A Bigger, Better Blog

We’re in the process of moving our blog to a new address, which will allow us to showcase our work in a much more versatile and beautiful way. To see the updated blog at its new temporary home, please visit http://vwp2.julianwainwright.net/

 

Thang and Chi : Intercontinental Hanoi

The winter weddings continue in Hanoi, and the Interncontinental is fast becoming the most popular hotel in town for photoshoots. And for good reason – Thang and Chi absolutely loved shooting here, and had no problem getting comfortable in front of the camera in these beautiful surroundings. We’re really looking forward to the wedding at the Sheraton in Hanoi next week!

You can see a larger selection of photos here.

 

World Press Photo Awards

Just a quick note to congratulate Julian on taking 3rd place – sports action stories – in the annual World Press Photo contest. For those unfamiliar with World Press Photo, it is the world‘s premiere photojournalism contest, so it’s a really a great achievement. You can see the winning images at World Press Photo Awards.

Tet (Vietnamese New Year) is now truly over and we will be back photographing weddings next week, starting in Hanoi and our first wedding in Lunag Prabang, Laos coming soon.

 

Cuong & Khoa : Hanoi Wedding

These images are from Cuong and Khoa’s wonderful Hanoi wedding. Aidan covered the festivities along with our sometime photographic assistant Phuong, who helped capture the flavor at both the Hanoi Hotel and later on at the Intercontinental.

Wedding season in North America coincides with great spring/summer/fall weather, and beautiful light. Wedding season in Vietnam, however, is during the winter, and in Hanoi that most usually means shooting weddings in the rain, cold, and gray damp of the city. It’s not ideal, but we do what we can! Luckily, Cuong and Khoa could have cared less about the weather, and you can see it in the looks on their faces. Pure joy.

 

Halong Bay Wedding: Thu Ha and David

Last weekend Aidan got about four hours sleep, between shooting and traveling he was working almost 40 hours to photograph a wedding in Halong Bay and an an hoi in Hanoi before capturing Vietnam’s football team making history in The Suzuki Cup. First up was David and Thu Ha’s lovely ceremony on board a junk boat in Halong Bay.

Unfortunately, the weather was wet.  On a good day, Halong Bay is a breathtaking spectacal, on a rainy day, the fog rolls in and the magnificent scenery is completely obscured. Luckily, David, Thu Ha and the rest of the wedding party were in good spirits, and had a wonderful time on board. Why let a little weather ruin a wonderful day?

 

Saigon’s favorite wedding shot spot

I was walking around downtown Saigon a few weeks back, and ducked into the Ho Chi Minh City History Museum, which like most museums here is an interesting mix of fact, fiction, and extreme kitsch. Its a favorite haunt of Saigon wedding photographers, mostly because of the grand staircase in the main hallway, which does have some pretty amazing cascading natural light from the second floor. I snapped a frame while a local crew were hard at work.

 

A night to remember

Last weekend Aidan and I flew down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to shoot what some social circles have been calling the wedding of the year in Vietnam. We can’t name the couple, divulge much detail or post photos from the event, as our clients have requested some privacy for the time being. But we had a fantastic time working with event organizers at Aepio Cozie Wedding. If you have a large, creative, complex event planned in the future, I can’t recommend them highly enough.

We have, however, been cleared to release this photo of a very handsome, spectacled photographer seen conducting group portraits near the end of the evening.

More news soon….

 

Kenneth and Eunice : Hanoi engagement shoot

Kenneth emailed me from Hong Kong a few months ago. He and his girlfriend Eunice were planning a trip to Vietnam, and he was going to propose during the journey. He wanted to spend half a day in Hanoi taking casual, fun pictures of them touring the city. Unfortunately, we ran into some of the rainiest weather Hanoi has seen in decades, but we did manage a few hours of relatively rain-free shooting around the Old Quarter.

(thought this made a nice diptych)

 

VWP interviewed on VTV4

Vietnam Wedding Photogrpahy was interviewed yesterday for an upcoming program on Vietnam Television. More soon….

 

Marc & Hien : Hanoi An Hoi and Wedding

Marc and Hien’s An Hoi was hosted in her family’s house in the Bach Dang area of Hanoi, a great neighbourhood along the riverside, behind the Opera House. I love shooting An Hoi, because it is the traditional Vietnamese element of weddings here: the groom’s entourage arrives in cyclos bearing gifts, to ask permission for the bride’s hand in marriage. Hien’s family have a lovely house, but it got cramped pretty quickly with 40 people crammed in the narrow living room. Not an easy environment for pictures, but definitely fun.

Their wedding, a week later, was split between Hien’s house and a swank restaurant in town. By the end, the ruou was flowing (thanks to Marc’s stand-in dad, Jeff), and everyone had a great time. The images below are a selection from both weekends.