Timing is so important in photography. And I seem to get it wrong so often.
I stayed an extra day in Vietnam so I could see rice being harvested in terraced paddies. But it soon appeared that my timing was wrong. Turns out most of the rice in northern Vietnam had already been harvested. Nothing left but stubble. But our host, Vietnam’s National Genebank Director Dr Toan, said his sister-in-law had a homestay near the upland rice fields in the Cao Phong District near Hoa Binh – about two hours from Hanoi. He called his sister and received confirmation that there were still small pockets of unharvested rice. Toan and his wife, Nga, had never visited the homestay so they decided to join me for a Sunday outing from Hanoi.
As we approached the highlands, I became discouraged. All of the rice had been harvested. We travelled into narrower and narrower roads through remote villages and saw lots of rice paddies, but no rice. Toan asked folks along the road where we might find rice and we kept driving.
I saw dragon fruit and sugar cane and water buffalo grazing in rice stubble and some very complex agricultural systems. But not what I was looking for. And then I screamed in delight as we drove past a clearing. We found a paddy that not only hadn’t been harvested but it was being harvested just as we passed by.
Finally, the timing was right for me! Not only the timing of the visit but the weather as well. The thick haze diffused the midday sun which was perfect for farmer portraits and closeups … but not so great for landscapes. I jumped out of the car and soon discovered I should have brought some boots … or thrown off my shoes … for wading in the paddies. Instead, I found some narrow bunds (i.e. dikes or banks) encircling the paddies. Toan asked the women harvesting the rice if I could shoot some photos and after I got the green light I started clicking away while Toan shouted out my instructions in Vietnamese … ‘move your left hand down a bit’, ‘look to the right’, ‘hold the rice down’. The women found that most amusing to pose like models and laughed as they followed my commands while still trying to complete their work.
We then continued to drive through back roads which challenged Google Maps. We passed some impressive contoured terraces so I asked the driver to stop. I heard voices and saw some people way down in the valley floor in the distance. ‘They’re harvesting!’ I shouted to Toan. Access to the paddies was via the other side of the valley but I followed Toan who shouted at the farmers who directed us down a steep and muddy slope. The farmers welcomed the visit by the foreigner with the big camera. I’d point at a farmer and Toan shouted instructions. In a blur they had finished harvesting the paddy and started moving on to the next. But before they did they came up to dry land and then pulled out their phones and turned the camera around and asked me to pose with them. Payback.
It was a whirlwind tour of the Vietnamese highlands, but the photos I captured that day will always bring a huge smile to my face as I recall the warm and beautiful farmers I captured with my camera on that day.
