Yunnan Mountains 02
Sep, 2015Views
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Top 30 rank week 1Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China during the Chinese Spring Festival of 2015. The old town is clustered on a hill with a stream that meanders down between the buildings, which are a mixture of shops and restaurants open late into the evening and from certain places within the walk, the view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is visible. It is very colourful and picturesque and you get to see the whole town from the top. The mountains made an interesting backdrop as dusk was beginning to come to an end and the last rays of light were being reflected off the clouds.Time
Early evening, not sure of the exact time as my wife and I were exploring the streets and trinket shops at a leisurely pace with no mind to the time. There aren't any street lights, just illumination from the various shops along the paths which were cast in a myriad of colours and shapes creating a fascinating patchwork of light and shadow.Lighting
I took a number of shots of this trying to get the buildings to be barely visible in the diminishing light while capturing the mountain and the clouds that were lingering above them, before the last of the sunlight disappeared.Equipment
I was using a Canon 7D with a 15-85mm lens. While the camera does have a built-in flash, I prefer to run manually as much as possible and learn from each photo I take. No tripod was used.Inspiration
I like to experiment with photos that I take, trying from different angles and capturing a more creative streak instead of run-of-the-mill holiday photos. I liked the way the sunlight was on the clouds with the sky darkened overhead yet still lighter further away. Also for me, there is what seems like a face in the upper cloud and a vague dragon-like shape in the lower cloud, it caught my imagination and love of unusual things.Editing
My post-processing knowledge is practically nill though I load all my photos into Lightroom. I tried playing around with the filters to begin with to see what the impacts would be on the photo and in the end just lowered the overall light with a LR preset that I had downloaded that reduced the light across the whole image and darkened the buildings so they weren't so prominent.In my camera bag
I currently have a small set of kit. The Canon 7D, a 50mm lens, the 15-85mm which is what I take most of my photos with, lens cleaner and cloth, small dust brush and a couple of cue-tips. This last item is because the 7D has a built in lens, occasionally it sticks when I have been moving around humid areas with lots of plants and they're good for picking up the pollen that somehow creeps and causes the flash to stick (for those rare occasions I use it).Feedback
Try looking at things from a different perspective and be patient. Take a range of shots on different settings and speeds to compare how they come out to what you imagined or expected. Make use of the histogram to see whether the light is overly strong or weak, especially useful in low natural light or strong light from an unexpected source. I am an amateur so I'm not sure if my advice is as constructive as others but I think the most important thing is to try new things and see what will happen.
