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——Xi He Yan Shi Lu No. 7: Yuan Minghui
First, I met Yuan Minghui, a master of macro photography
Two years ago, I read and collected relevant articles and works of Teacher Yuan, and I admired and admired Teacher Yuan very much, so I also had the idea of buying a macro lens.
Let me first introduce Mr. Yuan Minghui, a nature photographer, who has won countless awards in top international professional nature photography competitions, including the BBC International Wildlife Photography Annual Competition, the Best Nature Photography Award in the United States, the International Nature Photography Competition Award, and so on. The most awarded photographer in the history of the British International Horticultural Photography Annual Competition and the Best Nature Photography Award in Asia, and the only Chinese photographer to win the Grand Slam in the International Nature Professional Photography Competition.
By chance, I saw Teacher Yuan in the photography group and took the initiative to add friends. When we talked, I found that I had a lot of the same ideas as Mr. Yuan, and then we learned and appreciated their world.
Second, the appreciation of works
Different from other interviews, first come to appreciate the works and then talk about photography experience, these microscopic worlds of them, too beautiful, everyone quietly appreciate, and then move their fingers to forward to their circle of friends to let more friends enjoy this visual feast together.
Harmony of Nature
Photo caption: After a rainstorm, the sky begins to brighten. I found several wild vines wrapped around the trunks in the woods on the outskirts of Wuhan. These coiled and curved vines resemble treble clefs on a stave. As the raindrops on the vines fell, I felt the beautiful sounds of nature. I usually like to listen to music with headphones to take pictures, and at this moment, the inspiration from the music and the vines form an image connection. I noticed the oblique light coming from behind the woods at dusk. I chose to blur the background with a wide aperture while maintaining the balance of the lens focal plane, allowing the form of this treble clef to stand out from the cluttered background. The least controllable thing is the sunlight in the background, and the sunlight through the gaps in the leaves is always absent. I took about a hundred or so photos, and in the end I realized the image I wanted. The use of music to express the three most abstract elements of life, sunshine, water and air, is the perfect harmony of the combination of musical impressions and natural elements.
The Frog Prince's Bow Tie
Image caption: A frog shows its head in the middle of the young leaves of a water lily that is exposed to the water. Looking down from above, I don't think there's anything to photograph. After walking a few steps through this scene, it occurred to me that this scene should not be missed, because the frog is in a special position, and if you use the angle of the head-up view, there may be new discoveries. When I'm lying on the ground shooting, I can shoot the frog's eyes head-on with a heads-up angle. Through the reflection of the water surface I saw an interesting scene, and the water lily leaves drilled out of the water looked like the collar of a shirt. The little frog's head protruded from the neckline of the shirt, which also had a bow tie at the neckline, which was a reflection of the light rays refracted and reflected three times through the surface of the water.
Growing Tequila
Image caption: The leaves of this agave have red spines on the edges, and their leaves are tightly wrapped. The lines of the leaves of the agave resemble the lines of a woman's breasts at various stages of physiological development, which reminds me of the connection between the lines of the human body and the growth cycle of the plant. The morning light shines from one side, giving the picture a cold tone. The leaves of the agave show excessive texture due to different light exposure, giving the picture a three-dimensional effect.
Hide and Seek
Photo caption: On a summer evening, I found a row of cannabis leaves that had been bitten by insects of different sizes but similar shapes. Almost at the same time, a locust in the leaf hole saw me and hid next to the hole. Since I have been observing various insects in the wild for a long time and know their habits better, I know that this locust will appear in the hole of the cannabis leaf after feeling that the danger has passed. So I knelt by this bush of cannabis and waited for about a quarter of an hour, and when the locusts showed their faces in the leaf hole again, I pressed the shutter continuously. Probably stunned by the flash, the locust moved its position in the leaf hole slightly, its two little eyes watching me but not jumping away. I think the locust in the picture is playing a game of hide-and-seek with me, and I am the winner of the last game. At this moment, the locust seems to have opened a window for me, and it is communicating with my soul.
