A China Affair

[orangedial]

:think:..
dust?

Opps! I guess it is... :sweat:

 

[tchuanye]

Wah....the more I see, the more I regret I did not venture further.....sigh...but with 2 kids....kind of hard to do so....esp in winter somemore.

Lovely pics...hope to see some more!

 

[Shen siung]

To TS, great series, your long hour trekking yield very good photos

very impressed that u managed to get a good composition of great wall. i think great wall is difficult to get good composition...

hi zoossh, mind sharing why you feel it is difficult to get good composition for great wall? Is it because it can be too crowded and too common (since too many people taking similar photos)

 

[zoossh]

To TS, great series, your long hour trekking yield very good photos



hi zoossh, mind sharing why you feel it is difficult to get good composition for great wall? Is it because it can be too crowded and too common (since too many people taking similar photos)

i've not been there, but from the available pictures of great wall, i hassle a few possibilities that are wild guesses that is left to be answered by those who have been there.

- ruggedness of terrain. one need to straddle a long distance to get a new vantage. fitter people explore more. daring ppl breach variable safety levels to get better pictures too, however that is not recommended
- limitation of vantage. sometimes the terrain do not allow certain vantages. in the case of great wall, i think the constrain is the fixed path on the great wall, probably not below or around. but i think ts have done quite well, probably this part of the great wall have much undulations. if the terrain is relatively flat (rem great wall is a ridge-like structure, rather than block-like or erected, thereby giving a small volume in the frame), if the sky is bland, and if there is no foreground interest, then composition gonna be limited and boring.

other impt things not related to composition of form.

- accessibility. i dun see sunrise and sunset at the great wall, so i guess the place may not be accessible during the best hours of lighting.
- colors. the arid landscape offers little variation of colors from brown.
- details. great wall is not a luxury architecture. at close distance shooting, they give limited intriguing details.

usually crowds are less of a problem if they are small compared to the structure and if you frame as such. however if they block your foreground interest, then it is different. another thing is the colors of the clothes they wear, some of which matches, and some of which disturb the color composition.

 

[astroboy]

Good to see different views of the Great Wall.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[vino7272]

Always enjoy looking at your composition. May I know what lens were u using?

 

[orangedial]

Wah....the more I see, the more I regret I did not venture further.....sigh...but with 2 kids....kind of hard to do so....esp in winter somemore.

Lovely pics...hope to see some more!

Thanks man! Will post more soon

To TS, great series, your long hour trekking yield very good photos

hi zoossh, mind sharing why you feel it is difficult to get good composition for great wall? Is it because it can be too crowded and too common (since too many people taking similar photos)

Thanks Shen siung! Luckily the weather was kind to us too!

Good to see different views of the Great Wall.

Thanks for sharing.

Hi astroboy, great that you like it!

Always enjoy looking at your composition. May I know what lens were u using?

Thanks vino... I used 17-35, 28-105, 75-300 & 85mm

 

[orangedial]

i've not been there, but from the available pictures of great wall, i hassle a few possibilities that are wild guesses that is left to be answered by those who have been there.

- ruggedness of terrain. one need to straddle a long distance to get a new vantage. fitter people explore more. daring ppl breach variable safety levels to get better pictures too, however that is not recommended
- limitation of vantage. sometimes the terrain do not allow certain vantages. in the case of great wall, i think the constrain is the fixed path on the great wall, probably not below or around. but i think ts have done quite well, probably this part of the great wall have much undulations. if the terrain is relatively flat (rem great wall is a ridge-like structure, rather than block-like or erected, thereby giving a small volume in the frame), if the sky is bland, and if there is no foreground interest, then composition gonna be limited and boring.

other impt things not related to composition of form.

- accessibility. i dun see sunrise and sunset at the great wall, so i guess the place may not be accessible during the best hours of lighting.
- colors. the arid landscape offers little variation of colors from brown.
- details. great wall is not a luxury architecture. at close distance shooting, they give limited intriguing details.

usually crowds are less of a problem if they are small compared to the structure and if you frame as such. however if they block your foreground interest, then it is different. another thing is the colors of the clothes they wear, some of which matches, and some of which disturb the color composition.

