Photo Stories — Vi Bottaro Photography

Ninh Binh, North Viet Nam.

Located about 90 km south of Ha Noi, Ninh Binh Province of North Viet Nam is a spectacular landscape of limestone karst peaks permeated with valleys, many of them partly submerged and surrounded by steep, almost vertical cliffs. Exploration of caves at different altitudes has revealed archaeological traces of human activity over a continuous period of more than 30,000 years. They illustrate the occupation of these mountains by seasonal hunter-gatherers and how they adapted to major climatic and environmental changes, especially the repeated inundation of the landscape by the sea after the last ice age. The story of human occupation continues through the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to the historical era. The area contains temples, pagodas, paddy-fields and small villages. There are about 14,000 residents, the majority of whom are families involved in subsistence agriculture, but much of the area is uninhabited and in a natural state. In 2014, Trang An Landscape Complex in Ninh Binh was inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Ninh Binh is my birthplace.

I’ve always wondered why monks and priests always built their monasteries and temples way up in the sky. Is it because they want to live close to heaven or because they want to get away from people? On one of my photographic workshops, we climbed up 500 steep stone steps to a temple in Ninh Binh to get this bird’s eye view of the area.

Awesome Caves of VietNam.

Viet Nam has a vast underground world. The British Cave Research Association has explored more than 500 caves in Viet Nam and still only explored about 30% of this area. In 1990, a Vietnamese peasant stumbled into the largest cave in the world in Central Viet Nam. Son Doong Cave stretches across 1.35 billion cubic feet, so big it even has its own jungle inside, its own ecosystem, big enough to fit a 40 story building. Quang Binh in Central VietNam is the world’s hot new caving destination, home to 315,000 acres UNESCO protected national park whose tropical forests hide a vast 104km subterranean world - making it one of the most spectacular limestone karst ecosystems in the planet, according to BBC Travel.

I have only been to a few caves in North VietNam. The images below are of Sung Sot Cave in Ha Long Bay. Sprawling across 10,000 square meters, the cave is wide and spacious with incredible array of stalactites and stalagmites. The shapes and patterns of the rocks looked surreal.

Black Rain, Mount Veeder. Napa Valley.

In 2006, 6 months after moving to Napa Valley, I was invited to be Artist-in-Residence at Domaine Chandon Winery. For opening day, I planned to hang 5 large, framed images size 30x40 of the Valley on a large wall in the visitor’s center. I had 4 images that I was pleased with. And I needed one more. A local friend told me that there was a movie named “Black Rain” that was made on Mt Veeder. It was an award winning movie starring Michael Douglas. So one early morning I went up on Mt Veeder. I wandered around, took some pictures of the Japanese Tora that was left behind. Boring pictures! It started to rain and I thought I should head back. As I was walking back, I saw a little road off the beaten path. It peaked my curiosity and bearing the rain, I walked into the heavily wooded path. When I walked to the end of the path, I saw the view that took my breath away! The rain stopped, the fog came out, the Tora gate looked ethereal on the barren winter vineyards. Holding my breath, I took a series of “regular” pictures. Then with the movie Black Rain in mind, I manipulated my camera to bring out the grain to get an image that looked like black rain was falling down in the vineyards. I held my place as Artist-in-Residence at Domain Chandon for 6 years. It was a great time. I got to meet visitors from all over the country and the world.

America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay 2013.

My time of crewing and photographing the sailboat races at the Berkeley Yacht Club cumulated in photographing the races of the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay in 2013. It was quite an exciting event. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA and Emirates team New Zealand. A new class of boat, AC72 wing-sail catamaran was introduced for the first time in these races. After trailing the series 1-8, team USA made one of the most improbable comeback in the history of sports, winning 8 consecutive races to capture the America’s Cup by 9-8, best of 17. It was a spectacular scene on the water on that last day!

Hmong family on the mountains of Sapa, North VietNam.

In October 2012, I returned to Sapa, hoping to see the amazing terraced rice fields in the mountain town in their glorious colors. To my disappointment, harvest was done and the rice fields looked brown and patchy! I decided to hire a motorbike with a driver to go into the village to see what was happening. Not much going on! I took a few pictures, nothing to brag about. So I decided it was time to go back to my lodging. The mountain road was winding, narrow and treacherous, full of rocks and big pot holes, one side was the rocky mountain and the other side was the abyss! At times I had to close my eyes and just put my life in the hands of the motorbike driver. When I opened my eyes, I saw the scene! A family of Hmong people sitting precariously on a piece of rock jutting into the abyss doing what they do best, ethnic embroidery work….totally at ease in their environment! Breathless with excitement, I yelled to the driver “stop the bike!!!”. When I approached them, they all stopped what they were doing and ran to me, trying to sell their wares. I said to them in Vietnamese “Go back and do what you are doing. Let me take a few pictures and when I am done, I will buy from all of you”. I took a few pictures, very carefully watching my steps when backing away to compose the image so as not to fall off the cliff. They magically arranged themselves the way I liked it. With a little bit of adjustments, I got the shot!

Ke Ga, South VietNam.

In 2014, after departing with my VietNam workshop participants, I set out to explore Ke Ga on my own. Ke Ga is a small coastal town in South VietNam, well-known for the unusual formations of rocks. When I got to the pier, it appeared that I was the last customer to be transported to the small island where the lighthouse was. At first, I was denied transportation because I was traveling solo. I said I would pay the price for 2 so I was put on a small motor boat by myself. I was dropped off on the island and started wandering around. After photographing some rocks and the lighthouse, the sky looked threatening and we were told to get on the boat to get back to the pier. So I boarded a motor boat with other people to go back. The battery on my camera was running low anyway. When we got to the pier, it was actually a very rocky area on shore where the locals kept their boats to transport people. We had to make a jump from the boat to the rocks to get onshore. When it was my turn, I saw this awesome view of the lichen covered rocks, the ominous storm clouds, I saw the reflections on the water. Then I heard someone yell “ Jump! there are people behind you!”. I quickly released the shutter and jumped! This was the last picture on my camera for the day. The battery went dead after that.

My first trek in Sapa, North Vietnam.

April 2012. Having just arrived in Sapa at 6am after a 9 hour midnight train from Hanoi, I was all excited to explore the beautiful mountains and valleys of Sapa that I had read about. After breakfast with my friend, we parted….she for the market and I for the mountains. In downtown Sapa, I ran into some groups of jolly tourists and ethnic Hmong women heading somewhere….Being curious, I followed. After a while, I found out that they were trekking into a village. I was lagging behind taking pictures along the way, then this quiet Hmong woman slowed down to keep me company. She invited me to come to her home. Excitedly, I accepted the invitation. I had no idea that it was a long, long way….and I was not wearing my hiking shoes and brought no water. We walked through the rugged terrain for what seemed to be hours and finally got to her home. After visiting with her family, we parted. I was very happy to hop onto a motor scooter for a ride back to downtown Sapa.