Heavy rain in Vietnam is an exceptional show: colorful ponchos, streams of water falling from roofs, fogged-up plastic awnings resembling sails, and electrical lamps shining through the dim of water and plastic. And only one disadvantage: this show usually doesn't last long. Even in the rainy season, you need to wait for a while. Mostly, it's cloudy here or drizzling, or sunny or again and again overcast. But October is the rainiest month in Hue, Vietnam, so I hope I will have many opportunities. Sharing pictures from a recent rainy walk on October 2, 2024. Starting with the image I like the most in the set:
A child under the protection of Vietnamese mom-lioness. 😎
How the image has appeared: I didn't like the first shot of these people and decided to wait until the child spotted me to potentially get some emotional sparkle in the image. It happened and that smile on the face comes from the child's awareness. Then I decided to wait for Mom who was shopping from the bike with her face turned away from me. I didn't want her to notice me - it would kill the candidness. So, all these calculations worked and that makes me feel good. 😎
It was manual mode, ISO 2500, f/3.5, 1/200. A compromise between the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. 1/200 is the minimum for 50mm for quick street images in my case if I want sharp images. I hate going lower than ISO 2500 since noise eats too many details on my oldish full-frame Nikon D750. Thus, I had to choose a widish aperture instead of my favorite f/5.0. Luckily, in this scene, f/3.5 worked perfectly.
Now, I'll tell the story in order.
Why Yellow Flowers?
On October 2, 2024, I began the photo walk at 1:45 pm and soon found that almost every corner is occupied by street vendors selling yellow flowers.
I thought it was about some celebration but, later, the owner of Riverside Melody Homestay explained: it's about the Moon cycle. At the end of every month of the Chinese calendar, the Moon cycle ends and that's when Vietnamese love to present offerings to the ancestors. Chinese months are actually Lunar months so the beginning of every month means a new moon. And a new moon is when the veil between the worlds of living and dead is the thinnest, thus, a good time to offer gifts to ancestors.
I also asked on Reddit why yellow mums are so popular as offerings and someone told me that this is because they represent filial piety...
Then It Started Drizzling
I was walking along An Cuu River when it started drizzling.
People were taking ponchos on and some were searching for a shelter like these kids:
The girls agreed to pose for me while the rest people stayed unaware of our instant photosession.
The lady motorbike didn't mind posing for a second either.
Guy talking on phone below the plastic.
Here, I had to put a poncho on myself.
The panning technique worked well here.
Portrait of a boy under plastic (cropped).
Alas, heavy rain lasted for a quarter of an hour or so.
And it looked the rain was stopping.
I decided the photo walk ended and went to buy food for the evening and morning. However, no!
Sudden Downpour in Evening
Walking under heavy rain, I had to bring food to the hostel and came out again to shoot the rain show around An Cuu Market.
It was getting dark, some illumination was already on, some bikes had lights on. Some people were burning paper to please ancestors despite the rain:
The best time to go out with the photo camera!
I made this mistake and not for the first time: you should have a large cloth below the raincoat to wipe out the camera - the T-shirt on you becomes wet too soon to use it for that purpose after a short while!
I loved this grape invasion but had no time to photograph something with the clear story. Another juicy color:
I really want heavy rain the whole day to have enough time!
I was tired and my camera was getting riskily wet...
So I promised myself to continue the rainography next time. October is the most rainy month here, in Hue... So, I'll have a chance!
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 2, 2024, in Hue, Vietnam.