Street Photography on Rainy Day in Hue, Vietnam. Afternoon Drizzle and Evening Heavy Rain

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(Edited)

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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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People were taking ponchos on and some were searching for a shelter like these kids:

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The girls agreed to pose for me while the rest people stayed unaware of our instant photosession.

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The lady motorbike didn't mind posing for a second either.

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Guy talking on phone below the plastic.

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Here, I had to put a poncho on myself.

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The panning technique worked well here.

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Portrait of a boy under plastic (cropped).

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Alas, heavy rain lasted for a quarter of an hour or so.

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And it looked the rain was stopping.

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I decided the photo walk ended and went to buy food for the evening and morning. However, no!

Sudden Downpour in Evening

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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.

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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:

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The best time to go out with the photo camera!

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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!

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I loved this grape invasion but had no time to photograph something with the clear story. Another juicy color:

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I really want heavy rain the whole day to have enough time!

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I was tired and my camera was getting riskily wet...

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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!

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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.



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31 comments
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Wow! This is a great job. I must commend you for the shots taken. I'm sure it mustn't have been easy, yet you have successfully captured rain into a wonderful experience. October it is! I look forward to seeing more pictures from this rainy walk 😊

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Hey, thank you! Yes, it wasn't easy considering all the water that dropped on my camera. But it was fun and wanna repeat! Cheers! 🙂

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very atmospheric captures Love the little old guy still fishing

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Love the little old guy still fishing

I met an amazing Thai person at the hostel, and I showed these pix, and we laughed a lot about this guy wearing a motorbike helmet while being on the riverbank with a fishing rod. Vietnamese are like that, big fans of motorbike lifestyle. :) Love it. Yes, an atmospheric image, probably. :) Thank you!

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you're welcome, I remember two wheeled grid lock all over the major towns and cities across Vietnam

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Great post, great photos, bravo!!!

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Happy to read such feedback since I am full of doubts - these are too recent pictures, I am usually blind about them for a while, can't see what are good or bad. Thank you!

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There must be no doubt, never. You have to believe in yourself and you have to

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Your posts are always top notch with some of the best candid street photography on Hive. I agree with Goga, and she knows her stuff, you shouldn't doubt yourself or your content. Keep up the great work!!!

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!PIZZA !
outstanding storytelling

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Happy to get such generous praise! Thank you, Victor!

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Фото класс 👍
Я тоже прибыл в Паттайю - надеюсь тоже буду что либо фотать и постить сюда ! Рад снова увидеть Азию 👋

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Поздравляю! Возвращение в Тай - всегда праздник. Даже возвращение из Вьетнама в Таиланд тоже праздник.) Обязательно будет у меня такой заезд (север Тая, вероятно), но попозже. Пригрелся в Хюэ, побуду тут)

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I love these! Rain played its role really good this time to capture lots of interesting faces out there :)

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Happy you like some images! Vietnam during heavy rain is the best destination in Vietnam :) I believe I could never truly show this but I will have more chances soon - rainy season here :)

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It's funny to see all the different colored plastic rain coats 😃
The one of the fisherman with the rain coat and the helmet really is my favorite.

There's quite a lot of photographs in your post. Personally I would have reduced it a bit and for instance focus on people with the plastic rain coats.
But that's just my two cents :)

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Okay, the second vote for the fisherman. 😎

focus on people with the plastic rain coats

This is a reasonable idea. Why I didn't do it... Posting on Hive is very intuitive in my case. I want to post a story with enough "quality weight". If my raincoat pictures were better, I could post only them. But I felt, nope, I should post more to get post stronger. (But most pictures from the walk were left unposted anyway). Secondly, I believe showing where things happen is necessary. So streets and landscapes are a must... That's how I see it. 🙂

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I see it's a well-considered decision 👍
I often get overwhelmed by blogs with a lot of photographs. I tend to lose the story a photographer is telling. But that might be my own problem 😃

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