One of the 30 images from my new collection on Foundation. This was my first time in Vietnam and this was the view as I was flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Phú Quốc. SE Asia is great for these sorts of photos because there is often a lot of humidity in the air that helps to create these crepuscular light patterns.
One of the reasons we went here was to film some footage for the very first camera bag Kickstarter we did with Peak Design! Since then, there have been a lot more bags made, and you can see all of them over on the Peak Design website!
And, for old-times-sake, here is the first Kickstarter video we made!
Here in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, we never saw a bad sunset. They were all winners. It made me think that maybe I want to live on a little island like this where great sunsets are a regular thing. But, I’m definitely more of a mountain-kinda-guy. I don’t get to see as many great sunsets, but I like seeing all the beautiful light on the mountains around me all the time. I sort of think of that as a non-stop sunset with interesting textures and shapes in the sky.
After our Kickstarter with Peak Design broke $2 Million, I decided to do a live broadcast to talk more about the latest happenings and news! Here it is below…
I had such a blast with the amazing team from Peak Design when we went to Vietnam… here are some photos!
I don’t spend a lot of time on islands, but I forget how often they get great sunsets. Especially now that I live in the mountains, I just never see the horizon. It’s a strange thing, going countless weeks or months without seeing the horizon.
While my friends and I were in Phu Quoc, we decided to go far afield and check out some very remote beaches. We got down here and saw this old boat with a couple frolicking nearby. She looked so pretty in her dress that I asked her to jump up on the boat so I could take the picture. Her boyfriend asked me if I wanted him to be in the photo as well, and I was like, I don’t think so pal. I’m just kidding… he was a nice guy, though 🙂
I’ll be talking to the team soon about whether or not we’ll do another bus trip! Let me know if you’d be interested in that!
I came out of my hotel in Ho Chi Minh and was in a sea of some kind of rally. I really have no idea what was going on, but it seemed to be all 40+ women, and, well, that one dude you can see looking at me… possibly as confused as I was!
Below I mention the great Peter Lockett. I swear, this guy can make anything happen. He was able to get us Any Thing Any Time in Vietnam. We commandeered several vehicles, got into the most amazing places, and basically had everything we ever needed and more! I gotta go on more trips with this dude!
We ended up on a beach in the south part of the island to do some filming for the Kickstarter video. Out in the water, we could see a cluster of floating homes. At one point, Lockett commandeered this boat and driver who then was awesome enough to take me out to see it. Incredible!
In case you missed it, here’s Robot Trey on Snapchat (treyratcliff) after landing.
Here’s a photo I got out of the airplane window when flying from Ho Chih Minh city to Phu Quoc. As you can see, the sky was pretty crazy, and these are some of my favorite (and quite rare) light situations! I started shooting casually with my RX100, but then when things really started hotting up, I decided to go for the big A7r!
What is good man Art Viger from Peak Design even doing? Does anyone know what he’s up to? Only the shadow knows… To see the latest, pop over here!
I have a version of this photo with no boat, but I’m amazed how much a little boat adds to the photo. Same thing with people. It makes me want to get more human shapes into the landscapes to give them some sense of scale. The problem is, of course, there’s not often humans around these places! And I don’t want to Photoshop people into the scene… that seems a bit too much!
When we went out to the small island off Vietnam called Phu Quoc, we spent pretty much every night in the water, watching the sunset. It was so amazing… we were with a great group of friends, and I’ll never forget it!
The airlines played THIS song for us upon arrival… and as you might suspect from what you read below, we were all singing along!
I was only in Ho Chi Minh for a few nights before jumping on a plane with some friends to go visit Phu Quoc. There were 5 of us on the plane and it was a Friday night. They didn’t serve any alcohol on the plane, so we bought a whole bottle of whiskey before the flight and just passed it around like pirates. It was insanely fun… and we were all taking photos out the window all the while.
Okay, this is probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. But I keep doing it, so that probably says something about me. I’ve recently been cracking myself up by using Robot Voice to analyze the world around me. It’s kind of addictive and I have several of my friends doing it now too! Haha… Anyway, I’m just now leaving Vietnam, and here are a few 24-hour highlights that I uploaded to YouTube.
The way Snapchat works is that I think it stores the latest stuff for 24 hours and then it goes away. You have to hold down your finger to watch it, and then it goes away forever! I won’t always upload to YouTube, in fact, I rarely will… just thought you might want a sneak peek.
For www.TheArcanum.com — on Friday, May 29th we’ll be doing 24 hours of critiques for anyone for photos of any type: Landscape, Portrait/Model, Street, Aerial, Wedding, Macro, whateva!
We’ll be live on video critiquing photos all day long, starting with me and several other Masters at midnight, New York time. The Schedule of critiques is at the bottom!
So….
1) You can post your images to be critiqued over in THIS thread at: https://goo.gl/l9RvFZ
2) Join the Thunderclap for this event at: https://goo.gl/4DYd9U (This is a new social thing)
3) See the Event at https://goo.gl/X5rGQK
We are currently at over 800 Apprentices and we’ve had applications from over 100 countries! Be sure to pop over and enter your own application at www.TheArcanum.com – join this amazing new movement and new style of learning!
Here’s the Schedule (we’ll be critiquing photos on video, live, and these will be uploaded to YouTube afterwards):
All times EST (New York Time) on Friday, May 29:
Midnight: Landscape, Travel, Aerial Critiques
Watch Live: https://plus.google.com/events/c6segfse7mqbkeng8g79fa23tb8
Masters so far to critique: Trey Ratcliff, Ollie Dale, Glenn Guy, Wes Hardaker, George Krieger, Angela B. Pan, Special Guests
9 AM: Portrait, Wedding, Model Critiques
Watch Live: https://plus.google.com/events/cuhgpcj34h87gdtvvsnuoaeutfg
Masters so far to critique: Trey Ratcliff, Stephan Bollinger, Ron Clifford, Jessica Lark, Alastair Arthur, Special Guests
1 PM: Street, Urbex Critiques
Watch Live: https://plus.google.com/events/c4h88u6rikm4aucp5m7dllgpkng
Masters so far to critique: Trey Ratcliff, Mason Marsh, Special Guests
3 PM: Nature, Macro Critiques
Watch Live: https://plus.google.com/events/cp4mo24kqhdu7gduojdjfealhm0
Masters so far to critique: Trey Ratcliff, Laurie Rubin, Les Imgrund, Ollie Dale, Angela B. Pan, Mason Marsh, Special Guests
7 PM: General, Fine Art Critiques
Watch Live: https://plus.google.com/events/c8tuaorhiuc68dg9bdj6cn4cico
Masters so far to critique: Trey Ratcliff, Ellen Anon, Ron Clifford, Ibarionex Perello, Bob Coates, Trace Aiken, Special Guests?Daily Photo – Walking Along the Beaches of Phu Quoc
Honestly, I had never heard of the little island of Pho Quoc in Vietnam before we decided to go there on a lark. It’s a small island, about the size of Singapore, that is just below Cambodia but still owned by Vietnam. It’s very nice, not too crowded, and the beaches are among the best in Vietnam. This is way down south on the island where things are even more peaceful!
