In February Tran Viet Van was crowned winner in the "Smartshot iTravelled" category at the 2021 Travel Photographer of the Year Awards for his images of Trinh Ngoc, a 90-year-old cobbler in Ho Chi Minh City who has been making shoes for over 60 years.

Ngoc has made shoes for Vietnamese musicians and even the Cambodian royal family, including King Norodom Sihanouk.

Nguyen Tan Tuan received a "special mention" in the "Best Single Image in a Portfolio" category for a photo of water buffaloes in Dau Tieng Lake in Tay Ninh Province near HCMC.

Also in February Nguyen Phuc Thanh was among 65 winners in the "National Awards" program at the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards for his shot of a flower vendor on a bike in Hanoi.

It shows the vendor riding on Ceramic Road.

The ceramic mosaic murals along the walls of the Red River dike system are made from ceramic tesserae of Bat Trang, famed for its centuries-old traditional pottery.

In 2010, it was acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the world's largest ceramic mosaic.

In April Nguyen The Binh won the first prize at this year's SkyPixel photo contest for a shot of a farmer collecting bang grass in the Mekong Delta province of Long An.

Bang, which mainly grows in flooded fields, is used instead of plastic to produce drinking straw.

The contest is organized by China's DJI, the world's leading producer of camera drones, and the U.K.'s SkyPixel, the world’s most popular aerial photography community.

In May Nguyen Ngoc Thien was named the winner of the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year award for Southeast Asia for a shot of anchovy fishermen in Phu Yen.

His photo shows fishermen pull out green nets they had cast to catch a specialty of Vietnam's central coast, the fish that is used to produce the quintessential Vietnamese condiment, fish sauce.

In June Cao Ky Nhan won first prize in the "Motion" category at the 35 AWARDS international photo contest for a shot of a farmer feeding ducks in Tra O Lagoon in the south central Binh Dinh Province.

The international contest was instituted in 2015 by the professional photo community 35photo.pro.

In July Cao Nguyen Vu won first prize in the "General-Color" category at the HIPA International Photography Awards for his shot of hundreds of fishing boats anchored in the central Quang Ngai Province.

Vu said he took the photo in 2020 as fishermen's boats were anchored neatly in line to avoid Typhoon Molave.

HIPA is an international photography award founded in 2011 under the patronage of the Dubai crown prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.

Also in July Nguyen Dang Hao won the gold medal in the Two Country Circuit international contest for a spectacular shot of thousands of white storks flying above Van Long Lagoon in the northern Ninh Binh Province.

Van Long Lagoon is home to thousands of terrestrial and aquatic creatures and plants.

Among them are rare and endangered species listed in Vietnam's Red Book like the Delacour's langur.

In September Cao Ky Nhan won a "highly commended" prize in the "Series" category at the Drone Photo Awards for a shot of fishermen pulling out nets to harvest anchovies off Yen Islet, 15 kilometers north of Tuy Hoa, the capital of Phu Yen.

Instituted in 2015 the Drone Photo Awards remain the most important international competition for aerial photography and videography.

The same month Nguyen Linh Vinh Quoc made it to the "Drone Commended" list in the "People" category at the 2022 Drone Photo Awards.

The photo shows women in Phu Yen Province on the central coast spreading colorful sedge to dry.

"They work like puzzle artists, arranging the sedge in alternating colors, creating wonderful patterns," Quoc said.

A month later Nhan won the Epson International Pano Award for his shot of golden yellow rice fields along the Quay Son River in Cao Bang Province on the Chinese border.

At the start of October rice fields along the river, which forms a natural border with China, turn a golden hue.

The river originates in Chongshan Mountain in China's Jingxi County.

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