What About Vietnam - S4-24 -How to capture Beautiful Photos - Focus Vietnam locations - Part 2

In Part 2 we continue our journey in the pursuit of the best pics of Vietnam with Thomas Levine as my guest: - Are you taking notes? You don’t need to. Just go to the Transcript for the episode on the website on this page. Part 1 and Part 2. 

Meet once again our extraordinary photographer, and guest Thomas Levine whose talents and experiences have taken him on an incredible journey around the world!

To his credit, Thomas’s travels have resulted in an extensive archive of photographs from many countries and more recently Vietnam, showcasing the rich tapestry of the continent. His images can literally transport viewers to awe-inspiring landscapes, bustling city streets, and intimate cultural moments, inviting you to experience the world through his lens. I think that's what we all want ....don't we!

In this show Thomas expands on his photography tips:- How do we take photographs of some of the local people in Vietnam streets and regional locations?

When taking pictures of people, Levine advises to look for expressions that show emotion, such as a person enjoying their food. He also suggests taking pictures of people in the background, so they don't know they are being photographed. When taking pictures in different locations, it is important to be aware of the local customs and rules. In some places, it is not acceptable to take pictures, while in others, it is encouraged. By understanding the local customs and rules, as well as looking for body language and expressions, photographers can create stunning images that tell a story. 

With the help of experienced photographers like Thomas Levine, we can all learn how to take stunning photographs that capture the true essence of a place like Vietnam.

Learn how to bring the best memories home with you by capturing alluring pics of Vietnam like a real professional with either your smart phone or digital camera.

Thomas is working on an e-book on travel photography. Links to his website below:-

https://www.levinephotography.com/

https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/levine-travel-stock

https://thomaslevinephotography.com

Skype: thomas.levine888

You will love learning Thomas’s handy tips applicable for any trip you have planned.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the series, where Kerry will talk to a new guest about drone photography in Vietnam - PLEASE don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast for more fun adventures in Vietnam.

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Transcript

[00:00:39] Kerry Newsome: Xin Chao and welcome to what about Vietnam? 

Today, we're going to be continuing with the series with Thomas Levine. And, I hope you're enjoying it. We've really learned a little bit more about Vietnam. And I think some of the attributes of the country that I guess, make it so exciting for people who love to take pictures and certainly learning with Thomas. 

Now,... how to keep our eye in the right place, and use the camera to its best ability, is really going to make those pics extra special. So today is part 2 of this series. There's actually going to be 3 parts. And I'm going to be talking to, , another guest in part 3 about drone photography.  So, I hope you'll stay tuned for part 3 in these photographic series. But today we are back with Thomas Levine. And we're going to be continuing the series with him and all of his extra tips. Let's be joined again with Thomas Levine.

Let's just jump right back in where we pick up talking about colour and the importance or the role it Plays in our photography 

[00:02:09] Thomas Levine: Blue the sky, the water you relate to blue in that, it's relaxing. It's a deep thing. It's moody. It's colors have meanings. So green and blue are usually something that are relaxing to people. So when they see the ocean, they see the sky, a blue sky.

They think, oh, this is nice. And so that kind of gives you an overall feeling for the picture, but you want to, depending on what your subject is, if it's a boat or it gets into space. Space is another element. And like I was talking about the yellow with the red, that's a space thing too.

 The whole space is yellow except for that person with the red. And so your eye automatically goes because of the space. And it really, whatever that subject you have is the space. It's a smaller space and you want everything to support that. And I'm talking like very it's very subjective and when you take a picture too, you think, oh, this is a great picture and you have this memory of this place, but you're not being objective because you know what it's like there. The picture will never be what it's like there. You can come up with a great picture, a piece of art, but when you relate it to what it's like when you were there, it doesn't really work.

Okay. And this, that's just the way it is. Maybe the picture's great. And it looks better than a, sometimes the pictures look better than when you were there. But for me your memory is filling in the blank and you show this picture to somebody else and they go what is that?

You know what it is ,cuz you were there. But when somebody else sees it, they don't know what it is. So a lot times I'll take a picture of something and I want a piece of. If somebody's got their hands or their shoulder in the picture, I know there's a person there. You don't always have to show the whole person or the whole thing.

What if it's a car or whatever. You just have to have an idea. Give them an idea of what it is because when they see that, then you know, they're like, oh, okay. It gets some realism into the picture. Yeah. I like pictures of people in some, in a lot of these. It just takes the element of boring out of it, I think.

