Vietnamese Wedding Photographer

In Vietnam wedding pictures are taken before the wedding. It's a fairly lengthy process usually requiring at least three costume and related hairstyle and make-up changes. What adds to the overall hard work of the day is that the pictures are taken on location, usually several locations.

There are some tried and tested favourites,the central Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral irrespective of what your religious persuasion is, on the steps of the Opera House are all popular. More prosaic choices might be on a busy traffic bridge or posing inside giant rusting pipes or buying fruit at a market in full bridal regalia. There are props to handle too, violins, basketballs, teddy bears, and stepladders, I've seen them all employed to various effects.

The average wedding photographer has a team of helpers to variously wrangle the cameras, the props, the costumes and the makeup touch ups but ultimately it's down to him to snap the pictures. It's his, and the photoshop editor's job, to capture the glamour and it's not always easy.

If you fancy giving it a go, here is some advice from a Vietnamese wedding photographer "Wear Crocs; easy off, happy in water, solid floor, no smell"

Violet times in Ho Chi Minh City

I lived in Vietnam for four years before moving to India so it was great to go back to somewhere I was so familiar with and where I still have a lot of friends.

Sometimes, especially when I'm taking pictures somewhere I know well, I'll choose a colour and seek out things to snap that match it. The process is to have a quick scan about and the first photo worthy thing you see, that's the colour. In HCMC it turned out to be purple. Vietnam loves purple in all it's shades and flavours.

When you think of Vietnam or Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) it's likely that rice fields and conical hats come to mind and there are lots and lots of these:

Right there, keeping her Non La or conical hat on - purple. Now you will find lots of ladies in traditional dress but HCMC is a fast developing city. It's a great mix of new and old, foreign and local influences and like most cities it has a fancy shopping street. The start of this area is marked by the Louis Vuitton store on Le Loi Street. Here we have the Four Legged Lady of Le Loi and a purple dominated LV window:

Part of the tradition in Vietnam in general is the preponderance of public information propaganda posters, another is that everyone rides motorbikes:

If everyone rides motorbikes then you want yours to stand out from the crowd, if only to find it easier in the parking lots and in HCMC you can do that with style. Anything and everything can be personalised and here are two reconditioned Vespas demonstrating that:

Even the airport has purple seats, some people dress to match...

and some to blend in.

As I sit here I've just noticed my toes, I got a pedicure in Saigon, trust me the best pedicures in the world are done in Vietnam. It's purple of course, I don't even like purple!

Old Advertising, Saigon

On Tran Hung Dao one hotel has been knocked down to be replaced with another one. In the process old wall advertisements have been revealed for the first time in who knows how many decades. I like the juxtaposition of the old adverts with the new and that there are no power lines getting in the way.

Cat Time

It's The Year of the Cat, rabbit elsewhere but cats rule in Vietnam! Nguyen Hue in District 1 is turned into Flower Street for a week and there are always representations of appropriate animals. Here are a few of them:

Yes, it is a dog.

So why do we have the Year of the Cat while the rest of the world hop along happily in the Year of the Rabbit. One theory goes thus: "The Chinese word for rabbit is 'mao', which sounds like 'meo' in Vietnamese, where it means cat. As the sound of the word changed, so did its meaning,". You can read the full article here .

I'll finish with one set of animals which seem to bridge the gap between cats and rabbits quite well.

Happy Meo Year

Tet Flower Market

My annual wander around a Tet flower market;

Flowers are a very big deal. Also a very big deal is making fruit and plants into something they're not like a Dragon Fruit Fruit Dragon.

More pictures from Flower Street with Cats being heavily featured very soon.

Traffic light behaviour

Just another picture of the amazing layering that takes place before your average Vietnamese girl can risk going onto her scooter.

This one also depicts the "sunny day traffic light strategy" - wait for the lights to change in the nearest patch of shade which might be some distance away and will be popular. On dull days or at nights it's full steam ahead to get as close to the lights as possible

Vincom Centre, Mall life reaches Saigon

The new mega-flash mall has opened complete with an Armani Caffe and a Jimmy Choo. It's all very impressive down Dong Khoi these days.

