Photography Secrets- Moc Chau tea hill – Tran Tien Dung

After nearly 10 years of wandering around, visiting various shooting locations, some easy and some difficult. With a nature that loves to share (or perhaps disliked by some and considered as teaching others), but I will still write for those who love me! Because I firmly believe that those who love me will understand me! And I live for the people I love! Hereinafter, I will start sending to everyone a series of articles Revealing difficult shooting spots! The posts will be shared on my personal page and on the Photography Passion Journey Group. I really hope everyone will support and interact so that the article can reach as many people as possible!
Thank you sincerely! And to not waste any more time, let’s explore the first spot in the journey!

– Moc Chau Tea Hill:

• Difficulty: 7/10
• Beauty: 8/10
• Shooting angles: Many (Sunset/Sunrise/Setup/Silhouette/Night).

1. In terms of location, getting to Moc Chau is now easier than ever! The travel time is reduced to less than 5 hours by car. Regarding shooting locations, Moc Chau offers a variety of options from tea hills, flowers, waterfalls to setups (especially setups), but within the scope of this article, Dung will mainly provide information about tea hill shooting spots. The article is divided into 2 parts – The State-owned Tea Hill and the Heart-shaped Tea Hill (actually, it’s easier to call them that, but for example, the State-owned Tea Hill is located on the old Highway 6, under the management of VinaTea, and locals often call it Shan Tuyet tea hill – with a history of over 60 years. The Heart-shaped Tea Hill is actually the Oolong tea hill, now exploited by a Taiwanese tea company. At each tea hill, we will have a different shooting approach. Shan Tuyet Tea Hill: Sunrise shooting. Oolong Tea Hill: Sunset shooting and tea harvesting (manual). Okay, let’s get started!

2. Shan Tuyet Tea Hill – The State-owned company has now developed the area into a tourist attraction with a gate and many shops along the way. To reach the sunrise spot, we have to go deep into the tea hill and climb onto the roof of the “Water Tank” or “Water Tower,” which was used to store water for irrigating the tea in the past. This is an extremely beautiful sunrise spot… judging by the photos! Because only when we get there and hunt for fog can we understand why the difficulty level is 7/10! A foggy tea hill requires 4 elements:

• Early morning fog (usually occurs around 4-5 am) when the humidity is just right for fog formation.
• Light wind: Too much wind will dissipate the thin fog.
• A beautiful sunrise: If there’s only fog without the impact of sunrise, everything becomes meaningless.
• Tea color: If the tea has not been cut, it will give us a very beautiful light green color. If it has been harvested, it requires advanced color adjustment skills! Just hearing these 4 elements, we can see that it’s truly… out of this world. So, what do we need to research?

• Fog: Pay attention, usually after light rain, when the day and night temperatures differ by 10-15 degrees, this is a time when fog is very likely to form, especially after a night of rain following a hot day.
• Wind: This is really a matter of luck, no station or experience can measure it, it all depends on luck… but usually before the monsoon season or when the wind changes direction, there is often a day with no wind.
• Sunrise: I’ve talked a lot about how to watch the sunrise, so let me summarize: a spectacular sunrise usually occurs when the high-altitude clouds (10,000m) are below 50%, and the lower the better. Mid-level and low-level clouds should not exceed 5-60%. On days when the low-level wind is weak and the high-level wind is strong, there are often “dragon scales,” which are basically clouds that are blown by the wind into small, layered scales like fish scales (and this is really a matter of luck – because it’s related to the wind).
• Tea color: This can be planned, as the locals usually harvest tea every 2-3 months, so we can plan our photo hunt according to the harvest cycle.  Usually, I find tea hills with morning fog in September-November every year (in general, and it doesn’t mean that we can’t hunt in other months!). 3./ Oolong Tea Hill Known for its beautiful tea hills with round and long rows, this is an area that I consider to have the most beautiful tea rows / (Shan tea hills have relatively flat rows) due to the manual harvesting method (Oolong) and machine harvesting (Shan), which creates such row shapes. Shooting angle: Oolong Tea Hill – Tea harvesting scene!.
• How to: Quickly get the phone numbers of the local tea vendors and schedule a date! When the company harvests the tea, they will call you! Because there’s no way to know the exact date and time, we can only estimate the approximate time. And usually, there’s a harvest every 3 months, with March and June being the most beautiful months of the year. Here, we will have a scene of hundreds of people in uniforms (hats, baskets) picking tea, which is very beautiful. This is a real scene, no setup needed. With the endless green of the young tea leaves, these are truly moments not to be missed!
• ****./ Potential dangers: Vehicles can skid on the grass, and you can slip and fall in the tea rows due to carelessness. The tea rows on Shan tea hills are very slippery on foggy mornings, making it easy to fall.
• Standing on the “Water tank” is very precarious and dangerous, with a risk of falling from a height.
• P/S: Please keep the shooting locations clean and be a civilized photographer!