Category Archives: Photography

Photography Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, Uncategorized

New Photography

July 17, 2024 Paul

By Paul Evan Green 17/07/2024

Ba Son Bridge, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photography by ©Paul E Green

Last week our three year old son was diagnosed with Pneumonia which required us to relocate from our home in Ho Chi Minh City, drop everything, and attend to his recovery at Hanh Phuc Hospital. This hospital offers excellent medical care to women and children and we highly recommend it if you’re in need of these services while in Ho Chi Minh City.

Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam. Photography by ©Paul E Green

During this forced break from my three part-time jobs of being an English teacher, Photography Tour Guide, Commercial Photographer and also my Creative Photography work, I was determined to do something constructive. I haven’t blogged for a while and wanted to reflect on my recent photography work that falls under the six broad categories of Commercial Photography, Travel Photography, Portrait Photography, Street Photography, Stock Photography and Aerial Photography. I will talk about some recent developments in software and an update to my camera gear.

Street life, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photography by ©Paul E Green

I’m really enjoying the improved AI masking tools offered by the latest version of Adobe Lightroom CC allowing for easier and greater precision while working on selective areas of a raw file. It is useful for all kinds of photography. It speeds up and greatly improves the post-production process. Another really great feature is the AI de-noising option which is particularly effective when using small sensor cameras like my drones. It does a remarkable job of reducing noise and enhancing the image quality from the raw files of the drones I’m currently using, the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and the DJI Mini 4 Pro. It is also useful for minimising noise in low light street photography work.

Studio Portraits: L. Amaryska and Aloa, Mother and Daughter. R. Singer Victoria Queen. Photography by Paul E Green

The DJI Mini 4 Pro is the only new equipment I’ve bought in recent times as my other gear is still adequate for my needs. My go-to studio camera is the Canon 5DS which, when set a 50 ISO produces really beautiful results in the studio. I also have an ageing Canon 5dMkIV which is a great all round workhorse that also produces beautiful cinematic 4k video. I use it on the streets and in low-light situations. I have recently been approached to produce professional video and photography for social media purposes and wanted the option of 4k vertical video in my drone. The best option was the DJI Mini 4 Pro. This little travel drone has really impressed me. It has very long flight time, is really compact and a has excellent signal strength. DJI has been working hard and very successfully to improve their products. I love having the vertical format in the sky for architectural photography. It’s like a view camera with accurate perspective control. It does lack somewhat in megapixels but I love it and I’m taking a lot of new photos with it.

Hotel Photographs for Bach Suites, and Bach Place, as directed by Kerryn Haig. Photography by Paul E Green.

Grand Hotel, Ho Tram, Vietnam. Photo by Paul E Green

I’ve been fortunate to work with my friend and talented designer Kerryn Haig on some new projects over the last little while. Kerryn has been active in design and production of high quality furniture for export over the last 25 years here in Vietnam. She is also an experienced interior designer/photo stylist/art director. It’s always a pleasure to work with Kerryn on projects ranging from hotel interiors, high end industry websites, to studio shoots for beautiful new products. It has become important to photograph product for export, before shipping, giving more opportunity to sell online prior to the product landing. We are offering this high quality photography service to exporters.

Images of furniture for export as directed by Kerryn Haig and Chris Sayers for Wisteria Design. Photography by Paul E Green

Photography Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam

Photography of District 8 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

March 23, 2021 Paul

In recent months I have been slowly discovering an area near my home that appears to be slightly disconnected from the rest of the inner districts around Ho Chi Minh City. I find myself as the only expat when I go walking around. It’s an island between 2 canals. I feel very conspicuous but people are friendly even if they do wonder what the hell I’m doing there in district 8.

I’m coming here when I need to clear my head and get back to real photography. Initially I came here to lead a photo walk late in 2020. What struck me was that the area seemed to be stuck in a time warp.

There is evidence that the area was once an important part of river trade and it sits opposite Cho Lon on the canal that leads to the Mekong Delta. Cho Lon (Chinatown) was and still is a vibrant district famous for it’s Binh Tay market, and classical Chinese architecture dating back to 1778.

District 8 has well preserved examples of French Colonial architecture, a very traditional central market and many interesting street markets. Partly a low lying area, it can easily flood with heavy rain or when the canal overflows.

Once a year in the 2 weeks before the lunar new year, there is a spectacular flower market along the canal in district 8. Boats come down from the Mekong Delta to sell their flowers. It is a favorite subject for local photographers.

