Today's Flower #100 & ABC Wednesday: X is for XinWu Lotus Farm

It is the lotus flower season again and the Lotus Festival is held every year at Xinwu (新屋) and Gyanyin (觀音) townships of Taoyuan County (桃園).  The area is a low-laying area near the western coast of Taiwan, just an hour drive from Taipei.  It used to be covered with rice-paddy.  After Taiwan joined WTO, it is no longer economically feasible to grow rice any more.  As in Korea, the situation had a great impact to the tradition of the local farming community in Taiwan.  Some of the rice fields around Xinwu and Gyanyin area have been converted to lotus pond, both for tourism and for its seeds and roots.

Xinwu means "new house", the phonic translation can also be Sinwu.  I need a "X", thus it is Xinwu.  Gyanyin means "watching the sound" and it is the Chinese translation of "Avalokltesvara" buddha's name.  By "watching" the sound of the universe in her/his mind, Avalotesvara obtained the eternal wisdom and became a buddha.  It is all very "Zen".  Let us go back to the more practical matter of photographing Lotus flower, where the buddha used to sit on.  You can go back to my old blog here, to learn the difference of Nelumbo (lotus) and Nymphaea (water lilly).

Both Nelumbo and Nymphaea are very photogenic.  I was told that they should be photographed in the early morning, when their blooms are at its best.  In reality, you really want to only shot in the early morning.  Who can stand the heat of the mid-day and early afternoon sun of June in Taiwan, not the flowers and not the photographers.  A single solitary lotus in perfect bloom can some way reflecting the light to make it almost like glowing against a background of lotus leaves.

Some times we want some seed pot and flower bud in the background to add interest and the yellow seed pod in a full bloomed flower gives even more colors.

A long telephone lens help us not only blur the background but also keep us, the photographer on the solid ground, dry and clean.  One way to get us really into muddy situation is try to photograph the lotus with a wide-angle lens.

However, a wide-angle lens does give us a totally different prospective of the flower and the lotus field.

Another way to get real muddy is to try to do a close-up.  But the flower is so big, it is usually not necessary for a macro lens, just a telephone lens can take us close enough.

Grace went to her ladies' club outing last weekend.  I went to photograph the lotus by myself.  They were shot with my Nikon D700 with 80-400mm and 20 mm lenses.

To see more entries of ABC Wednesday click here.

To see mor flowers from around the world click here.