Xiaohuo photography

Nanchang guy drove 27,000 kilometers to shoot super thunderstorms. Why did he choose to be a thunderstorm photographer? Let's discuss this problem below, hoping that these contents can help friends in need.

Liu Yijing was born in Jiangxi, and he has a strong interest in meteorology since he was a child. When he was 2 years old, his mother, who was engaged in modern agriculture, bought him many books on science and spectroscopy, but he fell in love with the one on the intercom system climate. He often makes his mother read it many times. By the time he went to kindergarten, every page of the book had been turned over.

Since then, watching the weather forecast after News Network has become a compulsory course for Liu Yijing every day. Although he has not defined the strong convective weather, he can laugh and cry for more than ten minutes when he occasionally sees the signs of "sleet" on TV. When he grows up, every time he hears thunder and lightning, he will rush to the dialog box to watch the thunderstorm in the shortest time. Sometimes, he will find his body hit by the wall and the corner of the table.

After junior high school, this addiction gradually turned into a search for meteorological knowledge. He joined many QQ groups of meteorological enthusiasts, read books such as Principles of Weather, Basic Principles and Technical Methods of Severe Convective Weather Forecast, and browsed hundreds of graduation papers on meteorology. He even made friends with many professionals from the local meteorological bureau, and sometimes they held seminars to which he was invited.

At that time, Liu Yijing longed to be a weatherman. Unfortunately, this is not satisfactory. Just before the sprint of the college entrance examination, he suffered from obvious chronic gastroenteritis. Physical discomfort, unable to teach normally, and the admission scores of atmospheric science majors vary widely, Liu Yijing is in a daze. "I understand that this road is broken, so I am very unconfident and depressed. Being in a bad mood is harmful to the human body and eventually falls into a vicious circle. "

During that time, the only thing Liu Yijing didn't choose to give up was to learn and train meteorological knowledge. He calculated an account and saw a unique cloud or lightning in Nanchang. He took photos with his mobile phone and made a simple scientific map. On March 5, 20 18, when he was studying an old 20 12 SLR at home, several single lightning flashes suddenly appeared in the area about three kilometers outside the window. With a wide field of vision and no precipitation, Liu Yijing clicked at will, and continuous shooting created a dozen lightning works hanging in mid-air. He posted it on the Internet and the first article was read by millions of people. The next day, the photos appeared in local news media and China Weather Network.

Liu Yijing's interest in photography was ignited. 20 19, sophomore year officially began to learn photography. He tried to photograph burning clouds, rising sun and clouds. In the summer of 2020, he chose to be a post-disaster photographer.

"Everything is full of variables. Worried that money invested time and money, but got nothing. The same is true of objective facts. Not every seven poisons can succeed. " To be a storm photographer, you must have all-round meteorological professional knowledge and photography level, and you must also have a very strong ability to survive and work in the wild. Overseas, this is not a new position, but few people try it at home.

August 2020 1, he went to Hulunbeier. Like the curved clouds on the grassland pressing him like a wall, he felt that his fear and work pressure had disappeared. He found his passion for life again, just like shaking his head when he saw a storm when he was a child. He felt solemn and then quiet.

On August 9, 2020, Wulanchabu and Liu Yijing filmed more than a dozen high-quality storms, and were preparing to arrange equipment and return to Hohhot in advance. Just as the sun had set and it was still dark, a group of developing light purple lightning units appeared in the dark blue sky. It quickly developed into a dense mane cumulonimbus cloud, which exploded overhead, and lightning appeared in a milky white cloud like pottery texture. Liu Yijing was so excited that she quickly pressed the shutter and took this rare scene.

Just then, a vagrant left and came back. Liu Yijing said that he was filming a storm and his face changed. He said with tears streaming down his face, "A photographer like you should come back and take more photos for everyone! Do you know how serious the storm was this afternoon? Crops planted for a year could have been harvested, but they were all damaged by hail! And my tricycle, whose windshield is broken. "

Liu Yijing's mind suddenly turned into a blank. He didn't know how to answer and returned to his hometown Nanchang. For two whole months, this matter stuck in Liu Yijing's heart like a thorn. "I just want to simply shoot the storm, but I never thought that what I like is a catastrophe for some people." Liu Yijing said, "I feel that I created the happiness of writing on the pain of others, so for a while, I felt guilty."

