The Things You Do to Get the Shot: Wonder Woman at Mount Huashan

During the first Wonder Woman film, I travelled across China scouting and photographing landscapes for VFX plates that would help create Themyscira, Wonder Woman’s mythical island home.

The journey took me from Chengdu in western China all the way to Shanghai on the east coast, crossing an extraordinary range of landscapes along the way.

One of the final stops was Mount Huashan — one of China’s sacred mountains and quite possibly one of the most terrifying places I’ve ever taken a scout photograph.

Scouting Mount Huashan for Wonder Woman

Mount Huashan is famous for its sheer granite cliffs, ancient Taoist temples and pathways that appear to have been attached to the side of the mountain as some kind of practical joke.

It is spectacular.

It is cinematic.

And in places, it is completely insane.

Of course, I needed a very particular angle.

The problem was that the best viewpoint wasn’t actually a viewpoint.

It was a small ledge hanging off the side of the mountain.

So, naturally, I climbed down a rope.

This wasn’t a normal location reference photograph. I was in China photographing actual landscape plates for Wonder Woman, and the landscape needed to feel epic enough to become part of Themyscira.

Apparently that meant dangling off Mount Huashan with a camera.

The things you do to get the shot.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely.

Just don’t tell my wife.

📍 Mount Huashan, Shaanxi Province, China
🎬 Wonder Woman (2017)