Hanoi On The Tracks Photo Tour

Worth the pre-dawn hotel pick up to capture the early morning activities in a variety of neighborhoods and markets. Viet gave many tips on how to find unique angles and images with my iPhone camera. I did a combination tour of train street, a park, and two markets at the suggestion of the tour operator. A terrific, learning experience!

Our tour of Train Street with Tung was educational and amazing. He offered hints and suggestions from the get go, as to how we could improve our photography. Me with my DSLR and my wife with her iPhone. Touring the local market, opened our eyes to other photography avenues. We learned a lot and we’ve both tried to incorporate those ideas in our photography since then. Overall, a wonderful experience and well worth getting up early for the 5 am pickup.

Ihave to say the tour was excellent and I feel I was very lucky to have Hoang as my guide. Not only was he great as a guide, im really glad that he is passionate about photography and was happy to talk photography and share his knowledge. My hope was to learn a few things, which I did, and will keep them in mind for the rest of my trip so I can make stronger photos. On top of that, he's a wonderful person and we were able to have conversation as friends.

This was such an amazing experience and worth all the money. I was picked up at the hotel and driven to all locations that we would visit this money. The trainstreet was thrilling with the train passing by twice! In between, Tung, my excellent host for today, showed me some nice locations for street photography around the area. I should also mention that Tung was really helpful in advising all camera setting as well as safety instructions and the right spot in trainstreet. After this experience, we also captured the morning rush hour at Long Bien bridge, and captured the activities on the Long Bien market from the bridge. We concluded by a visit to the old quarter and a delicious breakfast where I learned how to eat Pho with chopsticks. Thank you for a beautiful morning with nice pictures, Tung! I would love to do it again!

Fuong was a great guide and she brings her insights as a journalistic photographer to her tour. I got some great tips and had a wonderful time using my camera in ways that I didn't know I could. This was also a great cultural tour as we explored one of the markets just as it was waking up. I highly recommend this tour and this organization.

Fuong was a great guide and she brings her insights as a journalistic photographer to her tour. I got some great tips and had a wonderful time using my camera in ways that I didn't know I could. This was also a great cultural tour as we explored one of the markets just as it was waking up. I highly recommend this tour and this organization.

Fantastic morning tour with Brian. The four hours went by so quickly I didn’t even notice. We started in the train tracks and moved to different spots around the city to capture the street and portrait pictures that inspire me. Brian was professional and fun. He shared useful technical tips and advice to improve my skills. We finished the morning with a sweet coffee and banh mi :) Hai Yen was very helpful during the process and even after the tour. Very pleased with the whole experience with Vietnam in Focus! Cảm ơn 🙏🏼

This was a great photo walk taking in Hà Nội’s famous train street, local markets and street scenes. A walk round a local park and then to the railway bridge designed by Eiffel. Our guide, Brian, was friendly, enthusiastic and gave great photography advice as he guided us around.

This early morning trip along some iconic photo locations in Hanoi was amazing and very well organised. Tung showed me several nice places and provided excellent advice on the camera setting to capture the decisive moments. I had sufficient time to make pictures and am very happy with the results. After a few hours shooting, the tour was concluded with a coffee and a nice breakfast at a local restaurant. I can highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in street photography in Hanoi.

This tour is fantastic for anyone who wants to see some of the best street/urban photo spots in Hanoi. Phuong was a phenomenal guide who not only provided some valuable photography tips but also gave a huge amount of insight into Vietnamese culture and history. Definitely recommend!

I took my girlfriend and a friend on this tour even though we all live in Hanoi. My girlfriend wanted to get into photography so we got her a new camera and informed the tour that we were newbies. Boris was extremely helpful in teaching her how to frame her shots, where to have her models stand, how lighting works, and how to make adjustments to her camera. Highly recommend the tour!

