Matcha lake: a forest standing in green water
A forest standing in Qingshan Reservoir near Hangzhou, its needles copper in January and the water matcha green with duckweed, black swans between the trunks.
In January, during our China trip, my friends and I took a high-speed train to Hangzhou, then a DiDi to the Qingshan Reservoir. What we found there is a forest standing in the lake.
A forest in the water
The trees rise straight out of the water. In January their needles were copper red, and between the trunks the water was covered in duckweed, so green it looked like matcha. That is the name of the album.
In Artificial trees with duckweed, the trunks stand in straight rows, as if someone had planted them, the duckweed glowing between their shadows. Out in the open water, two trees stand alone with the red forest on the far shore (Trees in Hangzhou lake), and in Lake view the whole forest is reflected in the lake under a blue sky.
Fallen pine needles
On the ground, the copper needles fall onto the duckweed, red on green. Fallen pine needles is that carpet, under the trees that dropped it.
Swans and mallards
The birds are wild. Black swans walk through the flooded forest on the red needles and the duckweed (Black swans), and mallards swim on the matcha-green water between the trunks: Colverts in matcha, colvert being the French word for mallard.
A very fast boat
We discovered by chance that you could take a boat. It turned out to be a very fast one, and it took us all the way around the lake. Incredible.
Photographer's notes
The whole album was shot on the X-T5 with the 25mm, at ISO 125. Almost everything is wide open at f/1.7, between 1/400s and 1/8000s. The exception is the black swans, at f/7.1 and 1/30s.
AlbumMatcha lake
Practical tips
- Getting there: a high-speed train to Hangzhou, then a DiDi to the reservoir.
- Ask about the boat: you can go all the way around the lake.
- January colours: the needles were copper and the duckweed bright green.
