Travel Diary : Phong Nha Ke Bang

Over the Tet Holiday this year, I got the opportunity to finally get up to Phong Nha. How it’s taken me this long to explore this part of Vietnam is mind boggling and I’ve kicked myself a few times for not getting up there sooner. It’s definitely wayyyy up there with my favorite places in Vietnam. Caves, rivers, limestone karsts, rice paddies…it’s an adventure seekers paradise. Weather was less than ideal - cold and a bit rainy, but it gave such an interesting atmosphere and completely lended itself to the black and white treatment. Here just a few frames from the trip. With Vietnam opening its borders, maybe it’s time to book that next trip to Phong Nha.

A Study in Focal Lengths with Product Photography: Which one yields the best results?

I’ve been mostly shooting small objects recently and 9 times out of 10, I’m using my Sony 90mm 2.8 macro. Incredibly sharp, I can get up close and personal to capture all those fantastic little details in product and food photography. When shooting bigger objects, I have a bit more leeway in my choice in focal lengths. Depending on the style I’m going after, I can opt to shoot super wide for a more editorial or advertising feel or I can shoot with a longer lens for catalogue images. It’s not really a matter of what’s right or wrong, but it is rather interesting to see the effects of different focal lengths in these types of shoots. I shot this super slick chair with 4 different lenses in 4 different focal lengths - Zeiss Batis 18mm, Sony 35mm, Sony/Zeiss 55mm and Zeiss Batis 85mm. All amazing lenses, so optics weren’t much of a variable, and I shot them all at f/16 to make sure the chair was sharp from front to back. 

Lighting

Lit with Godox lights, I had an ad400 in an Octabank up high pointing down, an ad200 in a rectangular softbox feathered off the left side, and an ad200 in a strip bank from the right and behind for a rim light. I also added a bounce card on the right to give a bit of fill on the underside to maintain details.

Zeiss Batis 18mm 2.8

Normally, the 18mm sits in my bag on travel assignments, and I’d usually never think to shoot product photography with such a wide angle. It’s distortion is something I tend to avoid to make sure everything looks true to form. That said, I kind of love how this came out. The larger than life feel of this gives a great editorial or advertising option so I was super stoked to have found another little tool to create new images. I think I’ll have it sitting closer by on shoots where we want to give this over the top hero feel. Such a fun image and gives a playful sense of whimsy to an otherwise straight forward shot.

Sony 35mm F1.8

My 35mm lens is probably my most used lens when I’m on travel assignments and general walk around shooting. I also use this lens within my food work for bigger flat lays where I need to capture a bigger overhead scene. For this shot, it feels like its in this weird no man’s land of not compressed enough but still distorted. What do you guys think? Does it work?

Sony Zeiss 55mm 1.8

The 55mm 1.8 lens is a beast. Incredibly sharp, perfect for both flatlays and bigger scenes in food and product photography. It get’s heavy usage. Wide enough to show context and a surrounding scene, but still a long enough focal length to start compressing things into a pleasing image that is pretty close to what we see with our native eyesight…give or take. This image is starting to look like more of an image you’d see in catalogues. Clean, representative of the product and wide enough to still maintain context. A great all around lens.

Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8

The Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8 is my absolute go to for portrait photography. I absolutely love it. Normally, I’d opt for the 90mm macro for for this focal length for food and product photography, but with bigger objects the depth of field with the Batis is better and provides for a more versatile option. The 85 compresses nicely and gives a beautiful shape to the product. There’s a reason this focal length is used so often in these types of shoots. It gives a bit more definition and refinement than the 55.

So, after looking at the 4 focal lengths, what are your thoughts? Do longer focal lengths reign supreme or do the wide angles sit at the table too? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Lee Starnes is a food and product photographer based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Be sure to head on over to Instagram to check out more of his work.

Natural Light: The Best Option? And Can You Really Tell?

As photographers, we’re always looking at different things to tell a compelling story in a single frame. In food photography, light and composition are massively important in creating mood and feeling so we’re constantly looking at ways to control light to tell different stories. That said, many times client briefs call for “natural light” and sometimes that can be quite ambiguous. In the images above, one is indeed natural light. Care to hazard a guess? Let’s have a look at each of these images and break down the lighting setups.

Image 1

Horizontal Gridded Stripbank

Positioned low to avoid the reflection on the top, the grid focuses the light and lights the liquid making it the star of the show.

Image 2

Bare bulb

Bare bulb from camera left, behind and up high. I wanted to mimic harsh sunlight to give a summery bright mood. Plus that shadow and light on the plate is gold!

Image 3

Diffused Softbox

Lit from behind through a diffused softbox up above subject to give a reflection off the top of the cocktail. Can give a feel of morning light coming through a window.

