Techniques
Canon 1DX Mark II and the Burrowing Owl, Part 2: Bird-in-flight
After spending three weekends photographing the burrowing owls, I flew to Colorado hoping to photograph some mountain goats. Things got a bit out of hand when I woke up at 5am at home on a Friday to pack, then went to work from 8 to 4, took 3 hours to drive through traffic to LAX…
Read MoreCanon 1DX Mark II and Burrowing Owl, Part 1
I would have never believed I would say this. If you are on the fence of deciding whether to upgrade to the new Canon 1DX Mark II or not, my advice to you, after two weeks of intense use, can be summarized into three words. Buy. It. Now. Hate to sound like a Canon spokesperson, which I’m not. But the…
Read More6 Must-Read Books for Wildlife Photography
Why do we read books? “I read a lot, but from time to time, there are books that changed my life. Well, it’s not that the book itself changed my life; it’s that I was already ready to change, and needed to not feel alone.” – Paulo Coelho I always believe that we somehow already knew what…
Read More10 Things You Can Learn From Stephen Curry On Wildlife Photography
Every once in a while, a player would come to a sport and change the game forever. Talent is one thing. But may be. Just may be. If they have some special mindset and training techniques, then mere mortals like me without any talent can borrow some onto my wildlife photography. When Mohammad Ali was asked how many sit-ups he could do, he…
Read More5 Critical Elements of Wildlife Photography You Should Never Miss, Part 4
4: Truthfulness A few years ago, I met a girl. She’s so beautiful it’s suffocating. And she had nice personality too. What more could I ask for. It’s your lucky break, I said to myself. After a few dates we started a relationship, and I poured my heart in. But things took a quick turn. I found out…
Read More5 Critical Elements of Wildlife Photography You Should Never Miss, Part 3
“Why nature photography?”Many would answer, “to capture the beauty of nature.”3. BeautyFive years ago (when I was not as obsessed in wildlife photography as now), I took a one-day portrait photography class by a rather successful Hollywood photographer in downtown Los Angeles. He said he once had an assignment to photograph Janet Jackson. Starting from…
Read More5 Critical Elements of Wildlife Photography You Should Never Miss, Part 2
What is the most famous painting in the world?Hint: Every year, millions of people line up at the Louvre Museum in Paris hoping to have a glimpse of it.It’s “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci. One of the key reasons why the painting is so famous, according to David Ward’s “Landscape Beyond”, is because of…
Read More5 Critical Elements of Wildlife Photography You Should Never Miss, Part 1
“The world doesn’t need another pretty picture. People only want to see what moves them.” – David DuChemin “Within the Frame”When I first started wildlife photography, I would check out the online galleries at nature photography sites such as naturescapes.net, bird photographers.net, naturephotographers.net, Fred Miranda forum, and Flickr. “Dang. Those pics are so perfect,” I said…
Read MoreHow Cold Is -50?
