On the past October 1st, the rare National Day mid-autumn festival was celebrated together.
According to astronomers, "the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day on the same day" appeared only 4 times in the 21st century. The last time was in 2001, and the next two times are in 2031 and 2077, which is of great significance.
For "Great Wall photographer" Yang Dong, this year is his fifth year of photographing the Great Wall. Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he wandered outside, climbing the Great Wall alone to photograph the moon.
Outsiders may sound very lonely, but he does not think so: "On the day of the August 15th reunion, I came to the Great Wall to photograph the old moon, and I would think of the scene of the ancients guarding the Great Wall generation after generation, and they could not return home during the New Year's Festival." Although they are no longer there, they have left behind great historical works. ”
《Mochizuki》
In five years, Yang Dong spanned most of China, traveled a total of 100,000 kilometers, and took more than 300,000 photos of the Great Wall.
Spring, summer, autumn and winter flow through the four seasons, he witnessed the beauty of the Great Wall, which is a year-round turn, it is surging with wind and clouds, it is surrounded by a sea of clouds, it is covered with ice and snow, and it is blooming with plums...
"The Great Wall Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter"
Of course, photographing the Great Wall is not just about taking pictures of the beauty. As a symbol of Chinese civilization and the greatest building in Chinese history, the Great Wall carries the national imprint of a generation, Yang Dong prefers to photograph the connotation and spirit of the Great Wall, so as to conform to the appearance of the Great Wall.
"I'm afraid I'm not going to be a fake Great Wall, right?"
Many people are accustomed to the suffocating pictures of people crowding on the Great Wall on holidays, and when they see the photos of the Great Wall taken by Yang Dong, they will be amazed.
In fact, behind Yang Dong's beautiful photos, he has paid hardships that ordinary people cannot imagine. Every lucky joy was born out of his efforts to "hold on a little longer".
Photography pays attention to the time and place, and some photos may only have one chance to be taken once a year, or even for a moment, and if you miss it, you have to wait another year. Just like the Spring Warm Blossom Season of the Great Wall, the flowering period is very short, if you catch the smog or the wind of six or seven levels, the petals are blown off overnight, and he will run in vain.
"Jincheng Yongmei"
This photo of the clouds and mist of the Jinshanling Great Wall was not easy to come by, and Yang Dong went to more than 20 times to take it.
"Morning Rhyme of the Great Wall"
In the winter, Yang Dong began to climb the tent on his back at 3 a.m., and he became the first of nearly a hundred photographers to arrive. Unfortunately, the heavy snow did not stop that day, and the expected effect of shooting could not be achieved. By the fourth day, most of the photographers could not hold back, and only 3 were left.
Yang Dong continued to grit his teeth until the fifth day, and at dawn the sea of clouds did appear. The moment the shutter is pressed, all hunger and cold fatigue turn into joy.
"Arrow Buckle Great Wall Sea of Clouds"
Photography sometimes pays attention to fate, the more demanding what the more you can't get, and naturally there will be unexpected surprises. When Yang Dong was collecting wind at the Great Wall of Huanghuacheng, he traveled for a whole day but found nothing. When he was preparing to go down the mountain, he was "unintentionally planting willows and willows", and a satisfactory work was born.
"Junior Tour"
Last year, Yang Dong braved the rain to ride a bicycle from the Mountains of Hebei province to the Niangziguan Great Wall. After arriving, it was already dark and he missed the best time to shoot.
Just when he was remorseful, the world opened another window for him, and the landscape light on the upper floor of Niangzi Guancheng instantly lit up. He immediately spent 5 minutes and quickly ran to the Jinhe Great Iron Bridge opposite the Great Wall and pressed this unforgettable gorgeous scene.
"Night View of Niangziguan"
Yang Dong's most nervous one was to carry equipment on the Jinshanling Great Wall for most of the day and did not find the ideal shooting position, and he was very sleepy when sitting on the stone steps to rest. Suddenly, a large dark cloud drifted in the sky, much like the smoke churning after burning, and he instantly constructed a picture of the beacon tower burning smoke in his mind.
You must know that the Great Wall was used as a national fortification in the past, and the burning of smoke meant that the homeland was worried and warned that war was coming. He quickly took out his camera and ran along the Great Wall, as if he had worn back into the ancient battlefield and touched the life of the Great Wall. This is the shocking work of "Great Powers Battle", and he still clearly remembers the excited heartbeat at that time.
"Great Powers Battle" - Troubles
For Yang Dong, shooting the Great Wall, shooting is architecture, more natural; what is wanted is the scene, but also the spirit; the fight is the technique, but also the perseverance; the lens is used, but also the emotion.
In order to capture a moment of inspiration, Yang Dong has reached a kind of "not crazy, not alive" realm of selflessness, despite the danger to force himself.
Summer shooting conditions are very difficult, mosquito bites are commonplace, the grass is very dense, taller than anyone else, he will get lost in the wrong direction if he is not careful.
Even more terrifying is the thorns on the grass, he was pierced by more than 10 thorns by the wild mountain jujube tree, endured the pain and continued to shoot, until he returned home, he used the needle to pick out the thorns one by one, the remaining 3 had grown into the flesh, and the hands were also scratched two ways, and the blood flowed continuously.
