40
Votes
Peter Stewart's picture

Welcome to Saigon

The flow of traffic in this city is at times simply astounding. With a reported 8 million motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) alone, it's no wonder the roads are packed day and night.
At rush hour in certain parts of the city, witnessing the sheer volume of movement is nothing short of mesmerising, save for the obvious problems in air quality this causes. Good luck trying to cross the road too!
I took this image late afternoon just before the rush hour broke out. Knowing I wanted to isolate just the bikes, I opted to shoot multiple frames so I could remove normal traffic like taxis, trucks and buses. I ended up using about 40 or so frames to carefully mask in the parts I wanted for the final result.

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5 Comments

I really love this image....interesting lighting and a great story. It reminds me of the first time I rode a scooter in Barcelona and came upon one of these roundabouts. I about shit myself driving through that traffic. Very cool photo!

Nice picture. Good job. It reminds me the work of Rob Whitworth who used a similar spot for his HCMC timelapse video.

This shot takes me back to my all too brief time in Saigon. I just about shit myself crossing the road! Excellent image with nice light. Conveys motion without introducing motion blur. Strong work!

I love this photo too. When I saw the thumbnail I thought it might be a lawnmower race! The scooters are fantastic, and removing the cars (as you described the layering) is really top notch. Huge effort... huge reward! Kudos!

great editing job man! although you have 'lied' here, your photo still tells the truth! ;-)

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