were at the edge of the lagoon with tripods (a gorillapod in my case), in the dark, at 4.30am, to photograph the first of the light. I’d have been better off with a tripod as my camera was too close to the ground to get the boats in the foreground clearly distinguishable from the mountains in the background. However, that’s the first time that my gorillapod hasn’t quite been up to the job and it definitely wasn’t worth carrying the weight of a tripod for 10 months just for one 15 minute period!

Once the sun was up we wandered along the edge of the lagoon finding fishing families in boats to photograph and then went into the village. Cafes and stalls were setting up, women wearing ao dais were heading to the pagoda or to church. People were untangling and mending fishing nets or just sitting outside their houses chatting to relatives. The scenery was stunning – mountains, the lagoon, and rice fields (see extra).

After breakfast at a small cafe, we were given a project. We each had to find a ‘story’ and tell that story in between 1 and 5 images. The story could be about anything. For me, the easy thing would have been to tell the story of a road junction and wait for people to go past on bicycles or motorbikes. Or to take photos of laundry, or litter. Others in the group chose doorways. But I decided to challenge myself and do something that would make me have to approach people.

The first people I approached didn’t want me to take photos; not a great start. Further down the street there was a small noodle soup stall. I smiled and said hello and took a few shots, This is the woman running the stall and another woman sat next to her. The older woman was the friendliest. I took a bunch of shots of them, of the food, of them and their customers, and of a puppy that was hanging around but terrified to come near me. After a while the older woman called me over to sit next to her. I showed her the photos, she asked me a few questions, the most basic of which I understood and answered. But then my Vietnamese ran out. After another couple of shots, her sign language told me very clearly that that was enough and I should go away. I hoped that I had 5 half decent shots that would tell a story and spent the rest of the time wandering around taking photos of anything I liked the look of.

Back at the hotel, we had half an hour to pack up before the minibus took us back to Hoi An. After lunch in Hoi An, we went to a cafe where they’d reserved a room for us so we could go through photos and select 15 to be reviewed plus 5 for the story.

I was last to have my photos reviewed and it was very demoralizing. The two tutors had almost nothing positive to say and lots of criticism. I know that criticism means that you learn, but at the end of an intensive three days where everyone is exhausted, it would have been nice to get something positive too. Each shot got similar comments; I shouldn’t use a zoom lens, the lens isn’t sharp enough, the composition is wrong (although it was confusing to know what they wanted when similar shots from other people were criticised for different things!), I shouldn’t be shy about putting my camera right up to people, that this is Asia and they don’t mind. The shots of mine they were most positive about were the landscape ones – the area where I’m more comfortable.

The session ended with me feeling quite down about my efforts this weekend. But looking at it objectively, I’ve learned a lot. I also know where my starting point was and just how out of my comfort zone I was. I don’t give up the bassoon every time I play a wrong note, so I will just keep trying to practice and take it at my own pace. I’ve got some photos that, for me, are good shots of people. They’re definitely not perfect, but they’re a big improvement on anything I’ve taken before.

Overall the 3 days were great; amazing light and locations, fascinating rural life to photograph, and puppies to play with everywhere we went. I'd definitely recommed the workshop (Hoi An photo tours in case anyone is going there).