These photographs were captured during my Photography Workshops in Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia. They captured the essence of the people that work all day to make a living, from toiling in the rice paddy fields, winnowing the rice harvest, plowing the fields and many other daily chores. These portraitures tells a minute story of their lives.
Join my Photography Workshops to photograph the amazing people in South East Asia.
It is tough to pedal all day long. Thus a nap is welcomed for these cyclos.
This is a common sight in all of Vietnam. You can see a whole family of 4 or 5 on one motorcycles.
Early morning rain give this scene a glow of people getting ready for the day.
In the Old quarter of Hanoi, each street has its unique goods for sale by each store. The next street over sells bamboo products.
The sugar cane are delivered to restaurants to be squeezed for its juices to make a cool drink during the hot day.
Vendors sell everything from vegetables to flowers and home goods.
Getting her flowers ready for the day. Flowers are an important item for the Vietnamese.
Having her breakfast of pho while she waits for customers.
Besides the motorcycles, the bicycle are just as important for transportation.
These trees are a symbol of wealth as they will have bright orange gold kumquats looking like gold ingots, during the Tet Lunar new year.
The lady had just finished her exercise and I was lucky to photograph her.
The city of Hoi An celebrates the full moon monthly with lanterns.
During the full moon celebration, you may buy wishes (candles in floatable boxes) and send it down river in Hoi An.
These women are sorting the morning catch from the fishing boats that came in of the ocean from an all night of fishing.
At a fish sauce factory. You will either like or hate the smell.
Going to Cambodia, my romantic idea of photographing the ancient temples was a monk in saffron robes against the dark stones. I captured him on the last day and I had to run after him. I won an Award of Excellence at the 2016 Bloomington Art Center Juried Member show with this image.
These landscapes are from Viet Nam and Malaysia. The beautiful limestone rocks that rose from the ocean in Ha Long Bay, the terraced rice fields in northern Viet Nam, Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo is the tallest mountain in SE Asia, rising to almost 14,000 feet and the mangrove trees silhouetted against a beautiful sunset in the town of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
In order to photograph these beautiful landscapes, you will need to join me on my Photography Workshops and Tutorial to SE Asia.
These limestone rocks juts out of the sea forming beautiful landscapes and seascapes.
These homes are floating within a protected area of multiples limestone stacks.
An abandon coffee shop with a glorious view of the valley.
These hills are quite steep and the farmers hike it up and down all day long.
During April, the skies are very hazy which in turn gives a fireball sun at sunset.
I maintain that the sunsets in Kota Kinabalu are the best.
Mount Kinabalu, the tallest peak in South East Asia before the earthquake in 2015, 10 miles directly below the mountain.
You will need to bring all your cameras and lenses to photograph these portraits of the people in my hometown of Kota Kinabalu. These portraits of a young child, a teenage boy, a beautiful woman, the rugged faces of some elderly denizens were photographed in their everyday settings in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
Join me in my Photography Workshops and Tutorials to photograph these wonderful faces.
As I was leaving the market place, I noticed her out of the corner of my eye. At the same instant, she saw me and looked up. I fired off 3 shots before she turned away.
He was intent on getting the music right. His interesting face caught my eye.
I watched this man rolled his cigarette with a lot of care and then lit it.
This image and the next four are faces that I just adore. Wish I knew their history.
This boy was trying to hide from me and I managed only one shot.
I was wandering around the vegetable market grabbing shots here and there and I heard "Hey Mister". I looked over and he held out the cabbage and knife and struck a pose.
I pointed to him and then my camera, sign language "Can I take your picture?". He smiled and nodded. I love the color of the wall against his blue and white clothing and beard. This was photographed in 2009 and I saw him again in 2014, same spot, but the wall was repainted beige.
Viet Nam consist of many different tribes of people. The majority are the Viet or Kinh and are concentrated mainly in the coastal plains and the river deltas of the country. Viet Nam is also home to 54 ethnic minority groups including the Hmong, Dao, Tay, Thai and Nung. The colorful clothing you see in these images are from the hill tribes in northern Viet Nam. Throughout my visits, the Vietnamese people has been most cordial and pleasant as I point my cameras and lenses at them.
Join me in my Photography Workshops and Tutorials to photograph these wonderful people.
