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/

 

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.

 

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.

 

Ming and Hang : Halong Bay engagement shoot

Some couples are camera-shy. Some have a hard time being intimate in front of the camera. Not Ming and Hang. By the end of our shoot in Halong Bay, when we would ask them to kiss they were already at it, almost oblivious to the camera. In fact, a few times we had to ask them to stop so we could move ahead with another shot.

The day almost didn’t happen, as it was pouring rain when I awoke at 6am. Aidan called Vinh, our good friend and junkboat captain in Halong Bay, and Vinh advised us to postpone the shoot, as it looked like it would rain all day. Not one to argue with a seasoned mariner’s sense of weather, I suggested to our bride, Hang, that we reschedule. Since she had already been up since 4:30 to prepare for the day, she was understandably reluctant, and after a brief consultation with her family, decided to go for it.

Luckily, Hang’s intuition was spot-on. Our first few hours on the boat were heavily overcast, but the rain had already stopped and we could at least shoot above deck. And by the time we reached the beach, the sun popped out, giving us some beautiful late afternoon light to work with as Ming and Hang stepped into the water. Finally, sailing back to shore we got a brief but beautiful sunset. Everything worked out amazingly well, which leaves us with a few valuable lessons. 1- Never postpone or cancel unless absolutely necessary (ie: maybe shooting in a typhoon will actually produce great, unique images) and 2 – always trust a woman’s intuition.

 

Steve and Hanh : Hanoi Wedding

We’ve all been waiting for this one for a while here in Hanoi, and it didn’t disappoint. Steve and Hanh married this past weekend – though in Vietnam the wedding reception is a mere formality, the real nuptials are during the an hoi and then registering with various stamped papers with the government.

We all met at a cafe on Tran Hung Dao, and then hit the road for a motorbike motorcade out to Hanh’s parent’s house, as we did for the an hoi. After a little tea and a few cigarettes were passed around, we were back on the road for what has become a tradition in recent years amongst Hanoi newlyweds: pictures of the happy couple in front of the historic Opera House. Looking for something a little different, we went out back, and shot a few frames by a tea stand and outdoor pool table, images I think capture Steve and Hanh’s personalities much more than the front of the building. We also managed to sneak inside the basement of the Opera House for a few shots along a beautiful old wrought iron staircase with sunlight streaming in the window.

Finally, before heading to the Melia Hotel for the reception, we snuck in a cheeky bia or two at our favorite bia hoi on Quan Su. Though already regulars, I think we’ll win points with the proprietors for bringing a wedding party to their bia hoi, possibly a first. Maybe they’ll be a bit more forgiving next time we’re there until midnight.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day, and even though a Sunday, it lasted well into the night as everyone wanted to keep the celebration going. Big thanks to Steve and Hanh for inviting all of us.

More pictures coming from Aidan soon, after he gets back from assignment in Nghe An province later this week.