Waking two jet-lagged teens at 4:45am on a rainy morning isn't always easy but my kids' excitement about the On the Tracks photo tour got them up and moving quickly. And the tour did not disappoint. As soon as we met our photographer guide Brian and photojournalist Hoang outside our Old Quarter hotel in the pitch black and mist we knew it was going to be a great morning. My kids love trains and photography, so the tour was perfect for them, and walking along the tracks in a local neighborhood gave us an incredible look at life in Hanoi, something that can be hard for tourists to find. One of my kids is about to start a photojournalism program in college, so learning directly from two professional photographers gave him amazing insight into photography as a possible career. Learning about the local neighborhood, watching its morning market open, getting photos of dancing couples at a local park and shots of market goers from the Long Bien bridge gave us such a wonderful look at regular Hanoian life. Brian was a terrific guide, super friendly, knowledgable, and helpful in teaching us how to set up shots and find the right locations and angles for getting impactful, interesting photos. Hoang shared a lot of great technical tips and advice, too, about being a working photojournalist. In addition to the photography skills they shared, we loved getting coffee at a local cafe and learning Brian's tip on making an early-AM banh mi even better, by adding an egg! In addition to the photography, we learned so much more that morning about Hanoi and Hanoians than we ever could have on our own. We've gotten a lot of great feedback on our photos and have so many fun memories from that morning. We highly recommend the Vietnam in Focus tours to our friends. Thank you to Brian, Hoang and VIF for such a terrific and memorable experience.

We had a good time with Boris in the morning. From train street, to early market, to the sunrise at the lake, to the delicious Banh mi breakfast, we enjoyed the great time and had many good photo opportunities

Boris was fabulous. Interesting, attentive and a great teacher - both with a creative vision and my camera settings. Money well spent.

I really enjoyed this tour with Brett. He was patient in understanding my limited photo skills, interesting to chat to for a few hours and I learned a fair bit. Best part was learning practical photography application from Brett as opposed to simply theory. Having said that, do this for the entire experience and not just to take a photo of an on-coming train - which in itself last 1 mins and is near impossible to get a perfect shot of for an amateur.

This was a fantastic experience - my girlfriend is a fairly experienced photographer, I am a complete novice. She uses a complicated DSLR, whereas I just have my smartphone. William our guide was able to find something for each of us to learn at our own level, and showed me some of the features I can manipulate even with my smartphone to get some really nice shots. You start before dawn and head down to the train tracks, there are some amazingly atmospheric scenes to capture here, and it's sort of an area that you would know to go to without a guide. Then you see some little market streets, again off the normal tourist track, so you're actually seeing a real Street market come to life first thing in the morning without throngs of other tourists around, it feels like a chance to see a bit of really authentic Hanoi life. William was fantastic, very generous with his time and knowledge of the city, and his experience in how to approach people and scenes when doing street photography, we had a fantastic morning and we only wish we had done this tour earlier in our holiday. Highly recommended for photographers of any level at all.

This is the first photo tour I’ve taken where I learned something. Typically photo tours stop with aperture and shutter speed and if you already know those things they have nothing to tell you. Duc not only took me to interesting photo opportunities, he explained aspects of local life and taught me about street photography. He also taught me new photographic techniques. I was much more comfortable taking shots of people in Vietnam as a result of this tour and enjoyed my entire trip more as a result. Duc will teach you as much as you want to learn. I loved this trip so much that I proceeded to book several more with them.

This tour definitely exceeds expectations . It Combines both sightseeing and focused photography session . Not only the location, the ambience and the timing were great but above all the tour guide himself. Mr, Brett was brilliant. I was amazed how he transformed his knowledge and downsized it to a beginner level. No matter what is your level of Photography, I would encourage you to take this tour.

This is an amazing photo tour ending with a lot of wonderfull photographs. We started off around the railway tracks photographing trains and local life around the railway , then headed around the market area to photograph colouful food , flower , seafood stalls and locals going about their daily lives. The tour was well paced with plenty of time to take photographs before heading off to another location. Brett was the guide and was wonderfull, really enjoyed our general conversations about Hanoi as we walked around. I regard myself as an intermediate photographer and Brett gave me photography tips that helped me for the rest of the holiday in Vietnam. If you are a keen photographer or just a beginer I cannot recommend highly enough to undertake this Photography Tour

This is a fabulous opportunity for anyone who is interested in improving their skills and seeing some great photo spots! Brett and our translator were wonderful. We visited the train tracks and got some great shots followed by a visit to a wonderful side street market filled with an array of colorful veggies, flopping fish and eels, etc before we ventured out to a pleasant lake. Received several tips for improving shots and learned a few new things about my camera. Also enjoyed our conversations re daily life in Hanoi. I am an intermediate photographer and would highly recommend that any level photographer go on this trip. Thank you!!!

This tour was great on so many different levels. 1. Brilliant tour guide/instructor. Boris was simply amazing. My husband and I have very different levels of photography, him being experienced and me inept. Despite this Boris tailored it brilliantly so that we both got lots out of it, my husband improving technique and gaining the confidence in taking shots of locals, and me learning the basics enough to get some great shots. On top of that Boris was very informative about local life and culture. 2. Great locations. We visited Long Biên Market which was an absolutely amazing experience where we really got to interact with the locals. We also photographed a number of trains, including inside the engine room! We walked through the old quarter to train street and then back to our hotel. Photo opportunities galore. 3. It’s different, you get to see a side of Vietnam you wouldn’t otherwise see and you get to capture it to remember forever. I highly recommend it and I definitely suggest you ask for Boris! Would definitely book again!