Because really it's all about people. Especially in Vietnam there's, it's a culture. It's a culture shock for some people here. But and there's a lot of different cultures here because there's a lot of different like when you go in the North Vietnam there's all these different villages and they speak different lang languages.

Yeah. But the clothing is incredible. The colors. And sometimes you, it's hard to take a bad picture of that. But again, it depends on your lighting too. Lighting is another an element of art. I, I really I think lighting is so important. And that will dictate your colors too.

 If it's low light, your red's not gonna look red, it's not gonna look bright red. It changes tones, it changes you. You're green, depends on what time of day it is. Might look real green and might not look green because of the sun. So the thing is, when you're there and you're looking at it with your eye makes these adjustments and you think you know what it looks like.

And so that's what but the camera is gonna be a different story. It's gonna see what it's gonna see. Correct. 

[00:06:04] Kerry Newsome: Yeah. And I get overly disappointed about that scenario when you are looking at these Green Mountains and there's, they're just rolling in front of you and you go, oh, this has gotta be a great time to take . photo. 

And yet when you take that photo, that depth of color is just not there because as you say, the sun in some way has put a film over So that, that. That real vigorous green is taken away as depleted. And but yeah, but I also take your point about people. I get so crazily mad with my husband when he takes a hundred of these photos in the hills and from all these vantage points. Then he goes to tell and show people when he comes back and goes, oh, we walked around here and. It's just boring. All these photos. Look you could have been in the Highlands of Scotland

for all they knew because there's just no differentiation. 

 It doesn't click. It doesn't have relativity. And I think that contrast, that's why your story about the red and the yellow, the conical that got the focus.

Yeah. hat is one of the best things to photograph here with people wearing them. It tells a story right there, it's a for And it's, I the form of it it's and what they use it for. Because it keeps the sun off of them. It keeps, when it rains, it keeps the water off their face.

 And and actually it's got a breathing element to it too, so you don't get as hot. It's whoever came up with that, it must have been centuries ago. I don't know. But it was a great invention. 

Genius. Absolutely genius. Yeah I think speaking to The contrast. I'm always big in trying to get colors that contrast one

another instead of, for one of a better word, same. Same cuz if you're in too much red and too much red is taking, nothing gets the focal point. But if you've got that red against a blue background you've got the red lanterns of Hoi An against Thu Bon River, you've got that contrast. and light is a lot of it. It's not even just the colors, it's also the dark and the light. So if you have that blue and you got the red blue's kind of darker. So that, that, that's a one way to think about it. Don't think just about the color. It's also about dark and light, and that's the contrast sometimes.

 You can have a low contrast image. Cuz it wasn't. Really sunny or anything like that. But if you got some different colors going on in there and it's contrasty, that's a contrast of color and that'll if you don't have the light, but you got the color, sometimes you don't need the light like that, like you really want it to.

Okay. 

[00:09:03] Thomas Levine: But there's a, when you do edit cuz even if you take a picture on a 

iPhone or a regular smartphone, You can change the hue on it and that, like the green, you can change it a little bit and it'll turn things more green. But the problem is if you overdo it, turn everything green.

So it's just a slight change. And to me, I like green. I like, I, I wanna see it's a like green also has this other thing with plants. The older the leaves, the darker, the green the new part of it is brighter. We like the brighter cuz it's new for some reason. So that's how I to look at it.

And like I said, your eye is making these adjustments and you don't notice it. The camera doesn't. So if you can change it when you edit it, Then you're compensating for that camera. So it's not really changing it to where it's for the sake of change, you're changing it for a reason because you're eye, that's the way you see it.

And that's the way I like to make a picture, is the way I see it. And you develop that vision, that, that's the whole thing is you're developing your vision for the camera to be able to take a picture. And that's really what it's about, is seeing because cuz when you start learning more about photography, you start seeing different, you start seeing the light different, everything turned.

You can take a, like a, like I took a picture of a, an orange one time and then, nah, it wasn't the great it wasn't, it's just an orange, it was hanging in Florida, it was hanging down the tree. But the light hit it just perfect. And it changes the entire orange. Cuz it was a low light, it was it was morning and that contrast with the side light and it had fill from the tree.

 So it wasn't dark on one side. It was darker, but it wasn't dark. Too dark on one side and it just, the light will make a picture. There's a lot of things you can do with photography, but you have to play with it.

