Dragging our weary bodies out of bed at 3:45 AM we dressed and headed down to meet the others in the foyer for our 4AM start. We reached our destination out in the paddy fields, with an ancient arch bridge, well before sunrise, and set up for dawn and the arrival of our ‘model’, a local farmer and his water buffalo. The lighting was very difficult, with very dark foreground and much brighter sky,but some of the photos seem to have worked.
Walking back to the bus, we got to see some of the farmwork – harvesting rice was fascinating. They had small harvesters that ran back and forth on caterpillar tracks, and disgorging the grain into sacks as their hoppers were filled.

From there we went on to Daxian Ancient village to meet some of the locals. Access to the village was a road too narrow for our bus so local transport had been organised – a farm vehicle that was comprised of a naked engine attached to a cart. So we clambered into the back and rattled along for a km or two to the village.

At the village we noted a family of children who were sitting on rocks outside a door doing their homework. They were tackling the work without complaint and with considerable concentration, though they allowed us to take photos whilst they worked. We also took photos of other people in the village. 

After our session photographing the people we had a few minutes of free time before gathering for lunch at a local restaurant.

I had fun wandering the streets looking at the people and their wares. Lots of people seemed to be sleeping. Given the mid-30s temperatures, that wasn’t a bad idea. There were lots of “food” items like local crabs about 2 cm across and tiny fish etc. Yum!

After lunch someone suggested we lay out some camera gear. We managed an impressive display of very expensive camera gear. Here are 23 cameras and lenses… and there were more (many) in the camera bags left on the bus. This was just a subset of lenses that our organiser suggested as suitable for the photographic challenges in the village.

WE then returned to the bus to get to our final venue for the day, Wuzhi Hill, which gives a fine view over the Li river and the mountains behind as the sun sets. Very scenic.

A gallery of photos can be viewed at https://photos.app.goo.gl/voanL2FCNkEL9m8y6.