Category Archives: Photography

photography of District 8 ho chi minh city, Vietnam

March 23, 2021 Paul

In recent months I have been slowly discovering an area near my home that appears to be slightly disconnected from the rest of the inner districts around Ho Chi Minh City. I find myself as the only expat when I go walking around. It’s an island between 2 canals. I feel very conspicuous but people are friendly even if they do wonder what the hell I’m doing there in district 8.

I’m coming here when I need to clear my head and get back to real photography. Initially I came here to lead a photo walk late in 2020. What struck me was that the area seemed to be stuck in a time warp.

There is evidence that the area was once an important part of river trade and it sits opposite Cho Lon on the canal that leads to the Mekong Delta. Cho Lon (Chinatown) was and still is a vibrant district famous for it’s Binh Tay market, and classical Chinese architecture dating back to 1778.

District 8 has well preserved examples of French Colonial architecture, a very traditional central market and many interesting street markets. Partly a low lying area, it can easily flood with heavy rain or when the canal overflows.

Once a year in the 2 weeks before the lunar new year, there is a spectacular flower market along the canal in district 8. Boats come down from the Mekong Delta to sell their flowers. It is a favorite subject for local photographers.

There are large and small bridges along the waterways and areas where traditional wooden riverboats can unload their cargo or restock.

I am taken by this place and its people and will return so watch this space! To see more of my photography and video work please go to http://www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

Budapest, European Photography, Photography, photography poland, poland, Uncategorized

European Photography Summer 2017

September 7, 2017 Paul

European Photography by Paul Green. I started of in Budapest in the 3rd week of August to work on a family history project for a private client. Budapest is a city that I knew a bit about but always wanted a reason to visit. It’s a charming city with magnificent architecture. I enjoyed walking around in my spare time.

New York Cafe

Four Seasons Hotel Lobby Gresham Palace

(Detail) Memorial For Jews shot by Nazis on the bank of the Danube

Formula One came to town and that was my cue to leave. I decided to have a look at some small towns in Poland and headed by bus to Katowice. I was interested in the Pre-war Jewish history and it’s always difficult to find any traces. I found the Jewish cemetery and a couple of monuments. There is still a very small community in the town.

From Katowice I went to Zakopane in the south of Poland. Here I was interested in the architecture and the mountains. I started doing some timelapse sequences and did a lot of walking.

Timelapse combining sequences from Zakopane and Radomsko

Radomsko was the home town of my father’s grandparents although they didn’t ever talk about the place much. It was a major Hassidic centre in Poland. When my great grandparents lived there it was part of Russia. There are still a few old buildings there so i was trying to look at things they also would have seen. Trying to share experiences with them.

Beautiful windows in an old apartment building

Old Jewish owned building

(Detail) Mass grave in Jewish Cemetery

My second job was in Zdunska Wola. This was a beautiful art project entitled “The missing mezzuzot of Zdunska Wola” by Estelle Rozinski. This was my 5th visit to Zdunska Wola and it was primarily a filming job. I took very few images for myself but I was struck by a stack of mazevot (Jewish Grave Stones) in the back yard of the museum. The Jewish cemetery in ZW is very beautiful partly due to the excellent stone masonery .

Stack of Jewish Tomb Stones Zdunska Wola

After filming the 73rd anniversary commemoration of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto I arrived in Warsaw.

Old Town Warsaw

Photography, Sigma Art Series Lens Review, Uncategorized

Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens First Impressions

June 17, 2017 Paul

I’ve never owned such a wide lens before but when I upgraded my Canon gear from the 5dmk3 to the 5dmk4 and 5ds my trusty L series17-40 f4 was suddenly no longer sharp enough for the results I needed for myself and my customers.

I have not bought anything other the canon L series lenses for many years now. Sometimes I’ve opted for the slower lenses due to weight as I travel extensively on Film and Photography assignments. Weight is a major factor for me and heavy fast lenses in my experience are back breakers.

So I weighed up the Sigma 12-24 f4 Art Lens (1151g ) against the Canon L series 11-24 f4 (1180g .) Both are very heavy!

There weren’t many informative comparisons online and I couldn’t gauge the performance of the Sigma especially on the 50mp 5ds but I’ve been hearing rave reviews of Sigma’s art series lenses. Many of my peers have been raving about them for a while. Mainly Dean Tirkot, Marco Bok and Derek Henderson.

I havn’t read a single bad review of the Canon L series 11-24 f4 but it’s really heavy, really big and really expensive. The front element is a very impressive piece of glass that reminds me of a Zeiss 40mm distagon front element from the Hasselblad days. Also $4000 is a bit pricey in the current economic climate for 1 piece of equipment in a world where you need many and varied pieces of equipment.

Yesterday, at half the price of the Canon I took delivery of my first Sigma Art series lens and today I took a few pics with it. I took my 5dmk4 which I prefer using to the 5ds. Lets have a look at the pics and see how the lens performed under different conditions and on different settings.

I won’t do any profile corrections in Lightroom. So here we go!

Photo paulegreen 8914.jpg

is of Australian artist Ken Unsworth’s sculpture “Stones against the Sky’ located between Darlinghurst and Kings Cross in Sydney. The picture was slightly backlit but there is plenty of detail in the shadows and highlights. The photo appears very sharp.