Yes, and I think the playing with it is a little bit of a challenge for everyone, cuz I know when you're traveling you're sometimes on a bit of a timetable and you've got either get back on the bus the bus is leaving or you, you're with a group and you may be with a partner.

That's, dare I say, not so patient. In you wanting to take, I can vouch for that permanently, but if you're traveling with somebody who is looking to achieve similar photography of a quality that you want to be able to share later or put on your Instagram

account or do whatever. It's, it does make a big difference because you have them to chat with and say are you seeing that? Because you're, it's another set of

eyes, isn't 

 It is. I was gonna talk a little bit about Ninh Binh if you want?

[00:12:25] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: Okay. Let's talk about some destinations. Yes.

Ninh Binh beautiful

[00:12:29] thomas_2_02-15-2023_105136: The biggest problem I had, and it's because I had a problem with my camera, but it made me realize that everybody has this problem if you don't think about it. And it's common sense. But when you get on these tour boats, especially with Tamh Coc. They row with their feet, so they have a power to it, and it's right in the beginning when they push, you feel that push.

Okay? If you're trying to take a picture and that thing's moving, then you have to have a faster shutter speed, but you also have to be able to time when you have the shutter go off. So the best. It is like a athletic event when somebody's playing tennis and they throw the ball up. You want it where that ball is at the peak and so it's staying in the air before it drops and that's when you wanna take a picture.

 It's the same thing with the rowboat. When they're rowing and you feel that push, get ready to take a picture. Cuz as soon as he is ready or she is ready to pull the back out of the water, that you have a little pause and that's when you take your picture because it's a lot more stable. And it also comes down too when you go on these boats get in the front if you can.

 Cuz that's your best pictures. Okay. There's some

yeah, it's, I just, I was thinking about it. It's it's like I don't think about that stuff cuz I just do it. But this is travel and not everybody takes pictures like I do. I go crazy with the camera. So you have to be able to. Compensate and you ha and be able to come up with a good picture and time.

It just so it's right. Because if you see somebody in another boat coming towards you, you are moving. They are moving, okay, this comes down to shutter speed. So you wanna be able to do it when you're at that pause, but they're still moving. You can't say, Hey, stop your boat. I wanna take a picture. That's not gonna work.

[00:14:35] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: How does, how do you do that on your phone?

[00:14:38] thomas_2_02-15-2023_105136: Most of the time I don't think there's too much of a problem cuz they're not going that fast. But again, you can get an app that will set the shutter speed for you. You can select a faster shutter speed. Cuz you want like a, like if you have a regular camera, it's two 50th of a second or if something like that, you want it a little faster and sometimes you don't, maybe you don't want them still.

Maybe you want them to show a little motion and not be sharp cuz that they're moving. It depends on what you want. Okay. So you have to try it both ways.

[00:15:13] Kerry Newsome: And when you've over water, 

what's your thoughts on reflections? And there's some really great reflective pictures that I've seen also, some you've done. Talk to us a little bit about capturing reflection.

[00:15:29] Thomas Levine: Okay I call it highlights because highlights something that's reflective like the water. Your eye is gonna go to the white part of the picture, okay? And if you have a highlight and the sun's coming in your eye's gonna automatically go to that light, okay? So highlights are good. But if you have too much highlight, then you're gonna have a problem with white going into your lens, and then it'll make it softer picture again, it'll look like you're not focused or something like that.

But it's hard to. Not have a thing to refer it to here. But there's also something called the polarizer. If you have a regular camera and you have, you want to see into the water. If the sun is at a 90 degree angle to the water, you can twist this polarizer and it'll actually take most of the reflection out.

So you might turn it dark and into the water, but the thing is, some people turn that thing where it's black. And I like highlights to a certain extent. So I think it's good to have some highlight because it's more natural than if it just goes black and you look into the water.

[00:16:44] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: Correct. 

[00:16:45] Thomas Levine: because I used to do it the other way too. I used to turn it so far that it would take out all the highlights, but I didn't really understand lighting back then. But you highlighting is a good thing to have in your picture. As long as you control it and it doesn't get into your lens because the light scatters.

As soon as the light comes down, if you have a subject, okay, what a color or a car or something, it's going to either absorb, it's gonna absorb light and also reflect light. It depends on whether that's the text, the texture, the color, that kind of thing. So if you have light coming in to hit that thing, to hit the subject, you are it could really be a great picture or it might not be a good picture.

