Still in Saigon

I’m still in Saigon. I said I wasn’t going to leave until I have all my Cambodia photos processed and I plan on sticking by that. I wasn’t aware of just how many photos I had taken between Angkor, Preah Vihear, Tonle Sap and Phnom Penh. I still have 500 left to process. Taking photos is fun. Processing them isn’t so great.

I was especially upset with a lot of my photos because it was an overcast day when I visited Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple. When you have a bright gray sky, it tends to really wash out photos. When shooting landscapes or buildings, I like a blue sky with moderate amounts of fluffy clouds. I probably get more hung up on the sky than I should, but I hate having a solid white background.

I’m enjoying Saigon. It is a much better city than I thought it would be. I don’t think it is on a level with Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, but it can be within ten years. There is a vibrancy here. It may not be on a par with Hong Kong yet, but it is here.

I’ve become a regular at a local cafe with wifi. I am amazed at how waitresses in this part of the world go out of their way to point out my dimples in a matter of seconds. The woman who runs the guesthouse I’m staying at mentions them every time she sees me. I wonder if there is some cultural things in SE Asia surrounding dimples I don’t know about. If there is, perhaps I should stay longer :)

6 thoughts on “Still in Saigon”

  1. Me and the wife are planning on going to Saigon in February. Are there any things you could reccomend? Some fun activity that is not standard tourist fare perhaps? Some great place to eat?

    Really enjoy your blog,
    Mike

    • Yes. Basically I import about 10 images at a time into Photoshop. I shoot everything in RAW. Then i decide if the image should stay or go. Often times I'll have several shots of the same thing, but with different settings. I'll make small adjustments to exposure or other settings, trying to do as much as I can in RAW before I convert it to jpg.

      I might end up doing some more to it in jpg before I name and save it. I then have to upload everything, which can often take hours.

      I'm also using Photomatix for processing my HDR photos.

      It is just time consuming to do this for what was close to 2000 photos from Cambodia.

  2. When it's cloudy is great for portraits…don't forget that next time, you'll take some killer ones! I love the pic with the kids at Solomon island..heck I love that place!

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