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The sky’s the limit for young photographer
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WANG Qiang is a computer science major who has opened a photography business. The junior student at Hangzhou Electronic Science and Technology University says he specializes in photographing the night skies and borrowed 300,000 yuan (US$48,387) from his father to open an aerial photography studio.
Although his Chenhe Culture and Creative Studio has been open for less than six months the business is already making a profit.
The Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, native says his interest in photography developed when he joined the university’s photography society.
“I bought my first single-lens reflex camera with money from my parents. They consider photography a good thing, plus I am really into it, so they have always been supportive,” Wang says.
Although Wang’s parents run their own business in Yiwu, he says he isn’t one of the so-called rich second-generation that is often sneered at by others.
“My family is affluent, but we are not that wealthy,” Wang tells Shanghai Daily. “I don’t like to be labeled. I just want to do something I like.”
Wang says he essentially went from knowing nothing about photography into a professional photographer by reading piles of photography books and browsing online forums for shutterbugs.
His dreamy photos of starry nights have made him stand out from his peers in the school’s photography society. He is also obsessed with shooting the orbital path of stars. It always takes hours to finish an orbital photo.
“I usually leave the dormitory at midnight and set my photography equipment in a spot suitable for capturing the starry night. The camera automatically snaps photos at specific intervals after the parameters are set,” Wang says. “I then merge hundreds of photos together to present the orbits.”
In these pictures, the orbital paths of stars appear as concentric circles while the buildings in the foreground remain stationary.
Wang stays up all night to snap the pictures.
“The dormitory is locked after 11pm and reopens in the morning, I have nowhere to go during that period,” Wang says. “Sitting up all night is really exhausting, but I can tolerate it as long as I shoot wonderful photos.”
Wang says many amateur photographers mistakenly think that they need the best equipment to shoot great photos. While he admits that better equipment helps, he says what really matters is the photographer’s skill and eye for details.
Wang has expanded beyond photographing stars. He has purchased a professional equatorial telescope in order to take photos of the moon, Saturn, Mars and nebulas.
He also travels to places like Tianhuangping of Anji County in northern Zhejiang Province and Qinghai Lake in Qinghai Province in order to take pictures. Places such as these are more remote, meaning the air is much cleaner, which leads to sharper images.
“In those places the Milky Way is so clear and the stars are so dense in the sky. They appear brighter compared to urban areas,” he says.
Wang plans to go to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park in America this summer to take photos of the heavens.
Although Wang specializes in photographing stars, his fame in Hangzhou derived from a set of aerial photos of 14 universities in Xiasha High Education Zone.
The student says he became interested in aerial imagery last year. After spending nearly 80,000 yuan on a quadcopter and octacopter mounted with cameras, he took a set of aerial photos of the universities.
“They went viral among university students once I posted them on social media,” Wang says. “Some of the universities contacted me and purchased the photos. They plan to use them as publicity photos.”
He says this led him to the realization he could start a photography studio. He rented an office near school and opened his studio with the loan from his parents.
Now more companies and TV programs are contacting him with offers to collaborate.
“My charges vary according to what a client wants,” Wang says. “In the future I plan to expand the studio and build my own brand targeting upscale companies and consumers.”
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