Image 4

Undiffused Softbox

An undiffused medium softbox from above and camera left casts specular highlights and a hard shadow beneath the plate. Could be mistaken for mid-afternoon light?

Image 5

Natural light

Big window with morning light from behind. Nice even light. What story does it tell?

Image 6

Vertical Gridded Stripbank

The gridded strip bank from behind and above not only focuses the light through the middle of the frame, but also breaks the reflection on the top of the cocktail, mimicking the slats in a window frame.

So, were you right in your predictions? More importantly, did the naturally lit image produce the most compelling frame? Natural light is beautiful, but relying on it will only get you so far. Controlling and shaping the light puts the control back into the photographers’ hands and allows us to really get creative in our storytelling. Which was your favorite and what other lighting would you like to discuss? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!

Please give me a follow on instagram for my food photography here and my travel stories here!

Travel Diary: Hanoi 2020

Since Saigon is going through its 3rd week of “Social Distancing Measures”, I’ve been going through the archives while redoing and updating my site (hint hint, go take a gander!). In the process, I came across these images from the last time I was in Hanoi last November. One of my favorite cities in Asia, Hanoi offers endless photo opportunities. Hopefully we can all get through this wave quickly and hit the road again for more adventures!

Nerdery info: all these images were shot with 35mm focal length, save one. Anyone have a guess which one was shot at 85mm?

Fishing Villages in Central Vietnam

Recently, I had the opportunity to hop up to central Vietnam and jump on the tail end of one of our Central Vietnam photo tours. It’s always lovely to get to this part of the country and with Quinn joining too, a stellar day of shooting with friends was guaranteed. As a guest, I got to explore this little area a bit more than when I’m teaching, so it was a chance to see this place with some new eyes and a different approach. Not to mention seeing friends whom I haven’t seen since covid reared its ugly head. Okay, enough prattling, here’s a selection of some of my favorite frames.

Serenity in Lak Lake, Vietnam

Over the Lunar New Year this year, I headed up to a location I first visited in 2007. Faint memories of the lake and the surrounding hills had me quite excited to see Lak Lake with new eyes. Originally, I was going to stay for a few days and then head down to Con Dao, but covid took care of that, so I stayed put and turned 3 days into 10. With not much to do, I initially thought I may get bored, but that turned out to be the polar opposite of what ended up being such an amazing decompression from the city. Hikes, quiet mornings, mists rising over mountains and lakes…it was everything I remember and more. Largely off the radar, (well maybe not anymore), this little bit of paradise is the cure for what ails ya if the city life starts to be too much.

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Year End Party

With such a bizarro year wrapping and the quickly upcoming lunar new year, this year’s End of the Year Party was bound to be a banger. I caught all but the first band who started early (this may be a punk rock first) so apologies for not having images for them. The bill consisted of Diarsia, Jaigon Orchestra, Đá Số Tới, District 105, Taiyoken, Do it Dad, and Kaali. Musically it ranged from pop punk to metal to hardcore, so a great mix of styles and people showing up at the show.

I’d be completely daft if I didn’t mention how wild it is that we are in a country where we can actually have shows safely while most every where else on the planet is going into lockdown. Granted things may not be this way for long, but the Vietnamese authorities have done a damn fine job containing the ‘Rona up until now, so fingers crossed that this latest flare up dies down in a hurry. But enough of my rambling, on to the images.

Diarsia

District 105

Đá Số Tới

Kaali

Taiyoken

Jaigon Orchestra

Moshin’, Stage Dives, and other Shenanigans

Moving forward I’ll try to include the flyer for posterity, so we’ll start here. Check out the cool work by Vui Qá

Northern Exposure: Ha Giang to Cao Bang. Part 1

What a ridiculous year this has been. Along with every other travel photographer, a good chunk of my travel assignments evaporated in a hurry with covid’s unwelcome arrival. With Vietnam’s borders, by all intents and purposes still shut, international travel is not an option. But, thankfully, I live in a country with so many incredible destinations, many of which I’ve never been. So, a couple of weeks ago, I hit the road with good friend and fellow photographer, Quinn Mattingly for an epic road trip. After flying into Hanoi, we headed north and grabbed motorbikes in Ha Giang city. Over the following 8 days we headed all the way to the Chinese Border and back down to Cao Bang city during the best time of the year - the rice harvest. This area has been at the top of my list for years and with the lack of tourists, it proved to be an incredibly unique time to explore one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

From epic high mountain passes to the biggest waterfall in Asia, these 500 kilometers were one jaw dropping vista after the other. Pair that with nearly perfect weather and great company, and we had ear to ear smiles the entire journey. Well almost the entire time… The moment where Quinn’s drone decided it wanted to live permanently in the jungle treetops of Ha Giang was a bit of a bummer, but it was nothing a bit of rice wine couldn’t remedy!

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