Hmong Children

Later in the day I went on a short tour to a local waterfall which was very beautiful and to a small Hmong hill tribe village. I made a number of jungle shots at the waterfall and also a few water pictures (nothing to exciting), afterwards we stopped at the Hmong village where I wanted to shoot some buildings but because of the congestion could not get a good shot in the time allowed, the children of the village quickly found and surrounded me, so for 15 minutes I made as many portraits as I could as everyone crowded around me (probably 15-20 people) yelled out, laughed and made comments. I could not communicate with my subjects and the light was poor, I could not ask people to stand still so I shot at the fastest shutter speed I could gamble to use. I shot all pics at 1/8 and F8 with a reflector in late day (5pm) overcast light. It was fun to shoot the pictures even if nothing turns out. I used mostly hand gestures, smiles and loud noises to get the photos made. I gave the father of several of the children some money to split amongst the little ones.

I would very much like to go and shoot more photos in the hill tribe areas of Laos and Thailand, to shoot with a 8x10 camera might even be more rewarding. I only had 20 minutes (what the driver told me was allowed) to make my pictures, most of the group returned to the van after 5 minutes and were waiting for me. I wish I could go back and travel the Mekong stopping where I wanted to for how long I wanted to and make hundreds of portraits.

I have s short video of the group that watched me during the photo session and will post it later when I have better internet access.