Great Escape Publishing

Posted March 12th, 2016 by Christina Carpenter & filed under Travel Photography.

In Vietnamese, these two little words can instantly transform your photos:

“Xin chào”

Pronounced “sin chow” it means hello, and it goes a long way when you’re taking photos of local people. English is widely spoken in Vietnam, and few foreigners even make an attempt at speaking the local language.

That said, when you speak these words you’ll often surprise and delight the person you’re talking to, which in return will give you a friendly smile …or at least get you permission to take their photo.

In today’s issue, I want to share a few of our best people photos from the week.

When it comes to selling your photos to magazines, people sell.

Editors love including photos of people, because it instantly puts your photo into context, and gives the reader a better idea of what the destination is like. (People photos also sell well to stock agencies and as fine art. Across the board, people photos are big sellers).

Here are a few of all the different types of people we saw here in Vietnam:

Susan Hoffman

Terry Granger

Isabel Villar

Jennifer Hess

Christina Carpenter

It’s not always possible to include faces in your photos, but you can still add a human element by including hands, profiles, or groups of people. There are lots of ways to incorporate people into your photos.

Take a look at these examples that don’t show faces:

Patricia Palmer

Terry Granger

Patricia Palmer

Traveling like this really is all about the people you meet, the relationships you build with your fellow travelers, and the memories you’ll share forever even long after the trip has come to an end.

Attendee Susan Hoffman told me she always thought she would prefer traveling alone, but once she started traveling with us, she decided this was the way she wanted to travel from here on out.

She likes the flexibility we have with our trips…and that we can make changes on the fly to accommodate our needs. Not so easy on other tours. But when we’re traveling with the same goals in mind, we have a unified voice.

More than that she likes the people she meets on these trips. We’re fun. We’re flexible. And we love traveling with a purpose.

Here’s that fun group shot from China Beach again: