Oldtimes cigarette
Do you remember the Bamboo Man hands? Here's a portrait of him... This picture reminds me of the "Wake Up Your Saints" song from The National....
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Do you remember the Bamboo Man hands? Here's a portrait of him... This picture reminds me of the "Wake Up Your Saints" song from The National.
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Apr, 2016Views
1157
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Awards
Contest Finalist in The Face Of A Man Photo Contest
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Emotions
Impressed
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Top 30 rank week 1
Top 30 rank week 2Top 20 rank week 1
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jasonhales
August 25, 2016
I have a similar photo of who I think is the very same chap, was this in a fishing village in Hoi An?
sebastiao_chaves
August 25, 2016
Small world this is! ;) Thta is indeed - in a very small village on the other side of the river. When did you go there? Goos to see he's doing well
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in a very small fishing village close to Hoi-An, VietnamTime
The photo has been taken very early in the morning. Woke up around 4am - the sun was not shinning yet! - and went to the small village with a fellow photographer that new the place. By the time we met the "Bamboo Man" as he calls him it was around 8 in the morning.Lighting
We were under a small shade where this gentleman builds the fishing rafts, out of bamboo. After getting to know the Bamboo Man, knowing about the war and the consequences of it in his life (he got shot once in his belly which left him with post injuries forever) he asked if I had an "American cigarette" to share. I said I had and gave him one straight away! After lighting it up and taking some deep breaths he looked outside - at that time the light illuminated his face and that's when I took the shot!Equipment
This was shot in a Canon 1100D with a 50mm f1.4 Canon lens. Just the camera and my legs!Inspiration
The Bamboo Man is a truly inspiring gentleman. Although he could not speak one word of English and I couldn't do it in Vietnamese we managed to get along. He makes rafts for 60 years - he works the bamboo for 60 years! During the Vietnam war he got shot in his belly which created him health problems till today. At that time his kids decided to leave the small fisherman's village, close to Hoi-An. Nowadays, he's loosing strength on his hands (there's a picture showing his hands on my profile) and working the bamboo is getting difficult. Despite all the difficulties he doesn't give up and continues building rafts.Editing
The picture has very little post-processing adjustments. After turning it into black and white, reduced the contrast (to avoid loosing the grey scale). Gave a bit of sharpening in his face and then added vignette (manually with the brush to emphasise the expression).In my camera bag
It depends on the trip. In any case I only have one camera - at the time of the photo a Canon 1100D and nowadays and 7D. Besides this I bring 3 lenses - one wide angle (Canon EF-S10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM), a fixed (EF50mm f/1.4 USM) and, not so often, a zoom lens (Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM). There's always a spare battery and a spare SD card in the bag. Depending on the time and trip I might also bring the tripod.Feedback
Capturing a great portrait is not about taking loads of photos to the same person. It's not about luck on finding the photogenic person. It's about capturing a soul. I struggle with this a lot... But one thing is guaranteed, the better I know the person and the more patient I am the best shot I get.
