300,000 Views Celebration - Picture of the Day #5

For the final installment of my picture-of-the-day in celebration of 300,000 views of my photos online, I'm focusing on one that is one of my personal favorites.

Below is a shot I took in the town of Hoi An, Vietnam back when we visited there in 2006. Here, we see a bevy of activity at the daily morning market on the river. You can see other pictures I took in Vietnam online too: Hoi An HERE, Hue HERE, Hanoi HERE and Ho Chi Minh City HERE.

Picture by Marc Osborn. (C) Marc Osborn

What I like about this shot is that it captures many things I enjoy about photography:

• People - The make the world go around. So many different types involved with so many activities.
• Travel - What other places look like, what people do, what they wear, etc. are endlessly fascinating to me and a picture like this touches on many of those things. 
• Everyday life - This is a scene played out daily - and for centuries - at the Hoe An morning market. Seeing this slice of everyday life is interesting.
• Artistic merit - Yes, what constitutes "art" is certainly subjective, but to my eye the mass of conical hats, the motion of the people, the one woman just sitting in her little boat in the front...all combine to create what I think is a well composed and artistic look at the morning market.

I also enjoy remembering how I came to take this picture. The day I took it was to be our last in Hoi An. We'd had an early night the evening before, and as a consequence I woke up pretty early in the morning. Not being able to sleep, I decided get up, grab my camera and get a taxi into town from our beach resort hotel...probably a 5 minute drive. 

I knew I wanted to go to the morning market, and as I found myself nearing it I saw a bridge leading to the other side of the river. I thought...OK, if I go over to the opposite bank I can find a spot to get a great view. So I did. I threw on my telephoto lens and started taking pictures. Of the many I took from that vantage point, the one above instantly stood out. Sure, I was trying for a well composed image, but believe me...I have plenty of similar shots that are not as compelling as this one. 

Anyway, I was very glad to have ventured out early and on my own to see the market in the morning and conduct a little photo adventure.

NOTE: Copyright for the picture in this post is owned by Marc Osborn. No use of the picture for any purpose is permitted without prior written permission from Marc Osborn.