Mr. Selfish and I took a two-day photography workshop when we were still living in Orlando. Since then, we’ve learned to take photos in manual mode. Mr. Selfish usually uses our Canon Rebel while I still use our Canon Powershot, which is a point and click but still has a manual mode. I also read “Understanding Exposure,” which is a great beginner’s book on photography.

Hoi An was the first place I saw that had a photography tour. Although I thought that the class may be a little basic for us, I convinced Mr. Selfish to sign up for it anyhow. I wanted to do the sunset tour. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available so we had to take the sunrise tour, which starts at 4:45am. It was early but we figured that sunrise photos at the fisherman village would be worth it. The weather wasn’t too cooperative that day since it was completely overcast but we still managed to take some nice photos.

First, we took a boat to the Duy Hai Fisherman Village. It was quite frantic since the fishermen were pulling in their catch from last night and there was lots (and I mean LOTS) of haggling over the prices for said catch. Mostly, the locals ignored us, and we took candid photos.

The most important thing I learned from our photo tour guide was that you should muster up the courage to engage your potential subject in conversation, ask to take a photo, and then show the photo to your subject afterward. I find that this technique usually works, and most people don’t mind you snapping a photo.

After the activity started to die down, we walked into the local village and enjoyed some banh mi. On our way, we met some more locals, which provided even more photo ops.

Then, we stopped by a fish sauce factory in order to practice some low light shots. Although the smell was strong, it was worth it for the visuals.

Finally, we walked back to the boat and ran into more opportunities for photos. We came across a huge pig, met some children playing and jumping rope, and spotted a cow with her calf. I also enjoy all of the motorcycles in Vietnam and snapped a couple of shots of a little girl on a motorcycle, as well as some women on our boat with us.

For this last shot, Mr. Selfish made fun of me for taking such a stereotyped photo but I think it came out quite well.