Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Magical light and shadow

Magical light and shadow

Phantom Light and Shadow hesitated before going to Yucha Canyon in Ganquan County, Shaanxi Province. Because, with years of scientific knowledge and experience, it is predicted that this is a unique scenery of "soft sandstone", like oleander flowers growing everywhere, showing a "toxic" beauty. However, I couldn't resist the temptation of colorful red rock landforms in my imagination and finally succeeded.

Sure enough, the car entered the territory of Ganquan County, and mottled sandstone appeared from time to time in the valleys on both sides of the road. Soft sandstone is a kind of loose rock formation, which consists of thick sandstone, sand shale and argillaceous sandstone in Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous (about 250-60 million years) in geological history. It is exposed in the northeast of zigzag bend of Jiuqu Yellow River, with an area of * * * of 1.67, except for sand covered area. It is called "soft sandstone" for two reasons. First of all, rocks and weathered soil are extremely barren, and almost no grass grows. When life meets arsenic, it is called arsenic sandstone. Secondly, the degree of diagenesis is low, the cementation between sand particles is poor, the structural strength is low, it is neither rock nor soil, and its properties are strange. Without water, it is as hard as stone, and when it meets water, it is as soft as mud. When it meets rain, it collapses and scatters with the wind. The locals joked that "fart can break it open", so they took the homonym of "fart sandstone". At the same time, soft sandstone is one of the sources of soil erosion in the Yellow River basin, and it is called incurable cancer focus and tumor by practitioners engaged in sand control and water control, farming and engineering construction.

The "soft sandstone" is gorgeous in color, with five colors of grayish green, brownish yellow, crimson, pink purple and grayish white alternating, with red as the main color, so it is also called "red rock" and "red stone". Because of its low intensity, it is easily eroded by flowing water and wind, especially by torrential flood erosion, which has become a peculiar canyon. Many people call it "Danxia Canyon" landform.

Of course, this is just a folk and unscientific statement, and its color is like Danxia. However, due to its looseness and weakness, it cannot form the steep landforms of Chibi and Ya Dan, but only the gentle landforms of Hongshan and Dangou, and the landscapes such as Hongyan Canyon, Hongyan Hill and Hongyan Skirt formed by it are not Danxia landforms, but Hongyan landforms. Nevertheless, despite the barrenness and harm of "soft sandstone", the colorful "red rock landform" adds a lot of colors to the desolate and monotonous loess plateau, and also brings * * * and hope to the people on the plateau.

Yucha Valley in Ganquan County is such a barren and beautiful place. When the unexpected mountain torrents rushed to Yucha Canyon, almost stones and sand were invincible, cutting out thick loess. In the red sandstone shale, dozens of secondary canyons almost perpendicular to it are etched, such as Huashugou, Mudangou, Longbagou, Yixiantian, Shehegou, Fenghuanggou and Huabaogou. , to create a mysterious and bizarre red rock canyon.

These Hongyan canyons are full of personality, the "moon" in Peony Gully is exciting, and the "line" of "one line and sky" is as thin as silk thread, and so on. Among them, Huashugou and Longbagou are famous for their large scale and numerous dreamland. Some people say that they are more beautiful than the "Antelope Valley" in Arizona, USA.

Huashugou is in the southern section of Yuchagou. The bottom of the ditch is lower than Yucha Valley, so it is a valley with water. The canyon is several meters to ten meters wide, and there is no fixed number. This valley is about 800 meters long and dozens of meters deep. In the valley, the flowing water is gurgling, winding and deep, and it feels strange.

Into the canyon, looking up at the sky, a narrow and wide gap, sparse or dense trees on both sides, winding into the distant sky. Birds stay on the treetops at the edge of the cliff, the wind blows the trees down and throws them on the cliff, and white clouds sweep the blue sky with wide fingers, making the sky particularly high and the clouds particularly smart.

In the canyon, the rock wall twists and turns, standing between heaven and earth, separating the possibility of looking forward and backward. What the human eye can see is his toes and heels. However, a ray of light always hangs overhead, a ray of light always appears in front of us, and a ray of hope always lies in the future. Where the canyon narrows, there is a columnar rock bulge on the cliff edge, opposite a pit, with an opening at the top and an eagle mouth at the bottom, which refers to the vast sky and turns into an erratic silk thread. The canyon is particularly deep and the atmosphere is particularly ethereal.

Walking through the canyon, your eyes are not enough. Don't move, the scenery will change in the blink of an eye. The bright sunshine just now was obscured by the swaying leaves at the top of the cliff. I couldn't see the corner just now, because the reflection of water droplets on the rock wall was colorful. The blue sky is divided into countless shapes by cliffs, forests, leaves and flowers, which are round like a painting fan, curved like the moon and thin like silk thread. Golden light has been changed by rock walls, moss, water droplets and cobwebs. The light bends, the bright spot shifts, the color changes, and the canyon is very different from the ground.

Strolling through the canyon, there are endless photos and videos. Time and space change too fast here. You can't take the same color photo, the same posture and the same video in the same position. Magic Canyon shortens the space distance and speeds up the countdown time. Micro and macro are in the same place, high altitude and canyon are in the same frame, reality and fantasy coexist, the picture is strange and feels special. Every photo composition is fresh, every video is unfamiliar, every scene is moving, and every moment is a picture scroll.

