Water Colour Pictures in Wuxi, China [Fujicolor Industrial 400]

Images shot on Fujicolor Industrial 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN

If you’re into painting scenery and landscapes, I imagine the canals and bridges around Wuxi’s Nanchang Street would be a prime spot to get some done.

I really can only imagine this because I’m pretty terrible at painting of any kind. Acrylic, oil, a fence, someone’s nails; all are going to be bad.

That’s why I’m showing you some photographs I made on film here rather than anything put down on canvas.

They’re not watercolour. They were just shot in colour – on Fujicolor Industrial 400, no less – and a few of them feature water.

Boats and buildings on the water

Walking up and down Nanchang Street and Dayao Road on the other side of the canal is a perfectly serene way to spend a sunny day. It also gives you lots of things to shoot.

You’ve got the water itself, along with the boats, buildings and of course bridges on it. As a tourist area, you’re also going to have people you can use in your shots too.

This means that whatever your style of photography, be it street like mine mainly is or more humanless landscapes, you’ll be able to come away with some work to share.

And share it you should.

The bridges of Wuxi County

Only joking, of course. Wuxi County is in Chongqing, nearly 1000 miles away from where we are in this article. The city of Wuxi does have its fair share of picturesque old bridges, though.

You’ve already seen how they can serve as landscape models, but their foot traffic makes them equally useful as street photography backdrops too.

The technique here was mainly to stand with the sun behind me, compose the shot, and wait for people to step into it. I give myself bonus points for getting eye contact also, but that’s just me.

You do it how you want.

Noticing a pattern after shooting

I like to squeeze at least a couple of blog articles out of each roll of film I shoot these days. It’s just more efficient and productive that way.

Getting more posts up with less shooting is good for this site and it’s nice to give you some bite-sized pieces to consume alongside the more meaty reviews and guides too.

This can bring up the issue of how to split up the photographs from a single roll, but for this post it was quite easy. Choose the ones with a connection to the water – be that the canal itself or the bridges over it.

I’ve written before about giving yourself a photography theme before you go out shooting. That’s still a good thing to do when you need inspiration, but sometimes you’ll notice a pattern after you’ve shot.

That’s certainly what happened here.

Actual watercolours in Wuxi

While I made my pictures of Wuxi on a roll of Fujicolor Industrial 400, there are some people who do theirs on canvas. Some even with watercolour. I know this because I had a look on Google.

I quite like this one, this one, and also this one. The artists have a talent that I don’t and probably never will do. And the only way to take that is as a source of inspiration.

Think about this from your own perspective. If you’re out there with a camera, putting in the time to deliberately make photographs, there are going to be people who look at your work in the same way I do those paintings.

People who look at it and know you can do something they can’t. Even if you don’t think you’re at that level yet, you soon will be if you keep going.

I know it’s cool to be aloof and say you only shoot for yourself, but it always feels nice to have your work complimented, whoever you are.

That can only happen if you actually produce, though. Just like those painters, this about showing, not telling.

If you’re going to have anything to show, you’re going to have to get out there and #shootfilmmakesomething  🙂