James Shackleton's Blog

Numbers on a Wall

You see similar numbers to  these painted on walls all over the city. What they mean, I do not know. But I liked the colour contrast – and the way the paint had run (a bit), so I took a picture.

My Photographer

I haven’t been posting much lately. I’m working on something.

I was in the city a couple of weeks ago, when I heard someone calling at me – trying to get my attention. I’d sussed he had a new celphone and was itching to nail a subject/victim with it. So I did a classic “Londoner” and ignored him. But then as I walked away, I felt sort of defensive, so I turned around, walked back (taking my camera out) and “hosed him” with the camera drive set on HI. Was I psychologically “shooting back”? Maybe. But he thought it was funny.

I have mixed feelings about photographing strangers. I know lots of photographers don’t like being photographed. I try to take it with good grace.

Columns on motorcycles

I can never get used to how big Ho Chi Minh City is. There are always streets I do not know. Sometimes, when I’m bored I’ll go exploring some new part of the city. If I’m lucky, the rain holds off and sometimes I’ll find something new.

Street Preacher

Another old one.

I took this “on the street” in Leeds. The man was spreading the word – he had an interesting face and hat – so I took his picture. He asked me if I had been sent by”the boys from the station” – so I suspect he was probably a “copper”.

I was using an old Rolleiflex at the time – and I really miss the richly detailed negatives which it gave. On the original, you can see the texture of his tie and the stitching on his shirt. Oh well…

A Tree in Sunshine

I’m still experimenting with my LG smartphone. The results are really inconsistent. The main issue for me the focusing which is X1 like in its operation.

I took this in Singapore a few weeks ago. I really liked the shape of the tree and the rich colours of the leaves. Hmmm.

Putting Up An Arch

Right now, Vietnam has just started one of the main public holidays of the year – Liberation Day.

Like most things in the city, this requires quite a bit of preparation – putting out decorations and clearing up busy streets before processions and the like.

This is a picture of some workmen puting up and inflateable arch on Le Duan – which is one of the prestigious streets in HCMC – with serval embassies and posh shops. As you can probably imagine traffic was crazy and people wanted to race through before the workmen had finished – but I thought I would show one of the calm photos