There are large and small bridges along the waterways and areas where traditional wooden riverboats can unload their cargo or restock.

I am taken by this place and its people and will return so watch this space! To see more of my photography and video work please go to http://www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

Budapest, European Photography, Photography, photography poland, poland, Uncategorized

European Photography Summer 2017

September 7, 2017 Paul

European Photography by Paul Green. I started of in Budapest in the 3rd week of August to work on a family history project for a private client. Budapest is a city that I knew a bit about but always wanted a reason to visit. It’s a charming city with magnificent architecture. I enjoyed walking around in my spare time.

New York Cafe

Four Seasons Hotel Lobby Gresham Palace

(Detail) Memorial For Jews shot by Nazis on the bank of the Danube

Formula One came to town and that was my cue to leave. I decided to have a look at some small towns in Poland and headed by bus to Katowice. I was interested in the Pre-war Jewish history and it’s always difficult to find any traces. I found the Jewish cemetery and a couple of monuments. There is still a very small community in the town.

From Katowice I went to Zakopane in the south of Poland. Here I was interested in the architecture and the mountains. I started doing some timelapse sequences and did a lot of walking.

Timelapse combining sequences from Zakopane and Radomsko

Radomsko was the home town of my father’s grandparents although they didn’t ever talk about the place much. It was a major Hassidic centre in Poland. When my great grandparents lived there it was part of Russia. There are still a few old buildings there so i was trying to look at things they also would have seen. Trying to share experiences with them.

Beautiful windows in an old apartment building

Old Jewish owned building

(Detail) Mass grave in Jewish Cemetery

My second job was in Zdunska Wola. This was a beautiful art project entitled “The missing mezzuzot of Zdunska Wola” by Estelle Rozinski. This was my 5th visit to Zdunska Wola and it was primarily a filming job. I took very few images for myself but I was struck by a stack of mazevot (Jewish Grave Stones) in the back yard of the museum. The Jewish cemetery in ZW is very beautiful partly due to the excellent stone masonery .

Stack of Jewish Tomb Stones Zdunska Wola

After filming the 73rd anniversary commemoration of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto I arrived in Warsaw.

Old Town Warsaw

Photography, Sigma Art Series Lens Review, Uncategorized

Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens First Impressions

June 17, 2017 Paul

I’ve never owned such a wide lens before but when I upgraded my Canon gear from the 5dmk3 to the 5dmk4 and 5ds my trusty L series17-40 f4 was suddenly no longer sharp enough for the results I needed for myself and my customers.

I have not bought anything other the canon L series lenses for many years now. Sometimes I’ve opted for the slower lenses due to weight as I travel extensively on Film and Photography assignments. Weight is a major factor for me and heavy fast lenses in my experience are back breakers.

So I weighed up the Sigma 12-24 f4 Art Lens (1151g ) against the Canon L series 11-24 f4 (1180g .) Both are very heavy!

There weren’t many informative comparisons online and I couldn’t gauge the performance of the Sigma especially on the 50mp 5ds but I’ve been hearing rave reviews of Sigma’s art series lenses. Many of my peers have been raving about them for a while. Mainly Dean Tirkot, Marco Bok and Derek Henderson.

I havn’t read a single bad review of the Canon L series 11-24 f4 but it’s really heavy, really big and really expensive. The front element is a very impressive piece of glass that reminds me of a Zeiss 40mm distagon front element from the Hasselblad days. Also $4000 is a bit pricey in the current economic climate for 1 piece of equipment in a world where you need many and varied pieces of equipment.

Yesterday, at half the price of the Canon I took delivery of my first Sigma Art series lens and today I took a few pics with it. I took my 5dmk4 which I prefer using to the 5ds. Lets have a look at the pics and see how the lens performed under different conditions and on different settings.

I won’t do any profile corrections in Lightroom. So here we go!

Photo paulegreen 8914.jpg

is of Australian artist Ken Unsworth’s sculpture “Stones against the Sky’ located between Darlinghurst and Kings Cross in Sydney. The picture was slightly backlit but there is plenty of detail in the shadows and highlights. The photo appears very sharp.

Settings were ISO 100 12mm f7.1 1/800 sec

Photo: paulegreen8918.jpg

is The wall of the Darlinghurst Fire Station. It’s a good subject to test a wide angle lens. There is a very slight loss of sharpness but it was shot at f4.

