South Africa Journey: a memory of passion discovery

I published a poem based on my twelve days journey in South Africa. I believe plain words cannot describe my emotion and experience there. Everything was unimaginable. But everything still remained in my heart even after seven years.

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Published in Ariadne 2022 ISABC

The Memory

I’ll never forget that trip to South Africa,

Spending remarkable moments with my family.

Surrounding by animals.

They frequently entered my sight,

And lasted forever in my heart.

I felt the sun glow on my face,

Then the evening breeze gradually brought

The scent of lakes and trees into my dreams.

Then the sky turned red,

like a glorious conflagration,

Blazing

with gorgeous colors but

Couldn’t feel anything warm from it.

The ball of fire shyly hid herself behind the flawless clouds,

As with the animals.

They camouflaged and moved into deeper brushes,

Which they could search for their end-of-day meal.

Hyenas laughed, birds sang, insects chirped.

Midnight fell.

The planets formed a straight line across the sky.

The stars twinkled around them, winking at me.

The milky-way galaxy appeared like a quilt with diamonds.

The campfire was resting in front of me,

The warmth was hugging my entire body,

Rescuing me from the cold.

Around the campfire,

We danced.

We leaped with the music and the local costumes.

We were immersed in the culture till dawn.

With all of the good memories,

I fell asleep.

Dreamed.

Dreamed of the panoramic view of the stars,

The magical sound of the birds,

The vitality of the world that I had stepped into for 12 days.

Here,

No cars,

No noises,

No bustles from the city.

But only the calmness and peaceful nights

with the people I love the most

That made this journey one of the most unforgettable memories

of my life.

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I fell in love with animal photography that prompts me to explore the preserve the ever-changing nature and wildlife.

And I found out these are not enough.

The transformative experience in South Africa only set the base for my photography passion.

After I arrived in Vancouver, I continued to seek a better version of myself through my passion of photography. Recently, I wrote a personal narrative of how land teaches me values and give me new perspective to perceive this world:

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“Click, click, click.”

Ten months ago, in December 2022, I discovered a new ‘lens’ for my camera.

Just before then, in seeking to improve my photography skills, I had read a piece of advice from photographer Joe McNally: “Make your pictures talk.” As I gazed at my Sony RX-10’s display, flipping through my photos, I realized that none of the portraits or South African animals I had captured in the past few years had ever “spoken to me” through the final image.

After a restless night of scrolling through more tutorials on how to make my pictures “talk,” I decided to twine my camera lanyard around my neck, tuck my anticipatory hope in my pocket, and take a walk through my look for landscapes to photograph.

The mid-winter breeze numbed my hands as they clutched the metal camera. Still, my shivering body did not deter me from seeking different angles to take photos of pedestrians and concrete paths winding through the park. Yet after an hour or so of roaming, all the photos I had decided to take seemed flat and uninteresting.

I was mulling over my disappointment when the feeling of stepping onto a soft, gritty surface pulled me out of my thoughts. My eyes darted downward to see a golden blanket beside the roaring expanse of the sea, with a subtle sign indicating ‘Kitsilano Beach’ – a place I often visited but never with my camera.

My heart pounded, syncing with the sound of waves splashing and rolling toward me. On the skyline, the panoramic heaven blended with purples and pinks, expanding its vivid colors to the world behind me. I perched on a stiff log near the shoreline, stretching my head towards the camera’s viewfinder. Zooming out I saw how the sky creates a dome above a miniature world, giving meaning to the intersections between a variety of forms of life. The spectacular dusk before my eyes gradually sharpened, as if a miniature world was captured by my camera. Through the display screen, I saw the beach almost as clearly as if I were sifting its grains of sand between my fingers, while the waves conveyed dynamic emotions through their rhythmic, endless dances. Seagulls hovered above two stately ships, whispering the sea’s secret to me and my camera. The ships, moving slowly toward their destination, seemed to wave at me, at one with the nature around them. The mountains mirrored the eternal and continuous waves, narrating the infinite possibilities beyond the camera frame. The layered mountains, sea, beach, and seagulls wove themselves into a magical tapestry that was forever preserved in my memory through the newfound lens of nature I embrace today. As the last strike of strong sunlight shyly hid herself behind the chains of mountains, colors blended into a darker palette. I increased the aperture of my camera and clicked it again, capturing the unspoken stories that the light and land shared with me. The new lens became a translator of dialogue that forever preserved this moment. I discovered that landscape photography is in reciprocity with the land. It provides me with a new lens to view this world, and I preserve this moment through my camera lens.

The lens of nature also showed me how to observe details of the land to which I had never previously paid attention. The textures of the rocks, the pattern of the moss, and the delicate shape of the water on the sandy beach captivated my eyes, and found a place through my camera. They are mysterious and striking. This newfound lens at the Kitsilano beach sparked a new identity and passion for landscape photography within me, guiding my photos to speak. It empowered me to perceive the whispers of the natural world, allowing every grain of sand, wave, and vantage point of the mountain to converse with me through a visual language and connect with every aspect of me.

Through my initial experience with landscape photography at Kitsilano Beach, I learned that capturing the land I enjoy, love, and communicate with is key to enabling my pictures to talk. I aspire to carry this newfound lens with me wherever I travel in the future.

“Click, click, click”

Even now, every snapshot taken from my Sony RX-10 reminds me of the afternoon spent amidst the scent of waves and the evening breeze caressing my face at Kitsilano Beach through my two lenses.

As my perception slowed down with the ever-changing nature around me, I suddenly discovered a new “lens” for my camera.