Yangtze River cruise autumn foliage colors

The air smelled different on the Yangtze in late October. It wasn't the wet, iodine scent of the Indonesian archipelago after a monsoon, nor the dusty, sun-baked earth of the Colombian altiplano. It smelled of woodsmoke, damp limestone, and chlorophyll beginning to turn. After years of hauling my camera gear through the jungles of South America and the islands of Indonesia for My Travel Photo Blog, I finally pointed my lens at the Yangtze River. As a photographer, I evaluate a cruise ship differently than a tourist. I don't care about the afternoon tea or the pillow menu. I care about where the sun hits the deck at 5:30 PM, and whether I can brace my tripod against the railing without a hundred people jostling behind me.

Century Paragon was my vessel for this ten-day autumn run. Boarding at Chaotianmen Port in Chongqing is a visual assault. The city is a brutalist jungle of concrete and neon, stacked vertically against the sky. Most passengers were wowed by the sheer scale of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers merging. I was watching the light.

At 4:00 PM in late October, the sun drops behind the hills west of the city. The tallest towers catch a deep orange glow that looks like fire against the grey winter haze. The port is a chaos of ropes and gangplanks. Martin's Photography Tip: Forget the panoramic shots from the ship’s top deck during boarding. The deck is too low. Instead, walk two hundred meters north on the riverwalk to the concrete pier. Use a 70-200mm lens at f/8 to compress the buildings against the ferry traffic. The contrast between the new Chongqing glass towers and the rusted river barges is your best shot of the city, and the afternoon November light is harsh but dramatic.

The first thing I do on any cruise ship is locate every accessible outdoor deck. On the Century Paragon, the forward observation deck on Deck 6 is the holy grail for a photographer, but it has a fatal flaw. There is a massive, bolted-down table in the center. People play cards there. They leave their jackets there. They drink coffee there. By 7:00 AM, it is a cluttered mess of personal items.

For the Three Gorges, I need empty space. I found my permanent station on the port-side wrap-around balcony of the forward lounge, just behind the glass. The glass is fixed, but it is remarkably clean and unpolarized. Key Observation: The ship does not provide a single "tripod" or "monopod" that is usable. Do not rely on their gear. I brought my Gitzo travel tripod. The trick for the Paragon is to set up behind the glass, not on the open foredeck. The open deck vibrates from the engine. The interior deck with the glass does not vibrate. You sacrifice a little clarity (shoot at f/5.6 to blur the reflection), but you gain sharpness at 1/15th of a second for that low-light gorge shot.

The captain announced Qutang Gorge just after 3:30 PM on the third day. This is the shortest and most dramatic gorge. As a photographer, this is where autumn finally paid off.

The cliffs of Qutang Gorge are almost vertical, painted with a patina of green moss and grey rock. In October, the deciduous trees cling to the cracks like desperate climbers. The species here is a mix of golden Ginkgo biloba and a fiery red Rhus chinensis (sumac). The ship was moving at cruising speed, maybe 25 kilometers per hour. That matters.

At 1/125th of a second with a 50mm lens, the bank was a blur. I had to switch to 1/500th of a second and push my ISO to 800. The result was noise in the shadows. Bitter Lesson: You cannot shoot a crisp leaf detail from a moving ship without high ISO. Change your strategy. Do not chase the branches five feet from the hull. Shoot the layered depth. Frame the dark blue river water in the foreground, the bright yellow Ginkgo in the midground, and the misty, shadowed rock wall at the back. This gives the image a three-dimensional feel that hides the motion blur.

Passing through the five-step ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam happens at night on many itineraries. On ours, it was 6:30 PM. The sun died behind the dam just as the ship entered the first chamber.

Here is where most photographers pack up their DSLRs. Do not. The lighting inside the lock at twilight is a rare, almost cinematic phenomenon. The concrete walls are a deep blue-grey. The water is black. The only light source is the harsh, yellow halogen work lights mounted on the lock walls, which cast long, dramatic shadows across the ship. I used a 24mm lens, put the camera on the tripod (locked inside the cabin for stability, pointed out the balcony), and shot a 2-second exposure at f/11. The gate closing in front of the ship became a glowing, abstract shape. The autumn foliage here is irrelevant. The industrial scale of the dam is the subject.

The Shennong Stream transfer is a mandatory photo opportunity. You leave the big ship, board a smaller, wooden sampan, and are punted up a narrow, jade-green tributary. The tourist brochure promises "autumn colors reflected on the water."

Reality check: The reflection is weak. The stream is too constricted by cliffs. You need a polarizing filter here. I used a B+W circular polarizer, rotated it to cut the glare from the water surface, which revealed the submerged rocks and the faint golden leaves on the banks. Without it, the water looks like grey milk.

Also, I must be honest: some of the "autumn foliage" in the villages near the stream is planted. Locals sell you oranges and photos with the "red leaves." The visual truth is that the most stunning natural color is higher up the cliff face, inaccessible to the sampan. Do not waste your shots on the branch that a tour guide points to. Look up. The Liquidambar formosana (sweet gum) trees halfway up the gorge turn a deep maroon, almost black against the sky.

My cabin was a Deluxe Veranda Suite on Deck 4. The design was comfortable, but the photography requirement is the balcony glass. It is not glass. It is a thick, polycarbonate panel. It scratches easily. Tactical advice: When shooting the sunset over the gorge from your balcony, you will see a reflection of your cabin light. Turn off all interior lights. Seriously. Every lamp. The glow from the room will kill your image. Even the tiny red dot of the TV standby light will cast a glare on the plastic panel at night.

The best view of the autumn colors I got was not from the top deck or the balcony. It was from the stern of Deck 5, where the lifeboats are stored. At 6:10 AM on the morning we cruised Wu Gorge, the fog sat at water level. The Ginkgo trees on the north bank were backlit by the rising sun, creating a rim-light effect of pure gold. The ship's exhaust was blowing the fog away. I got a single frame of a tree branch emerging from the white cloud. That frame is the entire cruise.

The Century Paragon holds 398 passengers. On a full autumn cruise, the open top deck is a zoo during the famous gorges. Martin's Photography Tip: Do not go to the rail. Go to the port-side wing of the deck, right next to the satellite dish. It is slightly off-limits (there is a rope). Step under the rope. I did. No one stopped me. You get a clear field of view from bow to stern without a single human silhouette in the frame. The metal grating there is solid enough for a tripod.

For the "Red Leaves of the Gorge" excursion near Fengjie, the tour group walked down a muddy path to a viewing platform. The platform was packed. I turned around. I walked 20 meters up the path, right next to a drainage ditch. The water in the ditch was a perfect mirror of the Ginkgo canopy. I shot straight down. The reflection was cleaner, more symmetrical, and had zero tourists in it. You must be willing to look away from the "official" viewpoint.

The autumn colors on the Yangtze are not the vibrant, saturated red of New England. They are subtle. They are yellows, ochres, and rusts, set against a backdrop of grey limestone and a steel-grey sky. The best color comes on the overcast days. The diffuse light saturates the yellow leaves without creating harsh shadows. On the sunny days, the contrast is too high and the colors wash out.

If you are coming with a DSLR, leave the 400mm lens at home. You do not need it. The river is narrow in the gorges. A 24-70mm is your workhorse. A 70-200mm is for the distant peaks. And a circular polarizer is not optional; it is mandatory.

The Paragon is a fine ship for a photographer, but only if you fight for your space. Do not be polite. Move your tripod to the blocked-off deck corners. Shoot at dawn and ignore the breakfast buffet. The light on the river dies fast at 5:30 PM in late October. It is dark by 5:45. You get three good shooting windows: dawn (6:00-7:30 AM), the two hours before sunset (3:30-5:30 PM), and the dusk lock transit. That is all you get. Use it.