I have seen “cold” before. I have been to Yellowstone in deep winter several times (Yellowstone 1, Yellowstone 2). The windchill reached -26F one early morning when I was waiting for a wolf. I felt that my nose was almost falling off. But it’s still manageable. Bison in snow, Yellowstone National Park. There was also…
Read MoreWhat I Learned From Steve Jobs And Jiro Ono About Photography
I was chatting to a guy sitting next to me at a dinner party one day. He said he recently went to a Dungeness crab dinner with a friend. After the first bite, his friend exclaimed, “Wow, the crab is so fresh and tasty!” “So I tried it myself, and I was shocked,” he said.…
Read More10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Do Wildlife Photography
I have had many hobbies in my life, but nothing comes close to my love for wildlife photography. Over the years, I have made many wildlife photographer friends. Interestingly, many of them were competitive in one or more hobbies, or were doing well in their professions before taking up wildlife photography. Some were successful commercial…
Read MoreThe Number Two Secret To Wildlife Photography
#1. “Hey bear, good bear.” Our group kept calling while we were trekking in the tall grass, in pitch dark, at 5am. Well, summer in Alaska never got completely dark, but it’s still so dark that I could barely make my way. Being clumsy I was always the one being left far behind the group. We…
Read MoreHow to develop your style in wildlife photography
In this post I will point out two photography “styles” that I don’t like. Maybe I just don’t understand it. Anyways, different strokes for different folks. It’s just my observation. Style is such a sexy term. If your art has its own style, people could immediately tell it from afar. Oh, that’s a Van Gogh. Wow, that’s a…
Read MoreMy Quest for Barn Owl: 7 Unforgettable Experience
“Haunting, beautiful, startling, innocent, ghostly, adorable” — all these words came to mind as I was clicking the shutter nonstop like a machine gun, before the loud voice in my brain said “DODGE!!!” … Barn owls are nocturnal. Photographing them flying with natural light is not supposed to be possible. If you have seen pictures of…
Read MoreHow wildlife photography taught me about life
What’s it like then, the road of life? Just like geese taking off from the muddy snow. (excerpt from a poem by Su Dongpo) Who would have thought I had the opportunity to experience what the grandmaster Su Dongpo wrote 900 years ago, here in one of the biggest snow geese takeoffs in the world. It was…
Read MoreSurprising power of Less in Wildlife Photography
Ever watched a movie when in the first few minutes you had no idea what was going on? It felt like the movie started from the middle of nowhere. Then as the story unfolded, as the protagonist overcame one danger after another, you gathered more and more information. In the last 20 minutes of the movie,…
Read MoreThe Number One Secret to Wildlife Photography
Recently I have been enjoying a little book called “Anything you want” by Derek Sivers. He started with a question to the readers: “What’s your compass?” Excerpt: Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in…
Read More6 Things you don’t know about Mountain Goats
I said to myself “Tin Man Lee you are a freaking genius” when the idea suddenly bestowed unto my head. “If I go to Mount Evans in June instead of July like last time, I could get photos of newly-born mountain goat kids in the SNOW before it was melted. Woohoo.” Pre-visualizing your shot. Check. And…
Read MoreHow goose changed the world of literature and photography
“Please tell me that geese do mate for life.” I chased down my good friend Melissa Groo, who is an expert in birds as well as an excellent photographer, and texted her in a big hurry. She immediately said, “Yes, but why did you ask?” I slowly sat down, my eyes fixed on this one particular paragraph of a…
Read MoreHow I do Wildlife Photography
I did those too. Circa 1999… Things weren’t good. Sometimes I wondered if I could just find one thing in life I didn’t suck at. Every evening, I would stroll to the Photography section at my local Barnes and Nobles to pick out the same two books. (i) The Art of Bird Photography by Arthur Morris…
Read MoreMy Quest for the Snowy Owls: Four Unforgettable Experience
I regretted not listening to my friend Conrad who had been here before. “The snowy owls are on the beach. It’s cold. It’s a long walk. Bring more water,” He said. Living in Los Angeles, I imagined any beach would be like Santa Monica Beach, where I would park my car next to the ferris wheel and…
Read MoreYellowstone National Park in the Winter: My 6 Unusual Encounters
My hope was slowly fading away. Five days have passed. For each of those days, we left at six in the morning and drove for twelve hours straight, back and forth, on a figure “8” shaped road inside Yellowstone National Park. We were desperately trying to track “her” down through the snow covered mountains…
Read MoreYellowstone: One Small Step
I still remember an incident that happened in the Spring time at Yellowstone several years ago. We were driving on a mountain road when we came to a big traffic jam. Over ten cars were parked on the side of the road. Big traffic jam usually meant wildlife sightings. I quickly took my cameras and…
Read MoreLast Moments of a Bison Calf
Tweet Our photographer group of seven saw them around eight in the morning. We were in Lamar Valley, at the north of the Yellowstone National Park. There are frequent wildlife sightings, including the gray wolf, bighorn sheep, bison, coyote, and elk. A three mile long two-lane road going from east to west penetrated the…
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