‘The Landscaped Landscape’

Now I’ve seen my fair share of terraced rice paddies after traveling Asia for nearly the last 20 years but non quite impressed with the size, scale and beauty of this valley leading up to indochina’s highest peak.
Situated in north-western Vietnam near the Chinese border lingers the unique cultural diversity and epic landscapes of Sapa.

The constant changing light and shadows moving across the view brought motion to the fixed fields and kept me captivated staring across the vast expanses. It was as if you were never looking twice upon the same scene. These amazing rice fields carved out of the earth give these endless vistas and distant surrounding a rugged almost lego like appearance.

Gaining increasing popularity with the tourist market, these once quiet minority tribes now seem to have adopted cash as their new drug of choice and can at times become quite persistent. Whilst not always proud of what
tourism does to an area or its people, its easy to understand why foreigners would want to go and experience places like this.

Riding along and exploring the valley one afternoon my attention was quickly drawn to some cool light rays bursting through the clouds. Pulling off the road, I left my bike running straight into the nearest field to capture the soon to vanish sight. While I was caught by surprise and totally under prepared for the scene, i was happy to snap off a few exposures capture some of the moment

Whilst it seems a long path ahead to getting where id like to be with my images and processing, I am slowly working on letting go of the fear and perfectionism that i feel when sharing on these social platforms.
I’ve felt frustrated for a long time with not being where I want to be with my photography and projected myself into the future causing me to become anxious and not enjoy the process. I’m learning to embrace where I am at and understand that its mistakes that help us grow and its the journey that makes the destination so rewarding.
Being content with where I’m at allows me to spend time with that feeling and moves me closer towards that place inside myself.
I accept the now and look forward to the day when i can say that “I am happy and proud of my work and feel confident in sharing my vision of a beautiful world through my photography.” I will continue to focus upon this emotion until i get to live it.

I also wish you the courage to push on with your dreams too, no matter how distant they feel and keep moving forward creating the vision you hold of yourself, whilst always remembering to enjoy the view along the way.

I believe in you, so please believe in your self!!

Hope you like the shot, cheers for stopping by, have a magic day. Yewwwww 😀

Sony A7r2
canon 17-40mm @21mm
125/sec @ f/9
Iso 80