Photographers and members of the public are paying a compliment to the second leg of a speed photography competition taking place in Ho Chi Minh City last weekend for its quality, which is considered higher than the contest in Hanoi.

The Canon PhotoMarathon Vietnam 2018 kicked off at the Hoa Lu Stadium in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, one week after the first competition leg in the capital on October 27. 

Not inferior to the event in Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh City contest attracted more than 6,700 entrants, among which 4,000 came up to the venue on the day of competition.

They were asked to take pictures in three themes - “Ton Sur Ton,” “Reflection,” and “Strength of Youth.” The topics are totally different from those of the Hanoi event, which were “Vietnam’s Pride,” “Passion,” and “Hard-working.”

After nine hours of passionate and enthusiastic competition, Saturday’s contest concluded after the experienced and well-known judges in Vietnam photography including Tran Tuan Viet, Hai Thanh and Ha Kin struggled to pick out the winners.

Unlike the controversial result of the contest in Hanoi, the community of photography lovers showed support for and made positive comments on the quality of the competition as well as the value of the winning photographs of the Ho Chi Minh City event.

The grand prize was awarded to Vo Hoai Huy, who luckily captured three car wash employees in dark blue and yellow uniforms cleaning a yellow car, with two yellow plastic chairs seen in the background.

The grand prize-winning photo by Vo Hoai Huy is uploaded on Canon Vietnam's Facebook page.

Judge Hai Thanh told news site Techtimes that Huy’s photo left a strong impression on him for its yellow-on-yellow color, layout, dramatic lighting, and properly expressing the topic “Ton Sur Ton,” a French phrase used to describe things in matching shades.

“This is a very ‘ton sur ton’ photo, perfect in terms of technique and attraction,” Thanh said.

With this victory, Vo Hoai Huy will officially represent Vietnam at the Canon PhotoMarathon Asia Championship 2019 challenge in Japan.

In addition, the judges also selected the ten best photos in the three categories of the contest.

The first prize in “Ton Sur Ton” was given to 19-year-old Nguyen Quyet Thang for an entry that was hard for the judges to assess, according to judge Tran Tuan Viet.

Thang’s photo captured a coincident moment at a florist’s where a woman in a yellow floral dress stood in front of bunches of yellow flowers, while the shop owner, in a green and pink floral coat and hat, was counting money before some buckets of pink flowers.

“The photo is not really eye-catching at first glance, but the more I watch it, the more I realize its difficulty and sophistication,” judge Hai Thanh commented.

The photo winning the first prize of “Ton Sur Ton” by Nguyen Quyet Thang is uploaded on Canon Vietnam's Facebook page.

In the “Reflection” theme, the highest prize was handed over to Nguyen Tuan Khai as his photo received high approval from all judges, while Pham Van Quy got many compliments from the judging panel and the contest’s organizers to win the “Strength of Youth” theme’s first prize.

The Hanoi competition leg made headlines after the organizers doctored the grand prize-winning photo, which captured a group of construction workers arranging bricks in front of an eatery.

The word “dog meat” seen on the signboard of the eatery in the original photo was changed to “chicken meat” when the organizers announced the results on social media.

Explaining this editing, the organizers told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that it was to pre-empt public opinion that the contest advocates dog meat eating while authorities are taking steps to reduce the consumption of this kind of meat, which is a controversial topic itself.

The photo winning the first prize of “Strength of Yout” by Pham Van Quy is uploaded on Canon Vietnam's Facebook page.

The photo winning the first prize of “Reflection” by Nguyen Tuan Khai is uploaded on Canon Vietnam's Facebook page.

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