Xinjie Things to Do

4 more images

This would also fit as a Tourist Trap tip, but if you go to the area, it's the thing to do: get up early and catch the sun rising over the terraces. You go to a special location (one of possibly several) and set up with your new tout friends (see my intro page for Xin Jie) and new tourist friends and prepare to be amazed... unless it's cloudy. But the clouds can still offer some unique images, rolling white against the deep green landscape.

Five images.

Photo tip: Shooting into the sun can be dangerous, even in reflection, especially since the camera concentrates light through the lens, right on your eye. Be careful. Usually you will want to shoot with a high shutter speed and close down the aperture. Manual mode really helps on this. If you don't have manual mode but can set your exposure (possibly but depressing the shutter release half-way) you can set the exposure for the sun then shoot the reflection. For the first image, I added a little contrast in post to bring out the glow in the clouds. All the others are pretty much camera-controlled.