Compared with the visible danger, the unpredictable "enemy" is the most abrasive, which can be called a psychological protracted battle. Once, when he was about to go down the mountain after shooting the sunrise, he bumped into several fierce wild boars head-on, and he was in a cold sweat. Subconsciously he took out his tripod and prepared to fight, but fortunately the wild boar walked away knowingly. Although there is no danger, he still has to continue to fight against his inner uneasiness, fearing that he will meet again at the next intersection.
No matter how tough a man is, he is not iron, and at the beginning Yang Dong also had a weak rib of loneliness. Whenever the sunset was over, with the whizzing of the breeze, a few crows flew overhead with a terrible cry, and his goosebumps rose straight up. At night, he sometimes encountered green, blue, and red ghost fires, and there was no one around him, and he was terrified.
But only love is long. As the shooting time is long, Yang Dong only needs to climb the Great Wall to see the enemy platform, just like the feeling of finding home, the loneliness disappears in an instant.
He loves to challenge the Great Wall in extreme weather, and he remembers three times when the back of his head was smashed by a hail hail half an egg, even if the umbrella was penetrated.
In the evening of the summer of 2017, he risked being struck by lightning on the Great Wall in Dushikou, Hebei Province, and photographed the rare spectacle of "thunderstorms", almost in exchange for his life.
The Sky of History
In addition, in Yang Dong's photography career, chasing the snow to photograph the Great Wall has been no less than 20 times.
Anyone who plays photography knows that electronic devices consume power very quickly in low temperature environments and are likely to be frozen off. Yang Dong encountered this situation in Jiayuguan, which is minus -28 and -29 degrees Celsius, and used a drone to shoot snow scenes. Seeing that the sun was about to set, he put the tablet in his body to warm up.
After regaining a little battery, he pressed the 3 shutters with the only finger in his upper body that had not yet been frozen. Saying that it was late and fast, the computer shut down again, and he was lucky enough to leave the photo.
"Jiayuguan after the Snow"
The price afterwards was also tragic, he endured the itchy frostbite and continued to create in Jiayuguan for 14 consecutive days.
"Jiayuguan and Qilian Mountain Snow Mountain"
In January this year, Yang Dong made sufficient preparations before leaving for the filming of Yangquan Niangzi Guan Xuejing, sleeping bags, warm babies, snow chains... Although the software measuring the amount of snow on his mobile phone has opened the blizzard red warning, several driver masters have parked the car in the service area and advised him not to go, but he still moved forward without hesitation.
More than 400 kilometers of road, Yang Dongjian walked for 10 hours, and arrived at 1 a.m. the next day. After sleeping in the car for 5 hours, he fixed the photo with aerial photography with a drone, and it was worth the trip.
"The Snow Queen' Lady Guan"
Who would have guessed that before becoming a photographer of the Great Wall, Yang Dong was defined by the people around him as "not suitable for learning photography".
When he was young, his mother bought him a SLR camera as a hobby, and he couldn't use it. In photography class, he was asked to turn in his homework, and of the tens of thousands of photos he took a month, not a single photo used the focal length.
The only thing that is certain is that Yang Dong, who does not yet understand photography skills, is born with a keen insight into things. When he was 8 years old, when he was proud of climbing the Hushan Great Wall in his hometown of Dandong, Liaoning Province, for the first time, others poured cold water on him, "This is a fake Great Wall."
Originally, even the locals had a common misunderstanding that the eastern starting point of the Great Wall was the world's first Guanshan Customs. In the impression, when many people mention the Great Wall, the first thing that comes to mind is the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing.
Tiger Mountain Great Wall
In fact, the eastern starting point of the Great Wall is the Hushan Great Wall! Through the long river of history, most of what we see now is the Great Wall repaired by the Ming Dynasty, and the Hushan Great Wall is a part of it.
Yang Dong felt that it was a pity, he felt that he had a sense of mission, so that Chinese understand the old appearance of the Great Wall.
After graduating from college with an accounting major, he did not want to live a life at a glance and was worried about the way out in the future.
In September 2015, Yang Dong ushered in a turning point in his destiny. During a mountain and river trip, he accidentally climbed the Great Wall of Jinshanling in Hebei Province, and saw the majestic and majestic scenery of the Great Wall between the clouds and could not help but take a picture, and the accumulation of beauty for many years finally reached a flashpoint.
The first award-winning Great Wall work
This was the first time he had photographed the Great Wall, and it also gave him the first taste of the joy of winning an award. Since then, he has been out of control on the road of photography, determined to use the lens to record the culture of the Great Wall all his life.
The worrying status quo is that nearly a third of the Great Wall, which spans China for 21,000 kilometers, has disappeared, and in addition to the erosion of the natural world, man-made destruction is also the culprit.
Yang Dong felt very sad about this, but he deeply felt that he was doing something meaningful. Many people saw the beautiful photos of the Great Wall under his lens, and began to consciously learn the history and culture of the Great Wall, and consciously contributed their own efforts to protect the Great Wall.
The Shepherd at the Foot of the Great Wall
"Rainbow over the Great Wall"
Can endure loneliness, can keep the original intention. This teenager who photographed the Great Wall will continue to shoot in the future until the white hair is pale.
"Maybe it didn't change in 5 years, but after 10 or 20 years, or even longer, the value of these photos will be revealed."
Written by | Chu Rouge design | Pooh
The images in this article are provided with permission from the respondents
Contribute to the protection of the Great Wall