Settings were ISO 250 12mm f4 1/80 sec

Photo paulegreen8927.jpg is on the escalator at Kings Cross Station. Again I shot wide open to test distortions on the edges of the lens. I’m happy with the way this image resolved even though there is a bit of blur due to slow shutter speed.

Settings were ISO 400 12mm f4 1/25 sec

Photo: paulegreen8930.jpg

This is another test like that of the fire station wall. Again I’m very happy with the corner sharpness and the barrel distortion is acceptable for such a wide lens. I have Canon L series lenses with significantly more barrel distortion than this. It is easily corrected. Also the shutter speed is very slow for a handheld photo.

Settings were ISO 500 12mm f4 1/13 sec

Photo:paulegreen 9836

is of a row of Victorian Houses in Darlighurst at night. It’s a seriously wide angle view that I would never have previously been able to achieve.

Settings ISO 5000 12mm f4 1/30 sec

Photo:paulegreen 8941.jpg

is a shadow of a tree against a painted wall illuminated by street lights. I can’t fault the lens sharpness in the corners.or the even coverage of light on the 5dmk4 sensor.

Settings were ISO 5000 17mm f4 1/30 sec

I did find a pretty good technical review after I finished writing this blog at https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-12-24mm-f4-dg-hsm-art-lens-review/2

On first impressions the Sigma 12-24mm f4 Art lens is astounding. I’m really excited with the possibilities the this lens will add to my photography and film making.

Happy image making!

Maroubra Beach, Photography

The Bra, Maroubra, January 2016

February 4, 2016 Paul

Mahon Pool at the Northern end of Maroubra on Australia Day 2016I like to multitask! Dog walking and photography are a great fit so when a dog/house sitting gig came up in the Bra, a quirky beachside suburb in the South/East of Sydney in Summer I was very excited.

(Paul Evan Green) — Morning Walk on Marine Pde, Maroubra

The natural environment is absolutely stunning. The long days of a Sydney summer offers time and space for socializing, walking, swimming, surfing, cafe hopping and one of my very favorite activities as a photographer, storm chasing.

Maroubra in the local Aboriginal language means “Place of Thunder.” During my stay here I have seen many storms and have had the opportunity to photograph, film and record the sound of these impressive natural displays of awe.

Maroubra is a vibrant and harmonious multicultural community in a coastal setting. There are a large number of families with young children in the area with many sporting clubs and facilities available.

The surf culture at Maroubra feels like it hasn’t changed much since the 1970’s. There have been many great surfers from Maroubra. The greatest in my opinion is Larry Blair who won the Pipeline Masters contest in 1978 and 1979. Mark Matthews is currently one of the most fearless and excellent big wave riders in the world.

Different ethnic groups have contributed a dazzling array of architectural styles. Whether this strange fusion has any architectural merit will be for history to judge.

lubliniec, Photography, poland

A Week, Tuesday to Tuesday in Lubliniec Poland.

May 1, 2014 Paul

It’s springtime. I’m in a rural area of Silesia about 60km from Katowice. This is one place where English doesn’t work but people do try to speak to me in German once they realise I can’t speak Polish. You can see more of my work at www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

I’m here making a documentary about a young couple who met and now live together in Sydney. Karina and Sachin are getting married on Saturday in Karina’s nearby home town called Kalety. The doco is about the joining of a Fijian, Indian, Hindu family and a Polish Catholic family.

The project was dreamed up and is being produced and directed by my friend Chris Cole who has an architecture practice in Fiji and who knows Sachin’s family.

Chris worked as a cameraman back in the pre digital days of film. It has been a great experience working with him and learning a different approach from someone who has ducked the digital revolution and hasn’t worked in the industry for many years.

This week has been very important for Polish people. Their beloved Pope, Karol Józef Wojtyła, or Pope John Paul II was canonized by the Vatican as a saint by Pope Francis.

Pope John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church’s relations with Judaism, Islam, the Anglican community and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Another Polish saint who is celebrated in Lubliniec and who was canonized by Pope John Paul II is Edyta Stein. Also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edyta Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to the Roman Catholic Church and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and one of the six patron saints of Europe.

In 1938 she and her sister Rosa, were sent to a Carmelite monastery in the Netherlands for their safety. They were arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to Auschwitz where they were gassed on 9 August 1942.

Although Edyta was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw) in 1891 she spent much of her childhood in Lubliniec as it was the hometown of her grandparents.

