Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

Uncategorized

Some recent commercial photography and video work in Ho Chi Minh City by Paul Evan Green.

March 31, 2021 Paul

Pro Photography and Video Services in Vietnam

kunkin Apartments Aerial Exterior ©paul_e_green

Since arriving in Vietnam in February 2019 I have been fortunate to have worked with some very talented people in several fields.

Kohei Yamamoto cocktail expert from Tokyo working with Brewstillery Mashed Up Gin.

I have worked with Vietnamese people, Vietnamese companies, Foreigners and Foreign owned companies.

Studio image of **aerated concrete** furniture by Sacred Earth Furniture

Studio image of mosaic table by Sacred Earth Furniture.

I have undertaken portrait assignments and done a lot of interior, architecture and product photography.

Living Cuba Band outside the Caravelle Hotel Saigon where they regularly perform

I have really enjoyed working with the vibrant and musical Cuban community who bring next level entertainment to Saigon’s bars, clubs and events.

Victoria Queen Singer/songwriter from Cuba

Music Videos

Victoria Queen is a wonderful collaborator and we continue to live and work together in a creative bubble.

A video we made of an original song about the birth of our son Mateo by Victoria Queen

A video we made of Drakes’s song “Hotline Bling” filmed on the streets of Saigon. Victoria Queen TV

One of my first and most enjoyable jobs here was to produce a catalogue for Memoria Art, Vintage Deco. They make beautiful home-wares using old maps and poster art from the French Colonial period in Indo-China.

Exhibition Photos

Through Saigon Photo Walk I have been involved in organizing 2 photography exhibitions. This is a wonderful community of Street and Portrait photography enthusiasts. There is such a vibrant street life here in Vietnam and people are friendly and approachable.

Aerial photo of Starlight Bridge in District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City Exhibited at Saigon Photo Walk Exhibition in 2020

Aerial photo of Thu Thiem Bridge and Ho Chi Minh City Skyline Exhibited at Saigon Photo Walk Exhibition in 2020

Corporate Videos

The higher end commercial work has given me the greatest opportunity to see how this manufacturing powerhouse that is Vietnam works.

Corporate video for Sacred Earth furniture

Kerryn Haig of Saigon Equator has been a great support and is involved with design, marketing and large-scale manufacturing and export of beautiful furniture and home-wares.

Furniture Styled by Kerryn Haig. L from Indomus interiors. R from Saigon Equator

Architecture Video

LAVA Architects based in Germany, Australia and Vietnam have given me the greatest opportunity here with 4 video projects to date.

Please have a look at my website on www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

Please be in contact for photography and video services in Vietnam

©Copyright to all photos on this blog Paul Evan Green

Uncategorized

Thoughts & Photos from Havana Cuba October 2017

October 2, 2017 Paul

(paul evan green) — View over Central Havana to Vedado

Havana is a great place for me to do things like writing blogs and working on the huge backlog of video editing I’ve created for myself. Having a Cuban girlfriend brings me close to Cuban people and I’m interested in their lives which are very different and difficult. The news that the U.S is discouraging tourism and is scaling down its embassy staff in Havana by 60% will have a huge impact on the ordinary Cuban who in most cases lives way below any poverty line we know of in the rest of the world.

Despite this poverty imposed from above and outside Cubans remain proud, creative, resourceful and hopeful that things will improve. President Raul Castro stands down in February 2018. Next month there will be municipal elections to select candidates who will decide on the new President. Cubans are hopeful for positive change bringing modernisation, more efficiency and opportunity.

I have avoided walking the streets with a camera on the last few visits to Cuba. I see many street photographers walking around with their Leicas and various other symbols of photo artistrty all trying to create cliches of cliches and I guess I’m guilty of it as well. It is hard to avoid cliches here.

My first visit to Cuba was shortly after Obama’s. There was a big improvement in the relationship which also trickled down to the average Cuban. Without giving it much thought Donald Trump has pledged to be a wrecking ball for any of the good things that came out of the Obama administration.

The average salary for a Cuban is around U.S $30/month. One hotel worker I spoke to told me how he went twice to the U.S embassy to apply for a visa to visit family at a cost of U.S $160/application only to be refused in less than 5 minutes each time. That’s more than 10 months salary gone in 10 minutes.

Now there is a fear campaign because of the Sonic attacks on U.S diplomatic staff both in the embassy in Havana and in a hotel run by the Cuban military. I don’t believe the Cubans are capable or responsible for this kind of attack nor would it be in their interests to deliberately damage their relationship with the U.S.

Havana has some beautiful old buildings and many are being restored. Others are crumbling around their inhabitants. There is money being made but the average person is poor. Supermarket shelves have very little to offer the customer and the basic diet is lacking in variety. Government controlled internet is of very low quality at an exorbitant price.

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!

Paul Green Photo Video Art Blog