Good morning Vietnam

After a few days spent bumming around Bangkok doing nothing particularly touristy (I watched The Hunger Games and had a Mcdonalds) I decided it was time to go somewhere new. Boy did I hit the ground running with Vietnam.

Hanoi was hectic, stressful and overwhelmingly eventful, but it was also spiritual, cultured, vibrant and exotic. In other words it was love at first sight. I spent the first half of the day wandering the streets of the old quarter. I explored temples tucked into corners, walked past streets packed with shops selling things based on themes (such as christmas decorations, childrens clothing and in one particularly beautiful example and entire street packed with flowers).

After all this excitement I was ready to head somewhere a bit more meditative so I visited the beautiful Bach Ma temple. Wonderfully decorated and filled with buddhist statues, ancient poetry, the waft of people giving incense and writhing with dragons that decended from pillars set into the rooftops it was a place of awe inspiring beauty.

After visiting the temple I parked my bum on one of the many street vending stalls and had my first taste of Vietnamese food. It turned out to be both variably in cost and flavour, ranging from the exquisite to the awful (as fitting a metaphor for Vietnam as you'll as likely to find).

I felt the need for something a bit more laid back after this so I headed for one of the many lakes in the city of Hanoi. It was an ocean of calm in an otherwise hectic city and I spent a good hour or two there relaxing and watching the comings and goings of the city.

I felt by the time I left Hanoi that it was time to go somewhere more relaxing so I decided upon the verdant hills of Sapa.

Photography: Its stuck in a rut

Type into any search bar on the internet the word photography and browse the results and I'll predict what you will find:

Sunset or sunrise beach scene with blurred and misty water, arty black and white shot of couple/child/old people (probably just after its rained), blurred out green field with central object/person as focus point, mountain and or forest scene at sunrise or sunset (with heightened colours due to polarizing lense), amazing star trail with focal object in front.

Even the shots that are breaking the mold such as travel shots look like they could be used interchangeably without anyone noticing; cue earnest asian person shot in traditional dress, tribal/traditional person in bright colours, breath taking view with stunned hikers in front, metropolitan scene with bright light skyscrapper.

Its all remarkably meticulous, well composed, very skilled and most of all utterly, utterly dull. In short modern photography would seem to me to be stuck in a rut.

Blame stock photography websites, blame what is 'traditionally' done in photography, blame appealing to the photography judges, blame mainstream and bland appeal or just say fuck that.

I'm not pretending i'm particularly skilled as a photographer (I haven't even studied it to college level) but surely there should be more to this art form then taking the same picture as everyone else. Why not experiment? Just because the best light may be at sunset or sunrise doesn't mean you won't get good shots at other times of day. Take you camera off the tripod when shooting at night and get blurry as fuck images, break the golden rule deliberately, get warped reflections, get your hands in the shot, tell a subject to run away or toward you in fear or hatred when taking portraiture shots or throw (soft) things at them when taking the shot, take a picture of the trash can next to the amazing mountain.

None of these might be good ideas or even that original but at least they won't be the same as every other bland shot, because art is meant to be about personal expression and what is expressive about taking the same shot as everyone else?