I visited the Lubliniec Jewish cemetery yesterday. Originally the cemetery was divided into three plots: for men, women, and children. In all, 1,117 people were buried there.

The Nazis devastated the cemetery during World War II and used the gravestones to pave the road from Lubliniec to Żuków. In 1958 the Polish national authorities took over the cemetery and opened a driver training centre on the site. Fragments of gravestones were piled up in a few heaps.

Among those buried in the cemetery are the grandparents of Edyta Stein: Adelajda Courant and Salomon Courant as well as Edyta’s elder brothers: Emst and Richard.

biography, bondi beach, Photography

The Bondi Gate Keeper, Michael Sweet

March 2, 2014 Paul

Michael Sweet is the Gate Keeper of Bondi. Year in and year out, day or night, Summer or Winter, he is stationed at one of two places along O’Brien Street. He is the first person we all see as we drive into Bondi from Old South Head Road.

His father was Polish and his mother Hungarian. Dad was an academic and mum a music teacher. His parents emmigrated to Australia after the Second World War.

He is a friendly and happy soul who enjoys company and conversation.

When I asked him why he sat in those two places he answered that they were the places he felt most safe.

Selected photos can be viewed or purchased from my website at

www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

biography, bondi beach, Photography

Artist in 2 of her 3 personae. Meet Gretel Pinniger and her Alter Ego Madam Lash.

March 2, 2014 Paul

I’ve known Gretel Pinniger for many years. These are 2 portraits I took of her one night at Florida House, Palm Beach in 1996.

The first is Gretel as Gretel and the second is her alter ego Madam Lash.

Gretel’s manifesto on Art will give you more of an idea about who she is:

Manifesto on Art

I believe that True Art comes only from the highest impulse within ourselves, which we must seek and find by a process involving Faith, Focus, Discipline and constant Practise. For me this is so exhilarating, blissful and such Fun, my dedicated wish is to share my views with as many people as possible.

I look to the example of the Greatest Masters of Art and Music to find what I seek to bring to the practise of Art. In company with them, I am concerned with only the most exalted subjects – Religious and Spiritual themes and Portraits of only the most highly vibrational individuals, usually themselves Musicians and Artists of all kinds and other people I admire as being well advanced on the path to human enlightenment. I celebrate their art and personal qualities with my own abilities, in the belief that I will leave behind me each time, a work which will give pleasure to many generations through contemplating what I do. I hope that they may know this person or this state as I do, through my art. Therefore for me ‘art’ concerned with misery, squalor and inhumanity, or portraits of unenlightened people or losers, suicides or murderers are not for me.

Although I have been painting for over 25 years, with new focus in the last 3 years, I have so far, never sold and hardly ever parted with any of my paintings. They are painted from the pure delight of doing so, and my belief that, that painting should exist.

I intend my works to be placed only in major public places where they may live after me, eg. Opera Houses and Galleries. The others stay with me and are to be incorporated into my larger ‘Works in Progress’, ‘The Kirk’ Cleveland St, Surry Hills and ‘Florida House’ Florida Rd, Palm Beach, both of these being large old stone buildings, now being transformed into live in Art Works where I seek to attract under my roof the energies of any and all like minded Art and Fun-Lovers on the basis of “The better you look, the better I look, the better we’ll all look”.

Gretel Pinniger,
a.k.a. Malame Lash and now
The Immaculate Lash

These photos were taken with a Rolleicord Twin Lens camera which had a 75mm Carl Zeiss f3.5 Tessar Lens. This camera was manufactured from 1933 till 1976.

The Tessar is a famous photographic lens design conceived by physicist Paul Rudolph in 1902 while he worked at the Zeiss optical company and patented by Zeiss; the lens type is usually known as the Zeiss Tessar.

A Tessar comprises four elements in three groups, one positive crown glass element at the front, one negative flint glass element at the center and a negative plano-concave flint glass element cemented with a positive convex crown glass element at the rear. He named the result “Tessar”, from the Greek word τέσσερα (téssera, four) to indicate a four-element design.

I bought this camera from Grace’s Camera Bargains in Victoria St Potts Point in Sydney in around 1993. I adapted it with a Prism Finder from a Mamiya c330 which was fun. I don’t know where the camera is now.

I used this camera for a number of other photos at that time including my “Bondi Rock” photowhere I painted the surface of the rock with light over a one hour exposure at night.

