POTD: Bamboo Cutter #2

POTD: Bamboo Cutter #2Bamboo Cutter #2
Lin’an, China
2015

Over the course of a couple of days, this guy and a helper who showed up the second day, harvested a pretty large amount of bamboo. All the work was done by hand–no roaring chainsaws.

6 thoughts on “POTD: Bamboo Cutter #2”

  1. Welcome home! I’ve enjoyed your photos from China (even though I have not been much of a commenter). This one is really sweet. I love the beauty in the detail of close-up bamboo and the misty background. Your previous photo is beautiful, serene. I hope you had a fascinating time on your trip!

    1. Thanks Carol. The trip was rewarding in ways I never expected and the photo-ops often exceeded my expectations. It’s a tough place to visit, for me anyway, but in the end quite worth it.

  2. As a young forester, I once had a timber stand improvement/ fuels reduction project that was contracted out to a group of US minority contractors – from US Samoa. Wonderful close knit family of very large individuals that did not use chainsaws either. More difficult to find them working in a large forest block than if they were running saws though. When it was time for inspection for payment, the leader Daniel would phone and just say Daniel. I had lots of Mexican green card workers working for contractors but the Samoans speech was beyond my experience. Previous phone conversations proved I couldn’t understand their Samoan or English. They could really eat up the ground, we nick-named them the Mowan Samoans.

  3. Photographically I actually prefer the color image over this one. I think it’s the posture of the bamboo cutter. In this one, he blends in to the surroundings too much and makes him hard to “read” visually.

    Would be interested to hear in what ways visiting China was difficult for you….off line if you prefer…since I occasionally consider making such a trip myself, with a group of course!

    1. Artistically the color one may be the best, but in terms of showing what was actually going on, this one says more. And he did really blend into the surroundings, especially when the fog was heavy. Things that were hard for me about visiting China: the long trip, large crowds of people, smog (lots of it), secondhand smoke (lots of it), and eating Chinese food three times a day for two weeks (too much of a good thing). Actually some of the food took a little getting used to–like finding a whole duck head, eyes still attached, in the soup. In many ways it’s not like the food you get at Chinese restaurants in the U.S. Also, contrary to the impression I had, it was rare to find folks who spoke English in restaurants, hotels, etc. Contact me offline if you want more details about anything.

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