Nature Footstep – Water on Sunday
62:Drop
This is a re-post from an older post older of mine, but it fits the bill here in a number of different ways.
On a trip to China in 2007 (the year before they hosted the Olympics) my wife and I spent 3 weeks touring, visiting and simply standing in awe amongst some of the most dazzling scenery in the world.
This is the Reed Flute Caves near the city of Guilin in South Central China. Other recognisable images from the area include the Karst Limestone Mountains, with peaks numbering in the thousands – there’s an example of the type of mountains I mean here. There’s also the equally famous terraced rice fields cut into the mountain sides at Longji village.
These caves near Guilin are of course lit for the tourist trade, to show them at their most dazzling. But because the ceiling in this particular formation (which I think is called ‘Crystal Palace’) like many of its kind around the world, is constantly dripping lime rich water and therefore magical moments are possible with a bit of luck and good management.
As there were many tourists (everywhere we went) it simply wasn’t possible to get good positioning, lighting, framing or anything else. I would have loved to get closer to this – along the left hand side in this image – but we were being a little rushed by the guide.
I was able to get close enough to fill the frame with the elements I wanted and to capture the lovely reflection in the glass smooth water in the pool. What I didn’t know at the time was what I managed to capture through pure chance…
…the large dark stalactite (to the right of centre) was randomly dripping water. Apart from the ripple in the pool below, from a recent drop, there is also the rather magical rainbow that I simply did not see at the time. Maybe it was only momentary, maybe it was random, maybe it was deliberately provided by man-made lighting. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. For me it makes the photograph.
What I have done is sharpen it a little, I increased the contrast to aid the reflection in the water and I also decided to retouch out all the people that were milling around. What I am left with is a reminder of the beautiful place that China is to photograph. It is somewhere I would simply DROP everything to visit again if the opportunity ever arose.
I hope you enjoy. If you’d like to see other water images pop over to
Look forward to seeing you there.
Beautiful picture with fantastic colors!
March 3, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Thank you, the colours are quite special and the rest of the caves are spectacular as well. As I said, they are specially lit to enhance the colours but even in daylight they would be quite awesome I’m sure.
March 3, 2013 at 5:24 pm
Interesting picture.
March 3, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Vackert och orginellt men förstår inte hur det blir så.
Ha en fin vecka
Önskar Meta
March 3, 2013 at 4:26 pm
I don’t understand either, I do wonder if the caves are specially lit to create such things. But I don’t mind because I like the result as well.
March 3, 2013 at 5:25 pm
incredible! I did not know about this cave. Now there is oen more place on my wishlist. I wanted to enlarge the image but you aded the link to my site to it.
But. NF Waters is not about abstract images. It is for waters. But as you probably know I also host NF Abstract that is for abstract images. Opens on wednesdays.
March 3, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Yes my misunderstanding, typing error even. It is a water image though
I will be popping back for other possible shows as well. Thank you for the kind words.
The caves are quite extensive and took us about 40 minutes to walk through. That was quite a hurried walk so if you took your time to study more it is probably an easy hour to see it all.
March 3, 2013 at 5:27 pm
nice colors and reflection
March 4, 2013 at 10:39 am