Hi zoossh, judging from your analysis and the fact that you haven't been to the Great Wall, I can easily conclude that you are a very knowledgeable and seasoned traveler! I'm not the kind who will analyse an image to such details, but when I read your answer, I'm amazed that you have striked all the important points and challenges for taking photo at a ridge-like structure like the Great Wall.

You are absolutely right about the limitation of vantage. It was not easy to obtain good composition if one doesn't try to explore more shooting positions and camera placement. While trekking along the Great wall, all you can see is the endless stretch of the same monotonous structure, the sky and the forest/bushes on both sides of the wall. It is very easy to lose concentration, interest and creativity under such situation. My experience is that you really have to take your time on the wall and always maintain curious about the views all around you or the various openings, gaps, stands, holes, etc in order to hunt for a good composition.

Regarding accessibility, yes, most of the tourism sections are opened between 8am (?) to 4.30pm. Hence it is quite impossible for normal tourists to obtain good light at the Great Wall, unless you manage to get special camping licences (I supposed... anyone who has experience please share...)

In terms of colour, the surrounding can be of different colours during different seasons, e.g. brown before winter (in my case), green in summer, white in winter, etc. However, as the wall itself is mainly grey colour, hence under good sunlight, the wall will reflect the surrounding colour and you'll get a colour cast which you'll either like it or hate it.

When come to details, the Great Wall really doesn't have much details to shoot as the wall is mainly built of huge rough bricks. Unfortunately, the modern day wall is suffered from very bad graffiti, which happen to be an interesting detail to be added as part of the composition... (I've some photos to show later )

 

[orangedial]

#24. Very very steep section

#25. A broken wall. Stealing a wall brick is a serious offence!

Graffiti series:

#26. Gateway to Heaven... only to be spoilt by the ugly grafitti

#27. The roof of one of the watchtowers

#28. Scarred wall

​

To be continued...

 

[ed9119]

really enjoyed looking at your images ......... lovely skies (CPL ?) ! :thumbsup:

 

[orangedial]

really enjoyed looking at your images ......... lovely skies (CPL ?) ! :thumbsup:

Thanks ed... no cpl The sky was that blue, and I further enhanced it in pp

 

[yun10]

never been there.. but ur great wall pics are nice..! I like!

 

[orangedial]

never been there.. but ur great wall pics are nice..! I like!

Thanks yun10

 

[orangedial]

1 for tonight

#29. View from the Wall

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To be continued...

 

[orangedial]

#30.

#31.

​

To be continued...

 

[EdwardMelvin]

Hi,

Your photos remind me of the photo of the great wall taken in the 1960s if I'm not mistaken @ the exhibition @ NatGeo, Vivocity.
Great composition! I appreciate the fact that you didn't PP your photos too much. They seem "clear."

 

[orangedial]

Hi,

Your photos remind me of the photo of the great wall taken in the 1960s if I'm not mistaken @ the exhibition @ NatGeo, Vivocity.
Great composition! I appreciate the fact that you didn't PP your photos too much. They seem "clear."

Hi EdwardMelvin, thanks for dropping by!
NatGeo? Yes, I think I've seen that photo with the Qing dynasty people in it

 

[orangedial]

#32.

#33.

​

To be continued...

 

[shiruikage]

just one question...last time i was there, i got fleeced by a day tour operator. promised to reach badaling by 10am, but end up reaching around 4pm...i want to know ar, how do u get to badaling? rent a car?

i could search using google, but they are somewhat unreliable compared to actual eyewitness.

 

[orangedial]

just one question...last time i was there, i got fleeced by a day tour operator. promised to reach badaling by 10am, but end up reaching around 4pm...i want to know ar, how do u get to badaling? rent a car?

i could search using google, but they are somewhat unreliable compared to actual eyewitness.

The section I went to is called Mutianyu, not Badaling. Yes, we rented a car
I don't quite understand your second para...