Chinese Painting
Photo caption: Every summer, there will be one transparent single-veined colored cricket living on the water side of Dabie Mountain creek in Hubei Province every 3 or 4 meters. The male is a king, and any male who flies into its territory will be driven away by it, but if a female color cetacean flies over its territory, it will quickly take off and begin a passionate courtship. After a brief successful mating, the male trans-top monoclaw colored certile will protect the female and allow the female to lay eggs in its territorial waters. Male colored cetaceans exude a strong metallic sheen all over their bodies, but they look black in the backlight. On hot summer days, I knelt in a cold stream in my one-piece waterproof pants. I held the camera close to the surface of the water and photographed the colored cricket from the bottom up with the sky as a background. The simple lines of the blades of grass and the colored crunch form an echo of lines and dots, which is like a simple Chinese painting. Nature itself is a simple painting.
Ballet on The Water
Image caption: The shadow of a pair of bean maidens intersecting at the edge of a water lily leaf is reflected on the surface of another water lily leaf. The reflective refraction of light makes the moment in front of us unreal. It is better to believe what you see than to believe in the narration of nature.
Camp Tent
Image caption: There are many silk meshes on the blades of grass in the bush. Two narrow worms, about 3-4 mm long, hide in their buildings, which they weave somewhat like tents for camping in the wilderness. The woven silk mesh of the narrow worm has an elaborate structure and many entrances and exits, and it is somewhat similar to the structure of a gymnasium
"Take It Easy"
Photo caption: In the woods next to the garden, a bush of grass leaves has a moth resting. The ant's posture was very relaxed, and I slowly approached the ant to shoot, and it didn't seem to sense my presence. The sun illuminated the yellow leaves outside the woods and the antes leaning on the blades of grass. At the moment The Ant was in a dreamlike environment, as it was still in its dreams.
Reflections on Reflections
Photo caption: The early spring pond fir has not yet grown new leaves, but the pond is already full of four-leaf ping. The sun was about to set, and I knew I didn't have much time left to shoot, but since I didn't have a tripod at the time, I quickly turned up the sensitivity and turned on high-speed continuous shooting in order to increase the shutter speed when holding the camera. The reflection of the pond cedar in the pond, I think it is a poetic picture in the art of nature. When I got home, I rotated the photo 180 degrees, and the four-leaf ping floating on the surface of the water seemed to float in the air.
"Umbrella for You"
Photo caption: In the summer of Wuhan City, I stood in a high place and photographed the lotus leaves of East Lake with a telephoto lens. The principle of reflection and mirroring of the water surface makes the picture simple. A tall lotus leaf stands next to a small lotus flower. The lotus leaf is growing in care of the small lotus below, and it is like an umbrella to shield the small lotus below from the wind and rain. The little lotus I imagined was a little girl who lived under her mother's umbrella.
The Woods in the Pods
Photo caption: I came to Liaoning to photograph the spring doctor Wulu Mountain, but I came early, and the spring in the north came later than in Jiangnan. I get color and graphic inspiration from tree pods that fall to the ground. I saw the roots, the ground, and the rows of woods in the soil from three rows of pods lined up. The microscopic world has the macroscopic world in the image. I finally found an image of spring.
Moonlight Shadow
Photo caption: While photographing water lilies, I found the morning sun hidden in dark clouds. I used a virtual and a real way to shoot a second exposure in the same place, one exposure to shoot the sun in the water, and one exposure to photograph the water lilies on the surface of the water. The hardest part is photographing the sun in the water, because the sun is hidden in dark clouds, always intermittent. Ripples on the surface of the water can also bring bad vision to the picture. I wanted to quietly feel the tranquility of the moonlit night, the water lilies blooming like a fairy in her dreams.
Third, photography experience sharing
After admiring these works and reading the picture descriptions, I think That Teacher Yuan's photography experience has already told us about 7788, but let Teacher Yuan introduce his experience by himself.