 It depends on how you wanna show this subject. Is there anything else you want to cover off? For Ninh Binh before we move on to another location.

let me see. Ninh Binh was just a I love Ninh Binh and I would go back in a second if I'm thinking about going back there. But there's a lot of hiking. There's there's, you can take a boat rides into the the back country there and there's hiking up that mountain.

And you have a great view from up there. It's it's just a beautiful area and you get up there and you see all the rice patties on one side and the river on the other side. And the rice patties are always interesting to me because you have some of the animal the, they're work animals out there.

And it just it's an interesting scene. But if you just take a picture of a rice patty, And there's nothing going on. It's boring. You want something going on. And that's why I say with people or animals, that kind of thing. And if they're really way far in the distance, sometimes I don't even take a picture.

But it depends. I'm taking a picture for the different reason. If you take some pictures that are boring, that's okay, because this is a memory to you. You're traveling and you wanna show what it looks like. It doesn't always have to look like so interested. It doesn't have to, every picture doesn't have to be a great picture.

You want some good pictures, but you also want pictures of what it's really okay. That's my view.

[00:19:15] Kerry Newsome: I've always felt, the photos that I've taken, that I've loved the most have been when the farmer. Is in the fields. And because it's such backbreaking work that they do, they are bent, over. So sometimes you can get a capture of that. Their process of farming and the hats appearing in the rice patties looking like that.

There's not even a body attached to them, that they're just a row of hats because they're bent over. And if you get that contrast right, I've found that interesting and just. It's probably a good segue in to talk about capturing photos with people and maybe speak to us a little bit about getting people's permission,

where it's necessary or appropriate and how best to do it versus where it's a little bit freer and easy or, and you can take that

[00:20:21] Thomas Levine: Let me first say that you don't always have to take a picture of the person's face, like you said, if they're working in the field. There's such a thing as body language. Body language is, tells you a lot about what's going on in the scene. Okay? So if they're bent over, they're working okay.

That's fine. That's no problem. It's also nice to have a picture of a face. But a lot of these people, they don't like their fixture taken. And a lot of times I'll take a picture, but they won't know it and they'll see me. But when I first starting take to take pictures, I'll actually point the camera in a different direction and I'll keep an eye on what they're doing, and then I might take different pictures, and then one of 'em might be of them that they don't even notice anymore because I'm standing there, I was standing there looking in a different direction.

So that's one way. But the view of a lot of people is if they're out in. The open area, it's game is on. You can take a picture. They may not like it. 

[00:21:22] Kerry Newsome: You can have 

[00:21:23] Thomas Levine: Yeah. You can have that liberty, but some areas they might have a rule. You can't take pictures, so you have to be careful where you're at.

 Like in Hoan, a lot of times they don't like your picture. They don't like it when you, like at the market, they don't like to have their pictures taken. But when I went to some of the other markets and some of the other cities, they loved it. So it just depends on where you're at.

 Also like I'll point the camera and they'll see me. And then I'll kinda yes or no, I'm looking at them and they'll tell me whether they want the picture, if it's okay or that, yeah. And sometimes they look at me and then they'll raise their two, two fingers up, that kind of thing.

 That's okay, but that's I'm looking for.

[00:22:11] Kerry Newsome: Yes,

[00:22:12] Thomas Levine: when, like with

[00:22:13] Kerry Newsome: But you can do that with sign language,

[00:22:15] Thomas Levine: Yeah, can, you don't, 

can point to your camera. You don't have speak 

[00:22:19] Kerry Newsome: Vietnamese to Yeah. To get 

[00:22:22] Thomas Levine: and I'll point at my lens and they'll say, yeah or no they know what I'm talking about. When

[00:22:29] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: And I know I've spoken to Etienne Bossot who I think you know, in Hoi An , and he's very much dead against paying people to

[00:22:38] Thomas Levine: yeah, I am too. I am too. And it gets to be where they pose and I don't really like it when they pose too much. I like to pose them, 

[00:22:46] Kerry Newsome: No, they think they should. 

[00:22:48] Thomas Levine: Yeah I want them in their natural. I like casual. You give some great expressions. If they don't know I'm interested in what people are doing.

 I took a picture of a couple, they didn't know why I was there, and the guy's got his mouth full of food. But he is, and she's enjoying it, and she's looking at him while he is enjoying it. I like something going on in the picture and that's what makes it interesting, yeah, for

[00:23:14] Kerry Newsome: sure. 

[00:23:15] Thomas Levine: But yeah, sorry.