Wandering in the canyon makes the brain dull. I really can't tell the shape of the canyon rocks, I really don't know the source of light and shadow, almost all of them are unknown. In desperation, just close your eyes and imagine yourself as a fallen leaf flying in the air, patrolling the canyon. Look at the wavy surface of purple sandstone, appreciate the embedded content in ochre mudstone, interpret the white siliceous tadpoles on the rock surface, and ask about the past lives in the canyon. Sigh, squint, and imagine yourself as a drop of water swimming in a stream and crossing a canyon. With a tiny body, the rock is polished into a silky surface like water, creating a wave-like "splash" and combing out a "curl" that is more beautiful than the antelope curl.

Longbagou Canyon is located in the northern section of Yucha Canyon. It is 2.5 kilometers long and the canyon is tens of centimeters to tens of meters wide. This valley is several meters to tens of meters deep. Although the canyon is in a natural state without any decoration, it can show a magical fantasy.

Before entering the canyon, I thought the canyon was nothing more than three elements, showing three colors: light, moss, rock and gold (sunshine), green (moss) and red (gravel). Among them, ochre is the background color, green is the ornament, and gold is the whitewash. Rocks form canyons, light illuminates canyons, and moss grows in canyons. You can enter the canyon, focus on it, look around and find that it is these simple colors and elements that create fantastic light and shadow in the canyon.

In the canyon, the protagonist is the ochre red rock on the plain. Under the irradiation and projection of sunlight, the image of a single rock looks like a person or a thing. It was a quiet canyon, which was very lively because there were many people and things involved: an eagle stood on the top of the cliff and seemed to be keeping an eye on the prey in the canyon. A dragon-shaped boulder poked its head into the canyon, as if asking who disturbed the dream. Monkeys picking peaches, lizards climbing, birds flapping their wings and cicadas chirping noisily are all watching the scenery of Longbagou Canyon.

In the canyon, the plane image of the rock layer is changed, or jagged edges are used to simulate the appearance of waves, or different curved surfaces are connected to form splashing waves, which brings thousands of waves to the quiet canyon. This is a quiet rock, which produces auditory hallucinations because of the wave images displayed by the rock layers: thin red and white rock layers, micro-wrinkles, parallel stripes, tender as water, like autumn water and waves, pushing each other and whispering autumn. Covered with red rock formations with huge lines, uneven thickness and staggered stripes, the tide rises and falls, as if it were the spring tide in the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the canyon, the rocks are covered with grotesque caves, oval, round, lenticular, pod-shaped, horizontal or reclining, which are connected with the caves and strung into a canyon. Due to the influence of gravel and the excavation of water flow, many curved surfaces appear in the neatly arranged monoclinic gently inclined stratum. This is a static rock stratum, because there are many connected cambered surfaces, so it is full of movement. The combination of "breaking waves", "fine waves", "huge waves", "surging waves" and "tsunami" and curved surfaces is more unrestrained and dynamic than waves. Whenever people walk, the light and shadow change, and they look up and think that the waves are over the top, and the side view is wrong. It seems that the waves are hitting your face, but walking in a still canyon is like surfing in the ocean!

In the canyon, looking up at the sky, the canyon is like a variable gap, blocking or giving way to the sunlight. The canyon is like a flying thin line, which draws and guides the sunlight to the canyon in a zigzag way. It's bright light, so it's dark. Is this a direct beam of light, or does it become uncertain and tortuous after reflection and refraction? This is linear sunlight, which forms annular and cluster spots due to the interference of light in different directions, intensities and frequencies. As a result, the red stone of "Devil Curve" produces "Angel Light", and the combination of the two produces magical light and shadow: sunlight continuously refracts and reflects on the uneven rock wall of the canyon through narrow cracks, from bright orange to gorgeous red, from bright "stone hall" to dark corner, and the light becomes so magical. Under the action of "angel light", the static and dreary red rock becomes full of movement. The rough and mottled red stone actually presents charming lines. Cold and hard rocks can actually express all kinds of tenderness. Natural perfection, lifelike. Sunlight changes at hundreds of angles with time and season, and rocks meet and walk in thousands of postures. Amazingly, the rock that produces such magical light and shadow is actually a "sandstone" that people dislike!

The moss attached to the red rock constantly magnifies the beauty of the curve of the rock, and the moss exposed to the light responds to the angel's light with changing green fluorescence. Although moss is small, it can bring vitality to the red valley of ochre, add green to the cold rock strata, and strive to show the vitality of life. Although it is a supporting role, it can also be just right. The turbulent and sinister "rock waves" overhead have become gentle because they are dotted with moss and green. The dark corner is not lonely because of the growth of moss. Every piece of moss is the crowning touch of the canyon scenery, and every piece of moss is a colorful bead in the magic light and shadow!

In the canyon, the scene is so magical and dreamy that it has been out of Longbagou Canyon for a long time. Those red stones, canyons, sunshine, moss, magical echoes of water drops, ubiquitous light and shadow, songs played by nature and fairyland displayed are still lingering in my heart.

Yes, the Jade Tea "Bean Stone" Gorge, which cultivates barren land, looks like a picture scroll and is the most beautiful scenery people meet in poverty and despair. It is also a scenic spot where tenderness can ignite hope when cold science cannot solve the problem. It is expected that in the near future, the amazing, dreamy and wild Hongyan scenery will bring positive and colorful expectations to the villagers. We also look forward to the same direction of science and art, turning disadvantages into advantages, developing the natural beauty of "Hongyan landform" in an orderly manner, and combining many cultural relics and natural scenery on the Loess Plateau to create a version of "green mountains and green waters" on the Loess Plateau.

October 2020