1. Express your thoughts through visual language
Xi He: Teacher Yuan, you should be a master in the field of macro photography, can you tell us about the equipment you are using now? How much weight does the equipment have for macro photography?
Yuan Minghui: The camera I use now is OK, it is a D850 body sponsored by Nikon manufacturers, a Nikon 105mm macro lens. Originally, I borrowed someone else's seagull equipment to shoot, but at that time, economic conditions did not allow it. Now an introductory SLR, a macro lens can shoot macro. Many of my award-winning works were shot with Nikon and Tamron macro lenses, and I have also used Canon and Sony equipment. The key to shooting works is also that photography is an art of thinking, expressing one's thoughts through the visual language of the work.
Economic conditions permit, it is certainly better to shoot the better the equipment, the best professional photographers or to have a good set of equipment, usually the better the equipment is more expensive.
I have a lot in common with Mr. Yuan's understanding and understanding of photography, and the same is true about equipment. Many classmates have asked me to recommend the camera, and I will refuse, not arrogantly but unable to recommend. The better the same photographer's equipment, the better it will be; but only for the same photographer and accustomed to this camera. Many of the famous photographers I know, the machines I start using are not very good, and the best equipment used after becoming famous is not the best equipment.
I also appeal to all readers, if you have so much money, you really might as well spend dozens of dollars to buy a book to study carefully, or spend hundreds of dollars to listen to a course, which is helpful for the improvement of photography and the improvement of aesthetic appreciation.
2, high requirements let themselves put more energy on the front end of photography
Xi He: You won four of the most important nature photography competitions in the world, grand slam! So far only one Chinese do this. You never use a PS, so how do you set up your camera? Or is there any know-how to share?
Yuan Minghui: I don't know PS, PS software for me will only be used to adjust the long edge and resolution of the frame. I shoot all the works without cropping, and cropping will have some damage to the picture, so I never crop. Eighteen years of macro shooting have made me more and more aware of the elements in the picture. All the elements in the frame should be useful when shooting the composition, and I will not let other distracting elements enter the composition.
Although many of the rules of the contest allow slight adjustments of contrast, saturation, sharpness, etc., as well as slight cuts, I have higher requirements for myself. I like to do these settings inside the camera, adjusting the camera's menu before each shot. I usually use "Vivid Mode" in my camera, SRGB in color space, and Raw+ Fine Jpg in Picture Quality Mode. The white balance also changes frequently according to the light on the spot, trying to restore the reality of shooting. I was lazy and demanding for shooting, so I put all my energy into the pre-shooting composition and camera settings, and made a film at once. I don't import Raw into some image viewing software yet, I just adjust the size in Jpg format. Why use raw format? Because after each time participating in the competition, the organizing committee of the International Professional Nature Photography Competition requires the photographer to upload the Raw format to determine the authenticity of the picture, determine whether the photographer uses the post-production, and whether it complies with the competition rules.
Speaking of laziness, Teacher Yuan and I found a common ground.
Although I did not do what Teacher Yuan was so strict in filming, I really did not want to focus on film selection and retouching. Although the PS course has recently been held, it is limited to teaching everyone how to adjust their photography in the easiest way.
To do anything, we should put limited energy on the core position, especially lazy people like me, do not have so much energy to choose equipment, post-production, etc., more thinking when shooting to shoot the ideal work.
3, diligence allows me to take good photos at any time, in any weather
Xi He: Luck and diligence, do you think photography is more important?
Yuan Minghui: I think diligence is more important. If you are lucky enough to shoot one or two pieces at a time, if you go every day and only produce one work a day, you will produce 7 this week.
If you are diligent enough, every day in nature, the feelings for nature will be different, this is a process of enlightenment, that is from the heart of the love of nature. When shooting, the only object I communicate with is nature, my own world is also nature, and my understanding of nature is integrated with my own humanistic thoughts, which is the understanding of nature photography given by diligence.
