I quickly went home, fetched the camera and quickly walked back to the balloon. Of course i forgot take a memory card so i had to go home again (very, very annoying). Nearly running i got back in time to take this photo hand held at 70mm.

Hot Air Balloon Pictures

The balloon is reflected in Truc Back lake which is near central Hanoi.

My mothers English Springer Spaniel likes to play in the snow as should be obvious from this image. I pressed the shutter when she looked up at me after rolling in the snow and it looks like she’s thinking “What the heck are you looking at?”

English Springer Spaniel Playing in the snow

The dog is black and white and the background contains only snow so it looks like the image is in Black and White. The image is taken in Piteå in northern Sweden, just 1.5 hours drive from the arctic circle.

The name of the “star” in this image is “Maja” and she is now 9 years old (4 years when i took the image).

Let me know what you think, just make a comment to this post.

I went out for some street photography and not far from my home i looked up and saw this window cleaner hanging on a thin rope and stretching all he could to reach the window.

If someone asked me to do it i would strongly object

Window Cleaner in Guangzhou, southern china

What do you think?

Give me your opinion about this image by making a comment to the post.

This is what happened.

I’m currently living in Vietnam and my wife is at the moment in the USA. On Thursday i got a high fever and a cough and my wife was worried that i contracted the swine flu. She insisted that i go to a doctor but i didn’t listen (as usual), just told her not to worry.

Around 7.30pm local Vietnamese time i went to bed and slept like a dead horse. My wife tried to call me at least 50 times but i left my cellphone in another room and didn’t hear it. She panicked and called her brother who lives in Vietnam and told him to immediately go to my home to make sure i was alive and he did.

The problem was that my wife’s brother and the guard at the house didn’t have a key to enter my apartment. They started banging loudly at my door and i woke up after a while.

But i though it was my neighbors making noise or some construction work going on so I tried to fall asleep again. The banging didn’t stop however and I got furious. How can they be so stupid and make this kind of noise at 11.00pm. Meanwhile both my wife and her brother was pretty much sure I was dead because I didn’t open the door (my wife was on her brothers cellphone all the time).

On direct command by cellphone from my wife in the USA, they knocked down the door and came in to the apartment but I didn’t realize it until I heard voices in my living room. I went up from bed, and was surprised to meet a Vietnamese guard and my wife’s brother when I walked in to the living room.

He looked so upset that I asked what was going on and then he told me the whole story.

So while I was first sound asleep and later furious about the noise they made, my wife and her brother was nearly sure i was dead and the noise i was furious about was them knocking down the door to rescue me.

Well, the door is fixed, my fever is nearly gone and in hindsight I can conclude that my wife truly loves me and will do anything for me

Let me know what you think about this story by making a comment.

On top of this i’m stressed like mad because i’m so busy with work i don’t really have time to be sick.

But it’s not all bad, the real reason i’m stressed is that we got a huge contract a few days ago so i guess i’m stressed for a good reason.

So I’ve chosen to be happy anyway and i will now crawl back to bed and celebrate

Hoi An is a relaxing small ancient town with many of the old buildings still intact. It also struck me that Hoi An is much more colorful than most other places in Vienam and Asia in general.

It’s was very sunny and blazing hot but we defied the sun and walked around in the old part of the city.

Street in Hoi An

Boats in Hoi An

On the way back to the taxi we stopped by to get some food at a place called Mango Rooms and it turned out to be an orgy in colors but very tasteful.

Mango Rooms in Hoi An

And finally here’s me in the streets of Hoi An.

Me in the Streets of Hoi An

In the afternoon we went back to Da Nang to catch the evening flight back to Hanoi. The flight was delayed so we didn’t arrive to Noi Bai airport in Hanoi until around 11.00pm at night and i came to my apartment at 12.00pm so i was very, very tired after a long but interesting weekend in central Vietnam.

I had my camera gear in my cabin bag including a medium sized tripod. The airport security guy looked like he’d swallowed a lemon when he saw it but he let me pass the security control anyway.

The flight was slightly delayed and we landed around 7.20am in the morning. After that we took a bus to Furama resorts which is a nice 5 star resort along the beach.

It was blazing hot so we stayed inside until 4.00pm when we went out to the beach to have some fun and swim in the sea. I forgot that i’m not 22 years old any longer and had a little too fun so i fell and hurt my back and i still have trouble to sit on a chair. Stupid me

The water was incredibly nice and warm so i stayed in the water for a long long time. After the beach we had a nice dinner until 10.00pm and after a long day we went to bed.

I had such a good time that i nearly forgot to take images during the first day but here’s a couple of images i took from my balcony.

View from my Balcony at Furama Resorts in Da Nang

And here’s another image taken from my balcony.

Monkey Mountains in Da Nang

Me and my friend Stefan were in Hoi An in central Vietnam a few days ago and we passed a small ponds with some flowers. The flowers and the pond looked ordinary so I walked past the pond and the flowers. Something nagged me however so I walked back to the pond and quickly snapped a couple of close up images of one of the flowers. At first it looked like the image was over exposed when i looked in the LCD screen but I didn’t care, i just walked up to Stefan who waited for me.

Once i was back home in Hanoi I opened up the image in Photoshop CS and i was amazed by the colors. I’m no flower expert but i think it’s a water lily or a lotus flower.

Water Lily or Lotus Flower

So something that looked ordinary turned out to be so beautiful. I really love the colors that almost look like painted.

Close up of water lily or lotus flower

In this close up the colors are even more amazing and can you see the small fly in the image?

Is it a Water Lily or a Lotus Flower?

Moments after i took the first picture another cock came from behind me and attacked the first cock. It took only about 10 seconds until the owners separated the cocks but it were some pretty intense seconds.

Here’s the first picture i took before the fight

Before the cockfight started

And here the second cock attacks the first one.

The cockfight has started

Now it’s full war between them.

Full war between the cocks

Both cocks were unharmed and i was OK to

I’ve made this short video that takes you from my home at the beautiful Truc Bach lake which is where John McCain was shot down during the Vietnamese was, passing through the presidential palace and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and finally arrived to the office in Dong Da district.