In the fields: photo workshop day 1

The minibus picked me up at 4.45am and we drove out of Hoi An towards the coast. The colours in the sky as we drove over the bridge were lovely so we stopped to get some shots. It was so lovely that the driver got out to take photos too. Our destination was a small fishing village just over the bridge. There was lots of activity. The boats were arriving back and being unloaded, women were buying the fish to take to the market. Everyone was too busy to pay much attention to a bunch of photographers.

I really struggled with my camera settings. I’m not used to aperture priority mode and my camera was over-exposing a lot or not giving a high enough shutter speed for things to be in focus. It was really frustrating because I’d been told to use that because I wouldn’t be able to change the settings fast enough in manual. But I was still having to change settings but not getting the shot.

When the sun was well up, we had breakfast in a small cafe in the village and then walked through some other parts of the village. We got back to Hoi An mid-morning and walked through the market looking for photos before having an early lunch. There was a break from 12-3pm and I had to change from where I’d stayed before to the hotel that was included in the price of the workshop. I thought it would be easy to get a taxi but all the drivers must have been taking a mid-day rest and I ended up having to walk. It wasn’t too far but it was boiling hot.

In the afternoon we took a boat from Hoi An and went about 20 minutes along the river to another village. This time we were looking for, and found, people working in the fields. I didn’t have so many problems with settings this afternoon, at least not until the light started to fade and then even with upping the ISO my camera was only giving slow shutter speeds and blurred shots. We took the boat back to Hoi An. It was getting dark as we arrived and we spent some time taking night shots in the town before going for dinner. I was exhausted by the end of the day. Tomorrow we start at 4.30am!


I’ve gone for one of the afternoon shots and a classic Vietnam scene for my blip. The extra was taken in Hoi An market. I nearly didn’t see her which amused me.