Live Your Best Lives
On Friday, March 22, the first photography conference officially began.
We met in Wuyuan. That evening, there was a special lecture by a famous teacher, and free use of photography equipment. Special thanks to Sigma for its sponsorship and support.
During the lecture, the teachers shared a wealth of compositional techniques and photographic examples related to rapeseed fields. The phrase "create a sense of unfamiliarity in a familiar destination" resonated deeply with each participant. Throughout the rest of the trip, everyone sought out creative and creative approaches to capturing challenging compositions.
In Wuyuan, rape flowers bloom in large quantities from March to April, and villages are surrounded by a sea of flowers. The grass is lush, the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming in the spring. Wuyuan was first famous for its rape flowers. In addition, the ancient village has a sense of history and is very scenic and pastoral.
The Hui-style architecture is seamlessly integrated, every village is a painting, every step is a scene. Traveling and photographing China's most beautiful countryside will surely make your trip worthwhile.
Camera body: A DSLR or mirrorless camera is preferred, regardless of brand or model (it is recommended to bring 1-2 spare batteries).
Lens: Wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses are used frequently. Wide-angle lenses are used to shoot large scenes, environmental portraits, sunrises in the sea of flowers, village panoramas and other subjects, while telephoto lenses are used to shoot close-ups of rapeseed flowers and for humanities purposes.
Drone: If you are recommended to bring a drone, the bird's-eye view of the sea of flowers in spring is quite beautiful (except in some sensitive areas where drones are expressly prohibited). 2-3 spare batteries will be enough. There are probably places where you can charge them every day.
Memory card: It is recommended to carry a total of more than 256G, and a single card should not exceed 128G to avoid damage.
Filter: Consider carrying an ND64 to photograph daytime clouds.
Tripod: Essential for shooting time-lapse videos and sunrises and sunsets. Wuyuan can be rainy in the spring, so remember to bring rain gear to protect your camera and keep it out of the elements.
Jiangxi cuisine is spicy, Anhui cuisine is salty. Wuyuan, nestled between Jiangxi and Anhui, boasts a unique blend of spicy and salty cuisine, unlike the delicate, delicate flavors of Jiangxi and Anhui cuisine. Villagers enjoy wild vegetables, such as wild bracken and water fern, all of which are incredibly fresh.
Wuyuan cuisine inherits the traditions of Anhui cuisine, specializing in Wuyuan's traditional steamed, plain, and simmered dishes. However, it also incorporates the spiciness of Gan cuisine, resulting in a unique flavor experience. Tourists who can't handle spicy food should definitely ask the restaurant owner to use less chili peppers.
After the lecture on the gathering day, everyone went to bed early. The next day, led by the China-TravelNote photography team leader, we set off to Moon Bay before dawn to photograph the sunrise and fishing lights.
This place is shaped like the moon, and the elegance of the Hui-style houses across the river blends in with the beautiful scenery around it. Occasionally, fishermen go out to fish, making it a holy place for photography enthusiasts.
Tips:
Tips: Drones, tripods, and telephoto lenses are all available for this photoshoot, so it's recommended to bring them along. A drone can capture bird's-eye-view videos, and a telephoto lens can capture close-up photos of the fishermen.
In the blue hour before sunrise, the light is relatively weak and the fishing boats are still moving slowly on the water. Therefore, if you want to shoot at this time, it is recommended to use a tripod, open the aperture to the maximum, and keep the shutter speed to 1/80 or even faster. If it is still underexposed, you can only increase the ISO to compensate.
Afterwards, our photography teacher gave a drone tutorial and the team members all came forward to experience it.
We laughed and talked all the way, and then arrived at Huangling. The spring rain gradually came, and this was the misty Jiangnan.
Huangling Village has a history of more than 500 years. The terraced fields in Huangling are covered with emerald green, and the village is full of energy and clouds, so it is known as the "Tiyun Home".
Tips:
Tip: Both wide-angle and telephoto lenses are suitable for this photo spot, so bring your own. Huangling is bustling with tourists in the spring, so find a high vantage point inside the village to shoot down with a wide-angle lens, or a telephoto lens to capture close-ups of the terraced fields and village.
The rape flowers here are all over the mountains in the shape of terraces, spreading from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the valley. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking down, you can see endless layers of rape flowers in the vast valley below.
There are several small villages in the middle, with black-tiled and white-walled Hui-style houses nestled among the golden fields. There is nothing more spectacular and surprising in Wuyuan. At sunset, a small window appears in the sky, and a faint light shines down.
The spring rain fell all night, so we set off early before dawn. Slowly, the surroundings turned from darkness to blue. The villages between the clouds and the endless mountains showed us the real ink-and-wash Jiangnan.
Tips:
Tips: Both wide-angle and telephoto lenses can be used for this photo, and a tripod is essential. The light is dim at sunrise and sunset, so using a tripod allows you to lower the ISO and adjust the aperture to between f/11 and f/13 for better quality photos! Narrowing the aperture also allows for longer exposure times, creating a silky effect in clouds and fog.
You can also use a telephoto lens to take close-up photos of terraces and villages, and use a tripod to prevent hand shaking so that the photos will not be blurry.
After taking pictures of the blue sea of clouds, there was no sunrise or sunny day. The clouds in the sky acted as a large soft light shield for the sun. Under the guidance of the photography leader, we found a suitable camera position, and the photographers interacted with each other to create portraits.
Tips:
Tips: When shooting environmental portraits, you should pay attention to the interaction between the model and the environment. You should shoot close-ups, large scenes, near shots, and long shots from various angles. Don't just shoot close-ups.
Although we didn’t see any gorgeous sunrises and sunsets during this trip, the photographers who participated in the event still followed the photography teacher’s guidance very seriously and learned how to shoot and create. In just three days, everyone gained a lot. Let us look forward to the next Summer Xiapu Photography Conference!
