P#24: An Image of a Peaceful Vietnamese Floating Village

Timing is Everything

Scott Stulberg: This photograph is of a woman in a boat by a little village in Vietnam called a floating village. These are all over places like India, Asia, and Thailand. This particular one is in Vietnam outside of Halong Bay.

This woman had come up to our boat. I was in a boat traveling down Halong Bay for a few days. We just stopped and started buying fruit, fish, and stuff. I jumped from my boat two boats over. I'm talking to these people in this other boat. I look down and all of a sudden this woman comes out of nowhere selling fruit. (click the image for a larger version)

I looked at her and see her floating village behind. I'm like, "Eureka," and had one of those Eureka moments. I yelled out, "Don't move," even though she does not speak English, and I put my hand out. I ran as fast as I could -- jumping from boat to boat to boat -- grabbed my camera and my tripod, I ran back.

I was so out of breath by the time I got back. I set up my tripod in record speed, threw on my wide angle lens. I just thought of my aperture really quickly. I wanted to get a lot of depth of field. I was probably shooting around f11.

I aim my 16-35mm on my tripod locked in, boom, boom, boom, and I yelled, "No, don't move, don't move," boom, boom, boom, boom. All of a sudden, two or three other boats came into the scene and ruined the image.

I ran as fast as I could to get my camera, set it up as fast as I could. The rule of thirds -- put her down there towards the bottom of the image, had that beautiful granite limestone in the background, and got off five, six, seven shots before other boats came in and absolutely ruined the shot.

I talk to my classes about right place, right time. This was a right place, right time moment. I didn't have my camera with me but I got it as quickly as I could and got this shot.

This thing has been blown up so big I can't even tell you and it's been in many exhibitions. The bigger it's blown up, the nicer it looks, so be ready with your camera no matter where you are is what I like to tell people.

In Conclusion

Is there a lesson to learn from this remarkable photograph of a Vietnamese floating village? Yes, indeed. Always be ready with your camera, no matter where you are. You never know when a "right place, right time" moment will happen.