Winning a global photography award is an unforgettable milestone, but having the public vote for your image as their favorite brings a completely different kind of joy. In the 17th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest, my image titled “Colorful Work” was honored not only as a Finalist and Photo of the Day (August 19, 2021) but ultimately as the Readers’ Choice Winner.
See more: Winners and Finalists of the 18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest
Captured in November 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, this image of vibrant colors and quiet dedication served as a much-needed reminder of hope and resilience in the tourism industry. Here is the story of what it took to get the shot.
The subject of this photo is a solitary worker, dwarfed by the massive scale of an 18-meter hot air balloon. His careful, methodical preparation of the fabric is the true “colorful work.” But behind the lens, the “who” also includes my own relentless routine of chasing this specific vision day after day.
The image captures the mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic interior of a hot air balloon as it is being inflated for a tourism festival. Setting up a balloon of this size is no easy feat—it takes more than an hour of intense, hands-on labor to complete the preparation before it can take to the skies.
This moment unfolded at Ba Vi National Park, a beautiful mountainous region located about 48 kilometers west of Hanoi, Vietnam.
The photo was taken in November 2020. However, the real story of “When” is about the mornings leading up to this exact frame. To capture this perfect moment of light, color, and action, I spent many days during the festival waking up around 5:00 a.m. Each day, I traveled more than 100 kilometers round-trip, waiting patiently for the elements to align perfectly.
During the Covid-19 period, the world felt very still and often bleak. I wanted to capture the behind-the-scenes effort of this tourism festival to highlight the enduring spirit of the workers. I visualized the geometric beauty and the striking colors inside the balloon, knowing that if I could capture the worker in that exact environment, it would tell a powerful story of scale, color, and human effort during a difficult time.
How I took this shot
To capture the vastness of the balloon’s interior while keeping the worker in sharp focus, I needed an ultra-wide lens and a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of the billowing fabric.
- Camera: Sony Alpha A7 III (ILCE-7M3)
- Lens: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8
- Focal Length: 16mm (perfect for wrapping the viewer inside the balloon)
- Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
- Aperture: f/4.5
- ISO: 100
Shooting at 16mm allowed the leading lines of the balloon’s colorful panels to draw the viewer’s eye straight toward the worker at the center, creating a surreal, tunnel-like effect.