Settings were ISO 100 12mm f7.1 1/800 sec

Photo: paulegreen8918.jpg

is The wall of the Darlinghurst Fire Station. It’s a good subject to test a wide angle lens. There is a very slight loss of sharpness but it was shot at f4.

Settings were ISO 250 12mm f4 1/80 sec

Photo paulegreen8927.jpg is on the escalator at Kings Cross Station. Again I shot wide open to test distortions on the edges of the lens. I’m happy with the way this image resolved even though there is a bit of blur due to slow shutter speed.

Settings were ISO 400 12mm f4 1/25 sec

Photo: paulegreen8930.jpg

This is another test like that of the fire station wall. Again I’m very happy with the corner sharpness and the barrel distortion is acceptable for such a wide lens. I have Canon L series lenses with significantly more barrel distortion than this. It is easily corrected. Also the shutter speed is very slow for a handheld photo.

Settings were ISO 500 12mm f4 1/13 sec

Photo:paulegreen 9836

is of a row of Victorian Houses in Darlighurst at night. It’s a seriously wide angle view that I would never have previously been able to achieve.

Settings ISO 5000 12mm f4 1/30 sec

Photo:paulegreen 8941.jpg

is a shadow of a tree against a painted wall illuminated by street lights. I can’t fault the lens sharpness in the corners.or the even coverage of light on the 5dmk4 sensor.

Settings were ISO 5000 17mm f4 1/30 sec

I did find a pretty good technical review after I finished writing this blog at https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-12-24mm-f4-dg-hsm-art-lens-review/2

On first impressions the Sigma 12-24mm f4 Art lens is astounding. I’m really excited with the possibilities the this lens will add to my photography and film making.

Happy image making!

Maroubra Beach, Photography

The Bra, Maroubra, January 2016

February 4, 2016 Paul

Mahon Pool at the Northern end of Maroubra on Australia Day 2016I like to multitask! Dog walking and photography are a great fit so when a dog/house sitting gig came up in the Bra, a quirky beachside suburb in the South/East of Sydney in Summer I was very excited.

(Paul Evan Green) — Morning Walk on Marine Pde, Maroubra

The natural environment is absolutely stunning. The long days of a Sydney summer offers time and space for socializing, walking, swimming, surfing, cafe hopping and one of my very favorite activities as a photographer, storm chasing.

Maroubra in the local Aboriginal language means “Place of Thunder.” During my stay here I have seen many storms and have had the opportunity to photograph, film and record the sound of these impressive natural displays of awe.

Maroubra is a vibrant and harmonious multicultural community in a coastal setting. There are a large number of families with young children in the area with many sporting clubs and facilities available.

The surf culture at Maroubra feels like it hasn’t changed much since the 1970’s. There have been many great surfers from Maroubra. The greatest in my opinion is Larry Blair who won the Pipeline Masters contest in 1978 and 1979. Mark Matthews is currently one of the most fearless and excellent big wave riders in the world.

Different ethnic groups have contributed a dazzling array of architectural styles. Whether this strange fusion has any architectural merit will be for history to judge.

lubliniec, Photography, poland

A Week, Tuesday to Tuesday in Lubliniec Poland.

May 1, 2014 Paul

It’s springtime. I’m in a rural area of Silesia about 60km from Katowice. This is one place where English doesn’t work but people do try to speak to me in German once they realise I can’t speak Polish. You can see more of my work at www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com

I’m here making a documentary about a young couple who met and now live together in Sydney. Karina and Sachin are getting married on Saturday in Karina’s nearby home town called Kalety. The doco is about the joining of a Fijian, Indian, Hindu family and a Polish Catholic family.

The project was dreamed up and is being produced and directed by my friend Chris Cole who has an architecture practice in Fiji and who knows Sachin’s family.

Chris worked as a cameraman back in the pre digital days of film. It has been a great experience working with him and learning a different approach from someone who has ducked the digital revolution and hasn’t worked in the industry for many years.

This week has been very important for Polish people. Their beloved Pope, Karol Józef Wojtyła, or Pope John Paul II was canonized by the Vatican as a saint by Pope Francis.

Pope John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church’s relations with Judaism, Islam, the Anglican community and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Another Polish saint who is celebrated in Lubliniec and who was canonized by Pope John Paul II is Edyta Stein. Also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edyta Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to the Roman Catholic Church and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and one of the six patron saints of Europe.

In 1938 she and her sister Rosa, were sent to a Carmelite monastery in the Netherlands for their safety. They were arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to Auschwitz where they were gassed on 9 August 1942.

Although Edyta was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw) in 1891 she spent much of her childhood in Lubliniec as it was the hometown of her grandparents.

I visited the Lubliniec Jewish cemetery yesterday. Originally the cemetery was divided into three plots: for men, women, and children. In all, 1,117 people were buried there.

The Nazis devastated the cemetery during World War II and used the gravestones to pave the road from Lubliniec to Żuków. In 1958 the Polish national authorities took over the cemetery and opened a driver training centre on the site. Fragments of gravestones were piled up in a few heaps.

Among those buried in the cemetery are the grandparents of Edyta Stein: Adelajda Courant and Salomon Courant as well as Edyta’s elder brothers: Emst and Richard.

Paul Green Photo Video Art Blog