Those who have seen the world will understand the shock of nature better. The power of female nature photographers is also emerging in the communication with all things in the world. Between the mountains and the sea, under the dense forest, what they see and hear is often full of life, and the occasional thrill is not lacking in the soft warmth of animals. We specially invited wildlife photographer Xu Keyi to tell her story behind the lens.
Xu Keyi
I'm Xu Keyi, a nature photographer. Before the age of 30, I traveled to seven continents and trekked north and south poles, and I crossed the mountains and seas to meet the rising sun and the moonset, recording the wonderful moments of wildlife. I still carry my bags, my camera, and I travel through nature without hesitation to go to every date with wild animals.
Growing up as a professional wildlife photographer is incredible now, but it was an accidental and inevitable choice. Observing nature has always been my hobby, and since I can remember, I have been climbing mountains with my grandfather, who kept bees, lived at the foot of the mountain after retirement, and worked in the mountains all year round, and I spent my childhood with him. In the mountains and forests of Hangzhou, there are wild boars, South China rabbits, pit vipers, and weasel badgers, these are my "old friends" and have become my first "models". In the early 90s, my father brought me a film camera from Japan, and I held it to record nature, and my fifth-grade teacher gave me a report card that said "I love photography", and it has been more than 20 years now. After graduating, working as a media major was my major, and now I spread wildlife protection and natural ecology in the media, and my hobbies and careers were coincidentally combined.
The most recent shoot was a trip to Yunnan in early February to photograph the Phyll's langur, a national first-class protected wildlife. During the Spring Festival, I learned that 28 new baby monkeys were born this year, and I decided on the itinerary without hesitation, which is so rare that no wildlife photographer will miss such a precious picture! Adult Fischer's langurs wear high-grade silver-gray hair throughout, large and round eyes, and brighter eyes with "all-inclusive eyeshadow" around the eyes. And the little monkey within three months of birth is covered with golden hair and has a high appearance. "If only I could successfully photograph the little golden monkey." My three friends and I made a wish before we set off.
The filming location was in a forest area more than ten kilometers away from the urban area of Mangshi in Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. In 2018, the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted a scientific investigation on the habitat of the Felterian langurs in Mangshi City, showing that there were about 320 Felterian langurs in 5 groups in this area, which is the largest population of Fischer's langurs found in a single area in China. In 2020, the ant forest Mangxinghe Conservation Area was officially established, adding a solid guarantee to protect the homeland of the Fischer's langur, and 16 million netizens have paid attention to and protect the home of the Fischer's langur through the ant forest on their mobile phones, and the local villagers also spontaneously established the "Mangxinghe Natural Ecological Conservation Association", through multiple measures of protection, on World Wildlife Day on March 3 this year, the local official public account released good news, the area has reached more than 500 Fischer's langurs, which is really gratifying.
Five hundred sounds not a small number, but sneaking into the secret realm of western Yunnan, it is not easy to photograph Fischer's langurs here, primates themselves have a high IQ and will hide themselves, photographers can't see Fiy's langurs are also sparse and common, and the parents with baby monkeys we want to photograph will be more vigilant.
Finding and waiting are necessary topics for me. At the first monitoring point, we heard movement among the trees and saw the leaves shaking, but not the monkeys themselves, which ate happily where we could not see. The ranger who helped us motioned for us to follow him up the waterfall.
Xu Keyi and two rangers
Without the rangers showing us the way, we wouldn't have been able to find the monkeys that afternoon. The uphill slope was steep to nearly fifty degrees, the dirt was so soft that the ranger took my tripod and pulled me on when it was too slippery. In the field, it is also extremely important to have reliable companions, who are three male photographers, who have a more stable core than me, stronger muscles, and more stable places they have stepped on, and on the way up the mountain, I followed the path they walked step by step.
Finally, in the shadow of the sun blocked by the mountains, we saw a group of more than a dozen Fischer's langurs! Through the telephoto camera, we saw the monkeys constantly hitting mosquitoes. Off camera, humans who are "set on fire" by mosquitoes also want to do it, but we understand that as long as we move, it is possible to scare the monkey away, and then lose all the previous achievements.
On the slope, I kneel, recline, and maintain a stable position, and the adult Fitz langurs often have a break after eating, which is a very good shooting window. Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the forest, it turned out that two adult monkeys had jumped here with children! In the dense forest, I saw the protective protection of the cubs of the adult monkey and the bright eyes of the little golden monkey curious about the world.
All the hard work is worth it in this moment.
Wading through the mountains and chasing wildlife trails was a very hard and thankless one, but I chose to continue. During my time visiting it, I discovered an interesting thing – the identity of a nature photographer, like a human being a wandering migratory after the role is reversed, goes to visit friends with humility. Every time I enter the wilderness, I am a small, humble, reverent guest, and the wild animals are the masters of this place.
The significance of shooting and recording wild animals is not limited to hunting and good-looking, but also to disseminate relevant content, which can provide information to the public and make everyone aware of the beauty and fragility of animals, thereby arousing the public's attention to wild animals. Sometimes these images can become valuable research data to further wildlife conservation efforts. I also hope that more photographers who really love nature can spread their works and let everyone have a positive effect on nature, which is also my expectation for this industry.
Written and photographed: Xu Keyi
Editor: Sibe
Design: Xiao B