I wasn't sure about this tour as I've always just used the auto function on my camera, - but I learned how to use loads of really useful functions both on my digital camera and smartphone. Our guide Boris was really good, giving loads of tips on composing great photos, which we used on the rest of our trip. It was a really early start, but worth it to see the food market in full flow - that in itself is a real experience - the woman shaving pigs ears will always stay with me.

We went on the Hanoi on the tracks tour with Hai. As reasonably keen amateur photographers but completely new to Hanoi it was a great experience from start to finish. Hai really helped us find some interesting shots whilst giving us real insight and background into the places we were seeing.

I enjoyed a well organised and interesting tour with Vietnam in Focus. My guide was Duc, and he was an excellent photographer with very good knowledge of Hanoi. Duc took great care of me, showing me both camera settings, composition, locations and lighting. He talked non-stop for 4 hours and was very, very dedicated to the task. In between shooting we stopped for coffee, and he knew some really, really good local cafés with the best cup of Joe I've had in Hanoi. I would recommend this tour to anyone and everyone!

I went on this tour as a fairly novice photographer particularly compared to my fellow tourists. I loved it. Boris was our guide and he certainly helped me work my new camera and got it setup to work well for the photos we were taking. He showed us techniques that you read about but now I can perfect. The tour takes you along the train track in Hanoi. At first I wasn’t sure about that as I wasn’t into trains that much, but it is so much more than trains. The tour takes you to many places to see life along the track, beside the track and through the old quarter. Thanks to Boris I learnt a lot and got some great shots of the experience. I would recommend to novices and professionals alike.

My son and I had a great time with Duc on this tour, we went to places we would not have ventured alone, we had fun and learnt how to work my camera. I’ve been taking photos for 30 years but i’m not that up to date with digital cameras. Duc was patient and knowledgeable trying to teach this old dog some new tricks. His work is stunning and I’m grateful for the time he spent with us. I was even more grateful when I arrived home and saw my photos on the computer. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Duc.

We arranged for an afternoon tour for the two of us. We were picked up at the hotel and taken to Long Bien Station where the tour began. We learned a lot about Hanoi, trains, neighborhoods, history, food and photography -- you name it. It was fascinating!! Our guide, Mansour, could not have been more helpful and informative. This was by far the best tour experience we had in Hanoi. Highly recommended.

This Tour lets you experience Hanoi from a new perspective. We walked the tracks and bridge in places we would never have dared to go without a guide. Our photos are stunning. Duc, our tourguide, was a very knowledgable and uplifting person. As it was raining heavily in the morning, we asked to shift the tour to the afternoon, which was no problem for Duc. He also introduced us to some local foods along the way.

Really had a blast! Went early morning and walked around the tracks for a few hours. The guide, Mansour, was very helpful, good photographer as well, and was able to connect easily with the locals. Would recommend anyone, even when photography skills are “under development”...

We woke at the crack of dawn for a tour of the Long Bien wholesale market along the railroad tracks, where we had a photo lesson and proceeded to take pictures of the market activity and have breakfast. Then we continued along the tracks for more unusual photos and in-depth, local color commentary from our fabulous guide Duc Nguyen. This was a major highlight of our trip and I would recommend it highly.

My partner and I spent the morning On The Tracks and had a fantastic time. It was my Christmas present to my partner who has recently taken up photography. Linh, our guide, was very knowledgeable. He showed my partner some new settings to use on his camera. His keen eye for a great photo was also awesome in terms of pointing things out we may have never noticed ourselves. The glimpse into the lives of the Vietnamese market stall holders was a once in a lifetime experience. I could have sat and watched them at work for hours. The train tracks with peoples homes and workplaces was also an eye opener. All places you’d probably never visit just on your own. The traditional Pho breakfast was also delicious. Thank you to Linh for a great morning.

<p>Really nice tour! Helped me learn a lot about tequiniqes and it was good chance to blend in with local life.<br/> I was lucky as that morning I was the only participant, so it was like a private tour. William holding the tour was very helpful.</p>

I chose this tour to learn new things and Linh was very good at showing me how to improve and get beautiful images around the Hanoi railway. Framing, light, mind to have for street photo, etc... A great experience!