I wander around the organic gardens near Hoi An, Vietnam. I saw this man with a fabulous face and asked, using hand signs, to take his photo. Apparently he has done this lots of times for tourists and he immediately turned to face the sun. I turned him around but he kept facing the sun until my guide spoke to him that I would rather have him not facing the sun.
My photographer guide tells me this gentleman has been making the round boats out of palms fronds and bamboo since he was a young boy.
I was up in the mountain town of Sapa where many hill tribes live and work. This lady knits and embroiders and sells to tourists. She has a lovely smile.
This little girl is babysitting her sister and she carries her like we carry our backpacks. She sells little lovely bracelet. That was April 2016 and I still am wearing it now (2017).
This photo and the next are women splitting palm fronds and stacking them to be carried to a new building where they are used to cover the roof. This is a tough job and I am sure they are very strong.
I had to photograph her lovely smile as I was having some refreshments at a cafe. In exchange for taking her photo, I bought something from her.
This older lady relies on the kindness of the fishermen and workers at the fish market for her daily meal of fresh fish. The catch from the morning that are not quite up to par are given to these older women and men as they are not able to work anymore.
Kids are the same everywhere. They are playful and the little girl in pink certainly was.
The older sister is making sure younger sister gets down the steps in one piece.
Their colors are just splendid.
I think they are the Black H'mongs. Their head scarf and the rest of their outfit are just colorful against the black.
These two girls are waiting for the next tourist bus to arrive to sell their wares.
I saw her on the trek. She is just sitting on the side of the path sewing her colorful piece that she will sell later.
This older gentleman is trimming bamboo sticks, getting them ready for the incense paste to be adhere to them.
She is doing the same thing as the previous old man.
The man sharpens knives all day around Hanoi's Old Quarter food section.
This woman works at the fishing village and carries the seafood from the fishing boats to shore.
This young girl is wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress and is waiting for her photographer to come around. There are lots of model photoshoots in the city.
This is a typical street scene in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The streets are populated by motor cycles, bicycles, pedestrians and cars.
In the 47,000 plus acres of land in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, there are many animals, prairie dogs, deer, sheep, coyotes etc, but the two main animals that draws visitors to this park are the bands of wild horses and herds of Bison. For the safety of both visitors and animals, a respectful distance should be kept. Therefore visitors should have at least one telephoto lens in their camera bag. The landscapes of the park are outstanding. Not only will you need the telephoto lens for the animals other lenses that you have, tripods, filters and other gadgets should be in your camera bag.
Deb Lee Carson and I conduct 2 workshops per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. To get more information on these workshops, take a look at my Photography Workshop and Tutorial page to see how you can get to photograph these wonderful animals.
After a day of photographing horses and bison, we were heading back to town. Came around a corner and up a hill, there he was, guarding his harem of mares. The sun had set and gave the sky a fiery reddish orange color.
Our group of photographers were encroaching on his harem and foals. He chased them up a hill and then down to the valley where they are safe from us. Turned around and gave us a look, "Don't follow us !!!".
Very large animal. Glad I am inside my SUV and photographing him with a very long telephoto.
The bison is taking a sand bath, using the dirt dug up by the prairie dogs.
I am sure this feels great to the bison and a shower is to us.
It was a colorful morning sky as we drove by this bison. We got out carefully and had to get low in order to silhouette him against the sky. I am praying that he ignore us as we all were laying prone on the ground with camera gear.
Lake Superior, the largest of the 5 great lakes in North America, is shared with the Canadian Province of Ontario and with the US state of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Ojibwe call the lake Gichi-Gami, meaning "be a great sea". While the temperature of the surface of the lake varies seasonally, the temperature below 660 feet is an almost constant 39F. Twice per year, the water column reaches a uniform temperature of 39F from top to bottom.
Annual storms regularly feature wave heights of over 20 feet, and waves well over 30 feet have been recorded.
Photographs of the workshops participants at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
I am always pushing myself to create images and to do more than just documenting the situation, I try to make it an artful image. These images on this page represents an idea I had for a long while and it is a slow process.
I would like some help in finding artists, artisans, dancers and more to photograph and try to capture their essence. Please message or email me if you have someone in mind.
I really enjoyed this photo shoot. The dancers were incredible. Their bodies have and make such beautiful lines.
It took a few tries to capture this. The muscles are just awesome.
A metal sculpture artist.
A dear friend of mine. I am proud to know her and to feel the passion she has for her horses and photography.