[00:23:17] Kerry Newsome: Do we want to move on to another place like Dalat

[00:23:21] Thomas Levine: okay. The Dalat is known for, it's very hilly. The architecture is a lot of it's French colonial, so I like to take pictures of some of the buildings and they have that monastery. If you take the cable car. Yeah. 

And so I took the cable car one time and actually before I took the cable car, they have a overlook.

You could take, you could see the whole city. And so you can actually take a landscape picture of the city before you even get on the cable car. And then when you get on the cable car, I like taking pictures through the window. And they have, you can see the treetops, you can see some farming. There's a lot of stuff going on.

You could take, I like taking pictures of the cables. Cable cars come in at you cuz you can take pictures of the people in there and you can see they're looking at you, they're taking pictures or whatever. And then when you get there there's tons of flowers there that you could take pictures of.

The monastery Actually I think I went in there, but I didn't take pictures. Maybe they don't allow it. I can't remember. But it's just it's a, it's very interesting. And again, they have markets too in, in Dalat, so they have Oh, they have the biggest strawberries I've

[00:24:37] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: ever seen. 

[00:24:38] Kerry Newsome: Like they do jams, which is an unusual thing for Vietnam. It's the only place I've actually seen where they preserve the fruits, et cetera, and turn them into these beautiful, tasty jams, but they're. The strawberries were like the size of 

They were huge and the color was so rich red getting back to red. But just you, as you say the markets were totally different. And they have another flower called the everlasting. Did you come across

[00:25:12] Thomas Levine: I probably did, but I don't know the name. I didn't know the name.

[00:25:16] Kerry Newsome: There's actually a flower that never

[00:25:18] Thomas Levine: Huh?

[00:25:19] Kerry Newsome: And they call them the Everlasting, and they sell them in poses and they can make them orna. So even though they're fresh

flowers, because they never die, it's freaky. Really freaky. I thought someone was having me on at the time, but then I learned later that it actually is quite true.

They call Everlastings. So they're these small, very small photos, very small buds. I'll send you a, I'll send you a photo of the ones and you'll go, oh, Kerry, you could have done better if I was

[00:25:56] Thomas Levine: So as long as I don't have to analyze it, that's fine.

[00:25:59] Kerry Newsome: No, don't. No, but they just to prove that

[00:26:03] Thomas Levine: You know what else they have there, which I haven't seen since California is artichokes. They grow artichokes in the lot 

 They're pricey. But they sure are good. And did you get up into the some of the waterfalls? That's where I had a really interesting experience trying to get that photography right. I have to admit to everyone that I've failed, but those waterfalls are just lovely. The Pongour waterfalls were

[00:26:34] Kerry Newsome: the ones I 

[00:26:35] kerry-newsome_2_02-15-2023_145136: spent 

[00:26:35] Thomas Levine: and you probably got there during midday, which the light's not the greatest. by the time you travel some of these places, it's not morning anymore. You have to get really early to get some great photos of some areas and people along there traveling, they just don't want to do that, which I don't blame 'em. I had a doctor friend. He was really into photography. He'd go, he'd take this picture and it was okay, and then they'd go back to their hotel and then his wife didn't want to go. He'd get up at four o'clock and he'd go back to the same location and take that picture again. And his pictures were great, but he he went way out of his way to back to the same place to take the picture.

And like I said, his wife is not interested in it whatsoever, but he had some really nice, 

[00:27:21] Kerry Newsome: Yes. 

[00:27:21] Thomas Levine: going back to a place that possible, but it's it's not convenient, 

[00:27:27] Kerry Newsome: And interesting do you find in Vietnam with some cities. See, when I think of color, I think of Dalat and the color purple. Because around the lake is lots of purple. Do you recall?

[00:27:44] Thomas Levine: I recall that, but it's, I guess it's because I've been looking at so much yellow lately. I think of yellow because of the those,

[00:27:51] Kerry Newsome: But see, yellow to me is associated with

Hoi An because of the, a lot of their buildings and the shop houses, et cetera have got that yellow walls to them and they, it's quite well, known, I think Dalat is purple. I don't know what city would we call as red? Would that be Hanoi?

Maybe.

[00:28:14] Thomas Levine: Yeah, there's a lot of I just think of red and I see those lanterns which are in Hoi An and I just looked at one, I took a picture of in Hanoi. They're all over the place. They're not as prevalent in Hanoi as they are here in, in Hoi An. It's a photographer's paradise.