Stepping inside is like being transported to Singapore but there are significantly low numbers of shopping bags being carried around. On my last two visits the most popular activity was from groups posing for photographs outside shops. There's shopping going on, I'm sure, but not on a Singaporean scale. On the other hand, La Senza had completely sold out of medium sized knickers so some are doing well.

Not such great mall news from Phu My Hung where the wedding cake styled Paragon mall closed with little or no warning. It's always been a bit of a ghost mall in there. Completely unsubstantiated rumour which is likely to be entirely wrong, has it that Parkson will be moving in. I'll keep you posted.

Holland Village Saigon

Holland Village came to Saigon, an exhibition of all things Dutch. They set up in the park near the Ben Thanh roundabout. I took a wander through during the day when the finishing touches were being made.

Bitexco Tower with Windmill in front, an odd juxtaposition.



The finishing touches being put to the lighting rig, as always not a hard hat or harness in sight.

Red Saigon

It's been a while since I posted. Here's the Red Saigon version of the Blue Singapore shots I did a while back. I have some time on my hands now so more posting should follow.

Land Development

Saigon has a new and nearly completed landmark, the Bitexco Financial Tower. It can be seen from all over the city and surrounds and even has a helipad on one side. Alas my picture doesn't do it justice but I'll get some better ones soon.

Large swathes of the city centre are also earmarked for ripping down and "improving". Not everyone is in favour of course and I've been told that the flags flying from the residential buildings at the top end of Le Loi are in protest to the planned redevelopment of that area.

Such a shame to see buildings of character go under the jack hammer but I doubt the mild misgivings of one expat blogger are going to make the slightest difference.

Architectural Signage Puzzle

Perhaps someone out there can help me with this. I've seen signage like this since I arrived and have never been able to work out what it means or meant. Any ideas?

Rain falls in Saigon

On Friday I stopped work for two weeks. On Friday the rain started. Huge dark clouds and the odd clap of thunder followed by a short but heavy downpour. It rained on Saturday too for longer and more dramatically but by then we were safely tucked away in a restaurant having lunch and could indulge in one of the great pleasures of wet season - having one more drink while you wait for the rain to ease off.

It seems that nearly everyone with a blog in Vietnam's been going on about the oppresively hot weather, I'm no exception and I welcome the rain along with everyone else, at least for the time being.

I'm absolutely gutted that I didn't have my camera with me to capture the two boys in matching polka dot pink ponchos though. Still that's another joy of the wet season to look forward to.

Altar Images

On Calmette, in District 1, is one of many Shrine Shops where you can buy house altars, statues, lights and everything else you could possibly need for your at home devotions.

I'm tempted but bright shiny things do that to me.

Saigon Spawning Season

Back in August I posted a picture of a strange roof creature. A fish shaped air ventilator.

And this week I took a picture of the same roofscape, they're multiplying.

I'd quite like a shoal of fish on my roof too but our landlord hasn't suggested one yet.

Tet Celebrations, Saigon's Year of the Tiger

When I'm in Ho Chi Minh City during Tet I always make a point of going up to Nguyen Hue to take pictures on the first day of Lunar New Year. This year was the busiest yet as the traffic bears testament to.

The rest of town was incredibly quiet. Here are some pictures of what everyone wanted to take pictures of:

Tigers of course.

Large and impressive tigers at the entrance to the floral display.

Well hell-lo! A debonair tiger with a touch of the Lesley Phillips about it.

A more traditional Vietnamese tiger.

And a Disneyesque tiger to complete the set.

At Tet everyone's a photographer.

There are flowers, tigers of course, calligraphers and family members to be captured.

And when all that pales there's always practicing walking in your new shoes.

Or talking your tiger for a walk through the streets of Saigon.

Chúc mừng năm mới.

Tôn Thất Thiệp on a sunny afternoon

It was just one of those lovely days when the sunset filters through the pollution in a particularly pleasing manner. Ton That Thiep looked positively bucolic in places, especially the roadside dining option outside Sri Thendayutthapani Temple.

Motorist seemed to be in a particularly good mood and the road was quieter than usual.

Ton That Thiep is a busy little street now and home to three newish bars, the Temple Club, the 3T rooftop Barbeque and of course Fanny's.

I'm British so of course I took a picture of the Fanny Parking sign.