I Shot Photos on a Bohai Oil Platform! A Vlog of Life and Work at Sea | Landscape + Documentary Photography

How can a photographer shoot interesting documentary and landscape photos on an offshore oil platform?

What are the living conditions and working environment like for oil workers at sea?

Is there internet on the platform? How is the food? What is the accommodation like?

In today's video, Thomas will share behind-the-scenes footage from my shoot at CNOOC's Penglai offshore oilfield.

Video

▶ Watch the video tutorial on Bilibili

This is the illustrated companion to the vlog above. Last December, Thomas boarded the CNOOC Penglai oil field in the middle of the Bohai Sea as a media photographer, documenting the workers' lives and documentary-photo opportunities: arriving by helicopter, what living quarters look like, how crews rotate shifts and eat, and what is worth shooting inside the production zone and from the air. Keyframe screenshots throughout — read first, then feel the sea wind in the video.

Start with an overview. This top-down frame from the opening of the video shows the oil platform surrounded by sea ice; the green circle is the helideck — every story in this episode starts on this pocket-sized platform. The video also boards the Ocean Oil 117, China's first domestically designed and built 300,000-ton floating production, storage and offloading vessel, a testament to Chinese industry.

01 Arrival by Helicopter: A Steel Beast in the Bohai Sea

After a 30-minute helicopter ride, Thomas lands at the Penglai oil field in the middle of the Bohai Sea. The weather is superb: along the way you can see offshore wind turbines, all kinds of vessels, beautiful sea ice, and the dense cluster of platforms in this area (at 1:04 in the video). The gasoline you pump at a gas station may well come from these steel beasts of the Bohai Sea.

An offshore platform is a huge, precision instrument, and its operation depends on the workers' careful maintenance. That is why a major focus of this shoot is the workers' lives and working environment — starting with the living quarters (at 1:32 in the video).

02 Inside the Living Quarters: Room 305 and the Sealed Windows

Most of the platform is production area; the living quarters are a separate four-story block. Thomas stays in Room 305, a double; in a four-person room, two more bunks would stand right here (at 2:04 in the video). The most surprising fixture is the 4G signal booster — mobile phones work on the platform.

Lockers hold personal items, with immersion suits hanging above — they keep you warm and dry even if you fall into the sea — plus life jackets. Two bunks, a kettle and a telephone complete the room, and supplies on the platform are plentiful. The most striking detail: every window is sealed shut, for safety and fire protection (at 2:54 in the video).

On the wall hangs an emergency muster card: when, say, the blue light comes on, everyone must gather at the muster point in the first-floor dining room. This is what sets the platform apart from any other lodging — safety is always the number one priority here (at 3:03 in the video).

The bathroom and shower are compact but complete: toilet, sink, mirror, plus fresh-air ventilation. Such are the living conditions on an offshore platform — considerably more comfortable than many would imagine.

03 Talking with an Operator: 28 Days at Sea, 28 Days Ashore

On the platform, Thomas interviews a young platform operator at random: he has been going to sea for nearly ten years. Why did he choose this work? He says a castle-like building standing in the vast ocean simply fascinated him (at 3:51 in the video).

The rotation is 28 days at sea, 28 days ashore; the 28 days at home are completely free, and their families sometimes envy the long break. But at sea the crew works two shifts — days from 7:00 to 19:00, nights from 19:00 to 7:00 (at 4:44 in the video). The perk: with mobile network on board, life online goes on as usual.

As for food, the first week after resupply used to be the freshest, with quality tapering off afterwards; but as the country's logistics support has improved, they now get fresh vegetables essentially every day (at 5:16 in the video).

04 Into the Production Zone: Safety Gear, Slow Shutters and Candid Shots

Before entering the production zone, full personal protective equipment and a safety briefing are mandatory (at 5:53 in the video). Red coveralls, hard hats, warning signs everywhere — every rule here exists for a reason.

In one narrow corridor, Thomas comes up with an idea: set ISO to 100, use a 0.5-1 s long exposure, and walk alongside a patrolling worker so the walls streak into motion on both sides (at 6:13 in the video). Pre-focus on the worker, count 1-2-3 and walk together — the narrower the corridor, the stronger the motion, and the result is very satisfying (at 6:50 in the video).

Beneath the giant oil and gas processing vessel of Ocean Oil 117, technicians are lowered to service the equipment below, and Thomas catches the frame of man versus colossus (at 7:13 in the video). Next to a human, a platform is unimaginably huge; next to the open sea, even these steel beasts look tiny.

05 A Three-Step Aerial Workflow and the Beauty of Industry

The drone takes off from the helideck. Thomas shares his usual composition workflow: step one, do not fly too high — start low and look for interplay between the platforms, and between a platform and the ships beside it; such pictures are far more interesting (at 8:18 in the video).

Step two, fly higher and farther and try the 3x telephoto — the compression changes the perspective entirely; several platforms lined up in a row make a fascinating subject. Step three is climbing very high for the full overview of the scene (at 8:36 in the video).

Beyond the epic aerials, Thomas also discovers the beauty of geometric structures on these massive platforms — pipes, supports and tanks. The beauty of industry can be as striking as that of nature (at 8:54 in the video). As he says at the end of the episode: present the beauty of technology through art, and witness China's renewal through photography.

1. The living quarters are far cozier than expected — 4G on board, ample supplies, en-suite bath — yet sealed windows and muster cards remind you safety comes first; 2. The crew rotates 28 days at sea and 28 days ashore, working two shifts split at 7:00 and 19:00; 3. Narrow-corridor slow shutter: ISO 100 with a 0.5-1 s exposure while walking beside a worker streaks the walls into motion; 4. Aerials in three steps — low angles for interplay, 3x telephoto compression for the lineup, then the high overview — and do not miss the industrial geometry of pipes and tanks.

Full tutorial list:

Complete Photography Tutorial Index (updated 2024.4.16)

HD video:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Qx4y1473u/