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Sheaves of Incense, Northern Vietnam

Matt Sievers

Vietnam

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A woman grabs bundles of incense, freshly died in a vibrant magenta-red, and stands them upright in fanned array to dry in the sun. Nothing is staged: just a woman, going about her daily work, as another outside the scene throws bundles, like sheaves of rice, onto the ground nearby so easy to reach.

Honorable Mention

A field of yellow flowers, cascading down towards the Pacific, off Hwy 1 in Malibu captured my attention. I was curious how the scene might develop using a longer shutter speed and doing a pan, and this was it. A peaceful combination of the sea, flowers, and hills, mixing gently into one.

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Nominee

Yellow and Blue, Malibu

A young boy from the La Chi ethnic group runs along the top of a rice terrace wall in Northern Vietnam. I have fallen many times just trying to walk these narrow mud pathways, but he traverses them with ease. In the water-filled terrace below, already harvested, you can see the boy’s reflection.

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Terrace Run, Ha Giang, Vietnam

In Mu Cang Chai, a Hmong family in the far distance finishes any final work they hope to do on the terrace heights before nightfall. Within a week or two these greens will turn to gold and it will be time to harvest. The serene beauty of the scene betrays in many ways all the work that is to come.

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Lines of Green, Terrace Heights at Dusk

THIS is a Nepali highway. Suspension bridges dot the landscape of Nepal's Manaslu Circuit. They make life in such rural areas possible, and travels much easier for both residents and foreign trekkers alike. Donkeys and their keepers also are fixtures along these heights, bringing in food and basics

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Donkey Train, Nepali Highway, Manaslu Circuit

Wandering off into peaceful fields of creative ideas and thought, it's amazing how productive our being unproductive sometimes can be. We need minds free to roam, to be curious, and to wander. To dream. A young woman here wandering through N. Vietnam tea hills for me embodies just that. A daydream.

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Daydream, Tea Hills, Northern Vietnam

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The ao dai is the traditional dress of Vietnam. Once worn as daily attire prior to 1947, the dress is more often reserved today for festive and formal occasions. But it remains symbolic. And here in the ancient capital of Hue, we have ao dai elegance and the colors, red and yellow, of Vietnam.