He chose to do some things, one is to find peace of conscience, and the other is to help a large number of people master meteorological knowledge and avoid possible floods. On June 5438+February 19, 2020, Liu Yijing marked "arc cumulonimbus clouds" in the vibrato video for the first time, and left the country for the first time on August 10, 2026, and explained the latest meteorological report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by oral broadcast.

In the video, he first concluded that his achievements this year are the result of ten years of struggle that may not be exchanged under normal circumstances. "It can be explained that the greater the feeling of taking pictures, the more severe the strong convective weather." At the end of the video, he issued such an appeal: "In any case, everyone will face the situation of high incidence of strong convective weather in the future, and it is imperative to resist global warming. The earth is an indispensable home for everyone. I sincerely hope that everyone can contribute to saving energy and protecting the ecological environment. "

Liu Yijing finally found the way of genealogy. "Why is the rainstorm in Shanxi so strong?" "What is La Nina?" "How is the sandstorm produced and how to defend it?" ..... Since then, Liu Yijing has repeatedly analyzed the reasons and results for netizens in combination with news reports.

Liu Yijing found that many people like or are meaningful to the content, just like his original intention of choosing to be a storm photographer, not only to better discover beauty, but also to better discover the humanized service and self-value behind meteorology. He really became a storm chaser.

According to the analysis chart estimated by the weather data and various data information, he will divide a 300-500 square kilometer area that is likely to produce storms three to five days in advance, and then he will choose a big city to transfer and contact local drivers. Most storms occur at dusk or at night. Liu Yijing usually arrives at the finish line one night in advance, and then prepares emergency equipment such as dry food, water and towing rope the next morning. In the car, he must observe the meteorological cloud picture and radar detection data of the computer anytime and anywhere and adjust the driving route. Sometimes the analysis is not accurate enough, and the storm is likely to have an error of two or three hundred kilometers, which may also leave him nowhere to hide.

There is another more dangerous experience in the vast grassland of Inner Mongolia. In order to better photograph the detailed interface of arc clouds and wind in front of super cell lightning, Liu Yijing stayed at the last moment. He didn't expect the wind to be so fast. When he saw a sandstorm tens of meters high blowing on the skyline of the grassland city, his equipment could not catch up. He had to grab the luggage rack at the top of the off-road vehicle to avoid being blown away. "The energy of the wind is too strong, and there is a great sense of failure and anxiety in an instant. I am also wondering if I am dying. "

"I can't just present the beauty of nature, but also return to reality and pass on professional knowledge according to the image. It is not necessary to transmit the professional knowledge of multi-technology majors, but at least let everyone be prepared when they see a certain cloud or a certain situation again, instead of seeing it. " Liu Yijing said.

On June 25 last year, in Inner Mongolia, Liu Yijing photographed the magnificent fire-roasted mammoth cloud on the edge of the storm. At that time, he thought, the big cities below must have suffered an obvious hail disaster. The next day on the highway, he really saw a car hit by hail with dents everywhere. At that moment, Liu Yijing had mixed feelings: "Why did the storm attract me to take pictures? Because it has a blue practical beauty, but this beauty is extremely lethal. I have the responsibility and obligation to tell you this. "

In Liu Yijing's view, the accuracy and timeliness of meteorological monitoring in China are gradually improving, but there are still many people who are indifferent to this matter. "So another practical significance of my account is to remind everyone that the storm is not close to our lives." Liu Yijing called his diligence in Tik Tok a "new family tree". "According to the amazing interface, we can get total traffic and embed professional knowledge, which is much better than using words and pictures forcibly before. The integration of hard image examples will pass on professional knowledge to more and more people, and it is also our most self-valuable field. "

In May 2022, his works appeared on the cover of SCI's column "Progress of Atmospheric Science". Last September, he gave a meteorological academic report in Peking University. He became a co-photographer of China Temperature and Foshan Tornado Research Center, and was also a cooperative project initiated by an academic research institution.

Liu Yijing said that this kind of video not only has the use value of popular science spectrum, but also is of great benefit to future scientific research. "In the past, biologists' analysis was based on meteorological cloud maps, radar maps and some data information of weather stations, but if they can be integrated with specific interfaces, it is possible to discover or confirm some basic theories. "

Liu Yijing firmly believes that the shooting of the storm will definitely produce higher popularity of the times, but at present she doesn't want to make too many presuppositions for the future. The experience of chasing the storm has long given him a good attitude far beyond his age. He said, "Even if you chase for a thousand kilometers and don't get anything, there will definitely be unexpected situations. The key is that you should always be on the road, do what you can now, and keep the road visible under your feet. "