When shooting, I don't set myself subjects and standards. In nature, the surprise that nature gives is unpredictable. Occasionally encounter small insects, maybe shoot a moment and fly away; little frogs, may stay in one place for ten minutes to give you time to create; shooting plants is relatively simple, there is plenty of time to ponder, you can patiently look at the lines, colors, patterns, growth situation and environment of plants, and finally decide the shooting angle and shooting time.
When shooting tiny images, I usually choose a small subject or a certain point, which helps to remove the influence of cluttered background. Many photographers only know how to shoot macro, think that the closer the better, take a clear shot, like a specimen photo, in fact, this is just a way. Jump out of a perspective to see, in fact, it is far more difficult to shoot, because ambient light, background, concept, etc. will affect your shooting. Photographers will be more demanding in their understanding of nature.
Diligence will make me clear when I need to capture the moment, when I need to be patient, when to give up shooting, diligence will let me learn to choose; diligence makes me feel more natural, in nature to understand. Because of my diligence, I have feelings for nature, because I can communicate with nature, and I can create at any time in different weather, light, time, etc.
In the interview, I learned that when Teacher Yuan was studying photography, he was praised by the teacher with his work: "This is the art of survival, the lowest grade work." "In the end, the verdict was not passed. He said that after 7 or 8 years of shooting, the works were still very bad, but these works he thought were very good works at the time. Indeed, learning photography is not only to learn photography technical skills, but also to improve aesthetics, and the works I think are very good before I look at now are not very clever, because of aesthetic improvement. This requires more reading, more optimistic films, and more thinking to accumulate and improve their aesthetics. Communicating with like-minded friends is a shortcut to improvement, and I hope that students will open their hearts and express their ideas and ideas for shooting.
4. Share the experience of the driest goods
Xi He: Seeing that your works have Chinese style and anthropomorphic thinking, can you share your experience?
Yuan Minghui: In the past, like many photographers, I only paid attention to a kind of instantaneous capture, such as a bee falling on a flower; a dragonfly resting on the tip of a lotus leaf; and the action of a bird flying, etc. Later, I felt that this expression was far from enough to express my thoughts. I have experience in shooting, read a lot of books, and began to pay attention to the unique beauty of small life, understand the habits of insects, and use photography to photograph their behavior. Implementation Theme: The Philosophy of Life - "Life. love. Hope", these three themes are all focused on in my nature photography, injecting positive energy emotions into the work.
I have loved Chinese painting since I was a child. Chinese painting expresses the artistic conception through a few strokes, thick brush and ink, and blank space. Using this style, the picture elements of my works are becoming more and more concise, and the macro is invisibly combined with Chinese painting.
When shooting, I will also use some small props, such as shooting ground ferns, small flowers, the shooting angle can not expose the sky, in order to remove the background clutter, in the field shooting using the curvature of white cardboard to create a pure white background. When shooting macro, I don't use tripods, macro ring lights and other props.
In my horizon, macro photography seems to translate my visual language in the deepest sense, and my dialect is an extension of imagination and emotion. Letting my imagination transcend what I see, and breaking through the limitations of my eyes when shooting is my way of looking at nature. Macro photography depends entirely on your imagination and shooting skills. Understand the habits and ecology of your subjects, understand the equipment in your hands, and use the best results to express them. Under-under-or over-exposed images can affect the color, but also affect the emotions in the picture. I often use aperture priority mode and average metering when exposing, and then use exposure compensation to adjust the brightness and darkness of the picture.
I wanted to discover the meaning of life in the macro world, the forms that gave rise to other associations. I'm looking for the lines, patterns, colors, textures of the plant. Look for the joy, love and hope of life. I am looking for the loneliness and interdependence of plants, embodying the expression of plant emotions in the art of thinking. The microscopic world is a strange and mysterious world, a world that is amazing and dreamy. Shooting in nature, it is easiest for people to feel the "dignity of life" and "the joy of life". All life is equal, and I observe it from a flat perspective. Dream and reality, simple patterns and colors, imaginative composition, for me are the key elements of a good macro image.