Selected photos can be viewed or purchased from my website at

www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

biography, bondi beach, Photography, photography italy, photography poland, photography vienna, poland

Approaching 25 years as a freelance photographer

February 20, 2014 Paul

I’m not very good at maths so it took me a while to subtract 1989 from 2014. How things have changed in that time. My main camera through the 1990’s and turn of the century was the Sinar P. My kit consisted of 75mm Schneider Super Angulon, 90mm Schneider Angulon, 150mm Rodenstock, 240mm Rodenstock, and 480mm Apo Rodagon lenses, 6×9, 5×4 & 10×8 Backs. Price entry level for photography was a whole different ball game. There were long days and nights in the darkroom processing film and completing Black & White print orders as well as astronomical monthly lab bills. I always say that I bought Mr Kodak 3 houses but also 1 each for Messes Fuji, Agfa, Ilford and Polaroid. Back then my bread and butter was doing big jobs for Artists, Museums and private galleries. I still do this kind of work but the jobs and budgets have shrunk. Throughout the years I have never stopped doing my own photography. Some of my personal work can be seen on my website at www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

I’ve been traveling and working in Europe for the last 15 months and recently returned to Sydney. During that time away I was concentrating on a number of commissioned jobs and exploring some personal themes. Initially I went to work with Australian Artist Mike Parr to document his large scale retrospective and new performance piece at the Kunsthalle in Vienna, Austria. I also completed a book of Art, Food, Culture, Agriculture and Archeology of the Roman region of Lunigiana in North West Italy. This will be my 3rd book about this part of Italy. The first 2 were “Soffritto” & “Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen” of which both were very successful.

Most interesting for me was the work I completed in my European Ancestral home of Poland. This is where my Hassidic Polish great grand parents lived and I was fortunate to visit their home towns. I photographed extensively and produced some very interesting and contemplative photographs on my first visit during the Winter of 2012.

In the Summer of 2013 I returned to Poland to collaborate With Judy Menczel & Fay Sussman on a documentary film about contemporary Polish/Jewish relations, Klezmer Music, & Yiddish language. http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films/details/1667/fays-journey. The film has full tax deductability status and we are looking for financial support for this very interesting and important doco.

Throughout the time in Europe my home was in Wien or Vienna. Vienna is a quiet and small city with a long and multi faceted history. I find it a wonderful canvas for street photography and I love certain aspects of the cultural life and food there. Mostly I am able to get work on large projects done there. I find it very easy to focus on a task and not be distracted. I am returning with some very interesting ideas for photography and a new body of work.

Since returning to Australia I have been working on editing the Poland film, documentation of a Kaldor Public Art Project with Slovenian artist Roman Ondak, and my continued involvement with Artists Mike Parr and Ken Unsworth.

The first thing I did on my return was to go to my storeroom and get out my Hasselblad camera. I’ve been using this camera almost exclusively for all my personal photography in Sydney over the past 3 years or so. I’ve been getting through roll after roll of 120 Black & White film. I’m looking forward to a big scanning session at Silverpixel studios. This camera and its Carl Zeiss lenses is the benchmark in German optics and will replace my canon 5dMk111 on my return to Europe.

I’ve been really fortunate to have done so much magazine work in Italy during 2013. I’ve teamed up with a wonderful journalista,Paola Ciana who has had many years of experience as fashion editor for big Italian women’s mags. She made the switch to writing and photographing beautiful houses. So far we’ve been published in magazines such as Velvet, Io Donna, La Repubblica, Marie Claire Maison and Elle Decor. This has been a wonderful learning experience and has given me access to some magnificent Italian homes and interesting people. Also it has had a slightly demystifying effect for me on the Women’s Magazine market.

So to my new business plan: I’ve set up my website as a resource library where interesting images can be uploaded and sold either in print form or as a digital download. I’m hoping to improve the SEO capabilities so I can make a significant number of sales through the site but hope that people will take a look if there’s a need for a gift or need to find images for magazine stories and books. I’m still available for freelance photography, film and writing work and will be living between Europe and Australia in the foreseeable future. Every blog or business advice I’ve read about the pursuit of a fulfilling and successful career in photography recommends that you follow your own interests and speak with your own voice. This I have always done and continue to do. Photography is a tough gig and there is no job like it when it comes to great rewards of time spent.

Please take a few moments to look at some of the photos from my website………… http://www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com/

Paul Green Photo Video Art Blog