Photo Shoot

On our fourth day in China, we had a time to practice everything we had learned about photography the day before. We split into groups of four to do photo shoots with some locals. One group followed a rice harvesting family, one group followed a vegetable farmer, and my group followed a bamboo raft driver. I was with Ming from Thailand, Provashish from India, and Tonny from Indonesia.

We were supposed to practice getting wide shots, medium shots, close-ups, portraits, action shots, details, etc. I stink at detail shots, so no surprise you won't be seeing any here. Here are some of my photos from a day in the life of a bamboo raft driver.

This is supposed to be my wide establishing shot. If I wrote a caption it would be something like, "4 billion people visit the Dragon River each year to raft on its pristine waters. But the men who drive these rafts are...[insert something dramatic and meaningful here]."

Here is Li, our raft driver. He starts his day having a breakfast of rice and vegetables with his wife of 40 years.

He has lived in this home for his entire life. Here he is with his grandson. His son, the father of this boy, is also a raft driver on the river.

This is the entrance to the compound where his family lives. It has been here 300 years. He is good friends with the other neighbors in the compound, all who also have lived here their entire lives. To get to these homes, you have to cross the Li River. They are tucked up on a hillside directly beneath one of the looming karst peaks.

A lot of hanging out and smoking occurs. Before rafting. After rafting. During rafting. Smoking was a key part of all our photo essays.

But eventually, Li has to get to business: Paddling plump tourists down the Dragon River. It's serious work.
He loves doing his job, and has a smile for everyone.

He also likes the plump rolls of cash the plump tourists pay him.

And after a hard day's work, he fans himself with his hat and reflects on his home (that's it across the river)...and smokes another cigarette.

While stray Chinese muts sit about picturesquely with Chinese hats.

OK, so those aren't real captions. But I'm not a real photographer. I just don't love photography, nor does it love me. But I had fun nonetheless, and this was one of the most likable men and families I've come across in my travels. I was so glad to spend a day with such beautiful, down-to-earth people, especially before being thrown into Beijing. It is a reminder as always that people are people no matter where they are, what they look like, or what they do.