I often go to Wuhan East Lake Greenway, Wuhan Botanical Garden to shoot. The medium focal length lens is the lens I use the most when shooting macro. Shooting with a medium focal length lens is characterized by fast maneuvering, and I can kneel down or lie down to approach the subject at any time. The most important thing is to find the best focal plane for the subject and keep the focal plane parallel to your surface of interest. The most critical point of the subject should be grasped when focusing. Using a telephoto macro lens is useful when bokehing the background. Reasonable and appropriate bokeh effect is crucial to the expression of emotion in the picture, because subtle differences in the picture, and even a spot of light in the background can change the mood of the photo.
Anthropomorphism in nature photography is one of my expressions in nature. Through years of shooting, I feel that animals and plants have souls. Art is created by human beings, and the anthropomorphism of art is a way to stimulate the viewer's vision and emotion, and it is also a hint that ordinary beings are equated with ordinary people. I use anthropomorphic methods to show the beauty and dignity of ordinary life, so that the viewer has a resonance in his heart to protect the nature around him and protect the environment. The human world is the world of emotions. Nature photography is a kind of recording if it ignores emotions. We all want to see the beauty of nature photography, but if we ignore the feelings of nature, everything will cease to exist. Don't let the trauma of nature become our memories of its beauty. My nature photography is more meaningful if it ends up benefiting the flora and fauna itself.
Summarize the experience and find another way to find your own shooting path and shooting theme. Establishing themes, changing perspectives and visual language, just by doing these well, you can make works that shock the world. How hard is photography? Just a few changes in thinking can be the golden key to our creation.
5, photography should also protect themselves
Xi He: You shoot in the wild, can you share some experience of self-protection?
Yuan Minghui: When I shoot in the field, I put all my energy on observation and changing angles, ignoring the dangers under my feet and around me, and once I am bitten by poisonous insects, it will affect my creation. It is recommended to wear high-top hiking boots, tie the pants into the socks, prevent stepping on snakes and prevent ticks from entering the calves to suck blood; the skin clothing (long sleeves) worn with you should also be tied into the belt; sprinkle some mosquito repellent water, prepare a little more, summer shooting will sweat a lot, every interval to spray again.
The happiness of photography must be based on the basis of self-protection, not only what Teacher Yuan said, as my landscape photographer, the combination of work and leisure, plateaus, snowy mountains, desert Gobi and other different environmental protection measures are also different, in short, protect themselves, so that photography brings us only happiness and enjoyment.
4. Introduction to photographers
Photographer Yuan Minghui
Yuan Minghui has long photographed the local flora, fauna and garden landscapes of Wuhan, China. He hopes to cause emotional changes in the viewer with creative discoveries, and he believes that paying attention to the nature around him also plays an important role in environmental protection. Only by respecting nature can we gain its care and help educate the next generation. His work has appeared in film festivals, postcards, wall calendars, websites, books and merchandise in Europe and the United States. Yuan Minghui is a winner of the BBC International Wildlife Photography Competition (WPY). He is the most winning photographer in the history of the International Horticultural Photography Competition (IGPOTY) and the Best Nature Photography Awards in Asia (NBPA), and the only photographer to win a Grand Slam in the International Nature Professional Photography Competition.
Yuan Minghui is the first Chinese photographer to win an award in the history of fourteen top international nature photography competitions. These include the World Best Nature Photography Award (Windland Smith Rice), the National Wildlife Photography Competition (NWF), the International Nature Photography Competition (Asferico), the International Horticultural Photography Annual Competition (IGPOTY), the German International Nature Photography Highlight Award (Glanzlichter), the French Nature Images Awards, and the Spain International Mountain and Nature Photography Annual Competition (Memorial). María Luisa), The Netherlands International Nature Photography Annual Competition (NPOTY), the Russian Golden Turtle Award for International Nature Photography, the Montier Festival in France, the Montphoto International Nature Photography Competition in Spain, the Oasis Award for Nature Photography (OASIS) in Italy, the Best Backyards Infidelity Awards in the United States, Best Nature Photography in Asia (NBPA).