But you, 

[00:28:36] Kerry Newsome: Oh, it is color everywhere.

[00:28:38] Thomas Levine: You have the ocean, you have the beach you have the rice fields, which actually make pretty good pictures too. And then of course you have in town and you have some of the popular locations you could get on a boat, you can rent a boat and they could take you on a tour and take pictures.

Those are, you can take, get some great pictures that way. And actually I've stood from shore and take pictures of these boats, and they're taking a picture of me at the same time. I'm taking a picture of them, so it's a little strange.

[00:29:08] Kerry Newsome: Yeah, and you've got that twilight, haven't you, on the river,

[00:29:11] Thomas Levine: Oh yeah. You get some great lighting here and then, and when you're in Old Town and that bridge and the lighting goes down, the light, the sunsets and the light hits it just right. And you got the boats going underneath. They make some great pictures from shore.

[00:29:29] Kerry Newsome: And it's happy hour. 

[00:29:30] Thomas Levine: Yeah. It's f r and you're not in the crowd because you're standing on the bank but it does get crowded.

[00:29:37] Kerry Newsome: favorite time of the 

[00:29:37] Thomas Levine: it does get crowded here. But at the same time, you have a lot of areas that are crowded, like I said, the beach and the rice fields. Cuz if you wanna take a walk or you wanna take a bike ride, rice fields are great for that.

[00:29:50] Kerry Newsome: So we've covered a little bit on Ninh Binh , a little bit on Dalat do you want to speak to everyone about Hanoi? What would you be looking for in Hanoi?

[00:30:01] Thomas Levine: Hanoi street photography people there's just these street vendors with flowers. They're sending fruit. They have their bicycles loaded down with, there's one, there's a guy, he has conical hats. He has all kinds of hats, and he carries that on a bicycle and watch it around. So you could stand on the sidewalk and just pick a place that's busy and you can take pictures of people going by.

 And that's my, one of my favorite things to do. But like we, we were talking about space. If you're looking down the street and you have tons of traffic where it's just traffic all the way across your front, okay. There's not too much of a picture there sometimes, unless you, unless it's for colour or something like that, but you, it's too busy.

You know what I mean? So one of my favorite pictures is, Looking down in the middle of the street. Okay. So if it opens up, which it will open up, you could see down into the middle and you can see some stuff going on down the street and then you have people on the right and people on the left on their motorbikes.

And it makes an interesting picture. And I've got a guy that's 

 Carrying some piece of glass or something at least way down in the middle. You wanna it takes your eye automatically. It's a line. It's ev even though it's not a line, it's a line because you have people on the right, people on the left.

It's a border. It's a frame that you're going down the middle and in the middle if you got something else going on in there, you want somebody to look inside your picture because that's where the stuff's going on. But you can't you gotta have an avenue, you gotta have an alley for your eye to go into.

[00:31:46] Kerry Newsome: Good

[00:31:47] Thomas Levine: also they had,

[00:31:49] Kerry Newsome: because I mostly take the lake.

 It is so pretty. 

[00:31:52] Thomas Levine: Yeah, there's flowers around the lake. Sometimes I'll take, I, I took a picture of some flowers and then I thought these are nice flowers. And then I actually moved the camera. When I took the next picture so that the flowers are blurry, so it looks like they're blowing in the wind.

You have to experiment to, to get it right. But it's a beautiful lake and they have that circle with people. You, if you want to take portraits, you can put people around that circle with the fountain. I think it's a fountain. And that's a nice picture, 

[00:32:26] Kerry Newsome: And you got the red bridge. 

[00:32:27] Thomas Levine: Yeah. When I was there, they were painting it unfortunately.

 But yeah, the red bridge really sticks out. It's great.

[00:32:34] Kerry Newsome: It's iconic. Yeah, absolutely.

 Is there another city you'd like to talk about?

[00:32:40] Thomas Levine: I, I went down to the Mekong that's an interesting, and when you go onto the floating markets, that's an interesting picture. You get four in the morning and you get the sun coming up. Now I had the sun in my lens a lot of times, so a lot of pictures just didn't come out that great cuz it was just a really bright sun.

 And I could, and I was in a boat so I couldn't like, say go, I was at a tour so I couldn't say go left or go right. But if you get your own boat and you hire a tour person and you don't have any other passengers, they'll take you wherever you want to go. But get people working.

