Stars light up the sky, blending into the deep blue sea and the still island. Such a charming scene was shot by Liu Xuelin, a young truck driver born after 1995 from Yangjiang, Guangdong.

Liu became interested in photographic astronomy in 2019 when browsing short videos in intervals between work and then the idea that “I should try to photograph my hometown’s starry night” began to take shape in his mind.

Starting from zero and teaching himself online, Liu went into a beat-the-odds journey since 2020. He bought Cannon 200d and Sony A73 cameras and a computer with his years of savings, over 30,000 yuan and spent his off-working hours practicing.

As a rookie, he took a lot of wasted photos at first due to changing weather and artificial light. He even thought about giving up then, but he kept at it. He said, “I love the beauty of night sky so much that I couldn’t put it down.”

He equipped himself with astronomy and weather knowledge, kept practicing and honing his photographic skills in Yangjiang. What lies behind these wonderful pictures is Liu’s tenacity. He has endured mosquito bites in summer and low temperature at winter’s midnight. In order to shoot the Milky Way at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., he must prepare and set off hours ahead. What’s more, he even needed to overcome tiredness after work.

Liu’s works now have gotten 106,000 likes in total on Tik Tok. He said, “the sea and the stars in Yangjiang are so beautiful! I really want to share them with more people.”

Author|Abby

Video|Liu Xuelin, Alice

Editor|Monica, Jerry