Sylvain Deffaix’s Stunning Vistas of Northern Vietnam from Above

Last Updated on 09/20/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

All images by Sylvain Deffaix. Used with Creative Commons permission.

The north of Vietnam is home to some of the best and most unique natural views in this Southeast Asian country; majestic mountains, lush rice terraces, and astounding karst formations that couldn’t be found anywhere else. These landscape views always make for great pictures but while most visitors would take shots at eye-level, Sylvain Deffaix elevated things a notch – literally – and captured places in this region from a bird’s eye view.

Vietnam from Sky is the result of a two-week trip that Sylvain took in Northern Vietnam. During that time, the photographer and art director from Rennes, France cruised through Hanoi, Sapa, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, and Ba Be Lake, among other places, on a motorbike and took drone shots with a DJI Mavic Pro.

Although Sylvain went to many different places, his series is dominated by pictures of rice terraces which, according to travel blogs and websites, can be found in the provinces of Ha Giang, Lao Cai, and Yen Bai. And from very high up, the terraces reveal interesting patterns that crisscross the land.

Through aerial photography, Sylvain provides perspectives that not many have the chance to make or at the very least see. From above, the views look even wider and more breathtaking; the kinds that make you think of how little you are and how big the world really is, and how there’s much, much more to see out there.

Vietnam’s northern region has and will continue to inspire many like Sylvain to capture and preserve its beauty through photography. It reminds us of photographer Greg Whitton’s Ha Long Bay Project, in which he depicted the UNESCO World Heritage Site in powerful black and white landscape photographs.

See the rest of Sylvain Deffaix’s Vietnam from Sky series here and visit his Behance portfolio to see more of his work.