A couple returns home after visiting a country fair in Jiaohe city, Jilin province. QI SHUANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

At the end of the busy spring plowing season, Qi Shuang finally has the time to enjoy summer with his camera.

The 67-year-old farmer from Laqian village in Jiaohe city, Jilin province, has taken tens of thousands of photos since he bought his first camera 30 years ago.

Qi's interest in photography was born in the 1980s, when he worked as an outdoor movie projectionist in nearby villages.

"When I saw all the beautiful places in documentary films, I wondered if I could capture something like that, too," he said. "But a camera was a luxury for a rural family."

He spent nearly three years saving up the 100 yuan he needed by selling piglets and calves.

Despite objections from his wife, Qi spent the money on a camera and began his photographic journey.

"You may have no idea how much money that was at the time. It was several months' living expenses for my family," he said. "But I really wanted to record life's precious moments and the beauty of my hometown."

He began by walking around nearby areas in his spare time, taking photos of whatever he found interesting. "Sometimes, villagers would ask me to take photos of them and give me a little payment, but most of the time, I preferred to shoot beautiful scenery," he said. "I've walked almost all the wild mountains in these parts."

In 2000, Qi held his first photo exhibition with the support of Jilin's cultural center. The experience encouraged him to take more pictures and improve his skills.

"It was difficult for me to make a breakthrough in landscape photography at the time," he said. "As I found there were few photographers focusing on rural themes, I had the idea of turning my camera on rural areas."

Qi's photos lovingly capture the landscapes, daily life and the great changes that have occurred in rural China and have attracted a great deal of attention across the country.

He is the proud recipient of more than 100 awards, from the county to the national level, and in 2016, he received a digital single-lens reflex camera as a gift from the local government for his outstanding contributions to local tourism. "As long as I can move, I won't stop taking pictures," he said. "Photos are the most precious things in my life."

Qi is not the only rural photographer in the area.

Over the past 20 years, around 80 farmers in the area have been recording daily life and the changes to rural areas with cameras.

Ma Xueyan, a 61-year-old farmer from Nianzigou village, began his photographic journey much later than Qi, but he has made remarkable progress.

After his son got married in 2011, Ma was able to relax, as the burden on the family was lighter. He spent 4,000 yuan on a digital SLR camera, fulfilling a dream he'd had since adolescence.

"I was interested in the arts as a child and was drawn to the camera my father brought home when I was in junior high school," he said. "An employer sent it to him as payment for work, and I was really curious about this strange new thing."

He had little chance to use the camera, however, as his elder brother took it with him when he moved to neighboring Heilongjiang province. That was when Ma decided to pursue photography on his own.

After getting a camera, he seized every opportunity to learn from other photographers and improve his skills. He made rapid progress.

Most of Ma's photos depict daily life in the rural area where he lives.

"I hope to record the particular beauty of farmers and their industrious nature with my camera," he said. "My family started to support me because my photos really surprised them. There was so much in them they had never noticed before."

In 2012, a sudden heavy snow during the late autumn harvest caused a lot of difficulty.

"The sight of the farmers working so hard to pick corn in the middle of the deep snow really moved me," he said. "This was real farm life, and I immediately recorded the scenes with my camera."

Three years ago, Ma moved to an apartment in the center of Jiaohe and found more time to take photos around the city.

"In recent years, Jiaohe has paid a lot of attention to promoting rural construction, and there have been big changes to living environments, infrastructure and peoples' spiritual outlooks in rural areas," he said. "Fortunately, I have recorded all these changes with my camera and will keep these photos as my precious treasures."