It's interesting because they have these big boats and they're full of fruit and you got other people buying their fruit on their boats and they stick these poles up in the air with whatever fruit they're selling it. 

I took a picture of the person that was operating my boat, she saw I was taking a picture. So what does she do? She poses for the camera. I didn't really want that, so I took a few like that and then I had to wait until she was actually busy and then I took the picture and that's the picture that I liked because it was casual. She was busy. That's she was doing her job and that's what I liked.

 But she was posing as soon as she knew I was taking the picture right before that, she posed for it. Maybe you want that. Some I like having some of those too. It's good to have different stuff because when you're showing different people or you're showing the one person, all these different pictures, you don't want your stuff boring, like I said.

Yeah. If you have somebody standing right smack in the middle of a frame on every picture, it's boring. So you wanna Have them show like you, they're the guide and they're showing you the area. They could have their arms out, they could have the statue and leading on the statue.

There's all sorts of things you could do when you have a travel buddy. So that makes it fun that's really what the name of the game traveling, is having fun.

[00:34:37] Kerry Newsome: Absolutely. Yeah. And capturing as many great memories as you possibly can. You're not always going to get the perfect circumstance, but certainly I think photography plays such a big role in preserving those memories for people long beyond and trying to explain it to other people.

When you get home, I know when I get home and I say, oh, I went to such and such, and. I'll show people women dressed in their Ao Dai's or the schoolgirls riding their bicycles home from school, and they're all

dressed in white Ao Dai's because that's what they wear to school. People can't believe that in this day and age that you know. The Vietnamese whole, very strong sentimentality, I guess towards their traditions, which I think is

fabulous. And wear their Ao Dai's with pride and it's not staged. It's not just

for tourism. 

[00:35:37] Thomas Levine: part of the culture. 

[00:35:38] Kerry Newsome: the culture that is. Yeah.

So taking photos of that, I think is also

[00:35:44] Thomas Levine: And there's all there's for instance, when I was sitting I was having dinner with my friend and we were inside and we were talking about some old times and he broke out in laughter what we were talking about, and that's when I took the picture and he had lost it he just he was laughing so hard. 

[00:36:03] Kerry Newsome: I love 

[00:36:04] Thomas Levine: the picture and it was like preserved, it's perfect. That's what you wanna do.

[00:36:09] Kerry Newsome: because you never get that time back again. That's why I stress with 

[00:36:13] Thomas Levine: Exactly. Yeah, it's just you're taking a snapshot in time. Although I don't like the word snapshot, but you're really making pictures when you take time to take a picture and you're trying to line things up.

You're thinking about it. You're making a picture. Not just taking a picture.

[00:36:28] Kerry Newsome: Yes. And that's where the art comes into 

[00:36:31] Thomas Levine: And the more you know about it, 

 Sometimes if you don't know about it too just. I think a lot of it's aesthetic, but there are principles and there's like rules of photography. But my biggest thing is it's okay to break the rules cuz there's really no rule. It's you can make up your own rules if you want.

Now whether somebody else likes it or not, it's the next question, but if you like it Yeah, and purpose is important. Is it for you or is it for other people, or do you wanna sell

[00:37:04] Kerry Newsome: it it's all those different kind of purposes. What is your purpose? If it's for your own memory? You can take it any which way

[00:37:12] Thomas Levine: And as far as travel I, when I talk about travel, it's usually because they've just taken it for themselves or show their friends. But 

[00:37:20] Kerry Newsome: yeah, all right, Thomas is is there some information that you can leave with us so everyone can contact you maybe to get some lessons from you or things like that? 

[00:37:34] thomas_2_02-15-2023_105136: I'm working on a I'm almost done and I'm working on a an ebook. On travel photography, but it's tips. And I go through line and I go through color. I don't go through all the elements of art. I just want to give somebody a basic thing. They could go out and improve their photography because that's the whole thing.

But if you make it too technical, I, yeah, I talked about art more than the technical side. Then it's I wanna make it easy. Okay. And the technical side, operation of your camera, there's all sorts of stuff on the internet on that. So you should learn how to use your camera and if you have the smartphone, if you wanna take more creative pictures, you should look into the apps that they have for controlling shutters, speed and aperture.

And they have other apps too. And you could do slow motion. There's all sorts of stuff. So yeah. 

[00:38:28] Kerry Newsome: Okay, thomas, thanks very much for being on the show 

[00:38:32] Thomas Levine: , thank you very much, Kerry. I appreciate the interview.