Hot Dog, a photo from Ha Noi, Red River Delta

Photographer's Note

While walking in a market in Hanoi, I noticed this unusual piece of meat... Unfortunately, I was just able to take this picture in a hurry, because the owner of the shop was not very willing to let me take others. If anyone knows how to improve it (esp. letting more details appear on the foreground), I'll be glad to repost it. This is a dog, by the way... :)

benkrut, ebassotto has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

SirWilliam (410) 2003-08-29 9:08

How to improve? Some extra pepper would do :)
No, seriously, you wanted to give the foreground more focus by sharpening it? I'm not sure if this is an obvious choise. Perhaps a crop on the right would do: at least to cut away the glimpse of cup nr3, and perhaps whole cup 2, but i'm not sure about that last one.
BTW rather disturbing picture, let's hope it didn't suffer when being killed. If the shopowner didn't like the attention.... he must have realised that it's disturbing.

[3]

Ronan (337) 2003-08-29 9:55

A disturbing picture for occidental people as a plate of frogs is disturbing for some people. Alexis, I post a picture in the workshop. I decide to create a fuzzy bakground and to crop the picture to focus on the dog.

[3] [workshop] [compare]

onyourbike (117) 2003-08-29 9:58

Alexis, i recently took a photo very similar in China and decided not to post it here; in my case people were preparing the dog and were quite happy for me to photograph it and it was obviously killed in a humane way, i won't describe how. I don't find this particularly disturbing, its a part of daily life in Vietnam and dogs are bred for this like any other animal would be for consumption. I guess the reason i didn't post the photo was to avoid offending/disgusting people? I can't suggest any improvements other than next time find an owner more willing to let you take photos!

[2]

philip_coggan (11) 2003-08-29 10:45

Now this has got to be one of the most attention-grabbing shots I've ever seen! I doubt there's any way to improve the slight blurriness - it probably just wasn't focussed right, which is hardly considering if you took it the way you describe. (La C. says she doesn't understand how you could take a photo l;ike this, let alone show it to everyone: personally, I feel that if you can stand the sight of a sirloin steak in the supermarket chilled meat section, you can stand this).

balarila (313) 2003-10-09 0:25

I was in Hanoi last January and saw, in passing, some "hot dogs". I had initially thought it was a roasted suckling pig but my host corrected me. Although I also come from a country where some people eat dogs, this picture still disturbs me. Especially since I have a labrador that I consider to be part of my family. Sorry I can't stare long enough on the photo to give some technical improvement comments.

marcind (222) 2003-10-29 22:03

terrible... thanks for this picture; the workshop of Ronan is good improvement

DaTrang (60) 2003-11-11 15:09

vietnamese hot dog?......HA, it funny!

boof (634) 2003-11-11 15:35

Hello. I have never seen a dog served this way. I have a picture of dog soup that I took a couple weeks ago in Seoul but it was nothign like this. I also did a workshop on this as well. took the opposite approach as ronan did. instead of bluring the background I sharpened the forground. I hope between ronan and my different approaches to editing your pic you get some decent ideas

[workshop] [compare]

yaron (122) 2004-01-11 18:02

amaizing shot shows the diferent of coultures
in one side of the world dogs are eaten by people and on the other are treating better than people from the thirdworld
good shot thanks

bmagierowski (0) 2004-02-03 5:32

I have similar photo, you can visit if you like, but who likes this kind of photos???

ljsugarnspice (28) 2004-08-02 20:13

eeeee... dispite my first reaction (which is to throw up), this is a good shot. i prefer to try and keep doggies alive, but it would be hypocritical of me to say this is a wrong.... i still eat most meats! i agree with sirwilliam, don't think i would sharpen it anymore, but i would crop a tad off the right, like ronan did in the WS. good work capturing a key part of the country's culture!

polongi (166) 2004-12-13 20:58

In the philippines it is illigal to expose the dogs killing and much worst for selling it on this way.
Good shot anyway

Facsi (212) 2005-10-13 4:14

First I surprised. I heard about it but never saw "hot dog".
In your note I read the call to make workshop. My version is here too, hope you like it. Despite of short time to make shot, it is a good effort.
Bye.

[workshop] [compare]

aliiftikhar (99) 2005-11-04 18:07

Hi
This is BAD...Not the photo but the scene... I think i saw "hot dog" for the 1st time..... Did you ask anybody how it tastes? just kidding....
Regards,
Ali

rushandy (214) 2006-05-16 8:28

It looks quite tasty actually.... ;-)

This kind of photo is what TrekEarth is all about, showing us aspects of other cultures that are different to our own, whilst trying to improve our all round photography!

Great post.

ebassotto (158) 2006-09-23 15:21

Very interesting and exotic! But the subject(dog) could be more centralized.

Benedict (7076) 2008-06-30 23:52

hi alexis,
distigusting to see this one but it is a reality!
i could not imagine my dog ending like this.
i live in the south of the philippines but in the north, dog meat is a specialty...
an ugly reality indeed.
Benedict

v_vicky (1037) 2008-08-23 1:11