The Great Wall of China may be formidable, but it is no match for the climbing ability of a caterpillar!
It is a beautiful day in Beijing. A band of severe thunderstorms rocked the skies last night, and washed the air clean of dense smog. I just finished the first of two Natural Habitat expeditions, and am looking over some of my images from the trip, and getting excited to do it again with a new group of folks who are arriving today. These trips explore regions of China that are rarely, if ever, seen by foreigners. Here are a some of my attempts to capture China’s unseen beauty with a camera.
Pandas
The major highlight and focus of our trips is always the Giant Panda, which may be the most loved and charismatic creature on earth
An artist in one of the ancient hutong neighborhoods in Beijing meticulously paints images of pandas on the inside of tiny glass bottles
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Beautiful adult panda at Bifenxia Panda Base, Ya’an Sichuan Province.
Befengxia Panda base in Ya’an, Sichuan is perhaps the best place to photograph giant pandas in natural surroundings.
Elizabeth Lancaster gets up close and personal to a 1 year old panda cub
One of this trip’s highlights was the opportunity to see the newborn baby pandas in both Chengdu and Bifengxia Breeding centers! I will do another post about this when I return. I have some video to post, but cant do it here because youtube is blocked in china. Check back in a few weeks!
Red panda in a tree, Chengdu Panda Base.
Minshan Mountains
For me, the most exciting destination on these trips is a wild, undiscovered wilderness area in the Minshan Mountains, where we explore wild giant habitat, and view and photograph some of the world’s rarest wildlife. Although it was too dark for a photograph, the trip highlight for me was spotting an Asian hog-nosed badger on a night hike! We also saw takin, golden pheasant, Tibetan macaque, serow, reeve’s muntjac, wild boar, blue sheep, and masked palm civet!
Female Sichuan takin and her calf! It is a wonder these animals are not extinct. We see and photograph many of these amazing animals on every trip
A birder’s fantasy! The ranger who was assigned to us found this rare, elusive tawny fishing owl perched above a stream! Wow is right.
Mother Tibetan macaque grooming her baby.
Three takins perched on a cliff.
Swinhoe’s striped squirrel. I used a low aperture of 4 to achieve a shallow depth of field, to accentuate the squirrel’s face.
Tibetan Area- The final leg of our journey is a road trip through the rugged Minshan Mountains onto the Tibetan Plateau, in search of Tibetan Cultures, incredible scenery, and endemic wildlife.
A red birch, and one of the countless waterfalls of jiuzhaigou National Park, a landscape photographer’s paradise.
Chinese bride getting married. What a place for a wedding…
A candle burning in an Aba Tibetan Family house in jiuzhaigou where we had lunch.
We encountered this rare and beautiful Chinese blood pheasant on a hike in the mountains. Another incredible addition to the bird list.
Traditional Tibetan performers.
Yak herder, 12,000 feet
yaks.
Our group walking through prayer flags in the mountains
These aquamarine, limestone pans are typical of the karst geology of the region.
Prayer wheels at Tibetan Monastery.
Joyce Gore and Lily, Phillip’s wife who went along as our assistant, at Noorilong Falls.
Phillip He, our MAN in Sichuan. He is like a brother to me. He makes this trip happen. Thanks yet again Phillip!
2 Comments
Brad–
You are a talented photographer! We’re looking forward to meeting you this weekend!
Bill and Norma Rugg
[…] see some truly incredible photography from our trip, head over to our guide Brad Josephs’ blog. In fact, Brad is back in China at the moment leading another Natural Habitat group — check […]