Nature photographer Fan Yi finds wildlife glamour

"China, the Mother of Gardens" was for many years the home of E. H. Wilson, British plant hunter and botanist. He traveled several thousand miles throughout the interior of China.

In the summer of 1903, he was in the pursuit of yellow poppy wort (Meconopsis integrifolia) in the Hengduan Mountains at an altitude of 11,500 feet. He claimed it was the most gorgeous alpine plant.

Meconopsis integrifolia is also Fan Yi’s favorite alpine vegetation. When it is time to blossom every year, Fan Yi will explore the mountains and take the most precious photos of nature’s beauty. He says nature provides a dizzying array of patterns, insects, animals, bodies of water, and geologic formations to document.

Fan Yi was born in Kunming, Yunnan’s capital city in the 1970s. He is not only a nature photographer but also vice president of Yunnan Association for the Promotion of Natural and Cultural Heritage Conservation, core member of IBE Imaging Biodiversity Survey Institute, a designated photographer of China National Geographic, and founder of Vanmo Photography Studio, among other things.

Over the past ten years, Fan Yi and his partners have covered almost half of the earth. They have been walking in nature, in rivers and lakes, on top of snow peaks, on the rocky beaches, and in the most unfrequented places – all of this arduous trekking to capture those beautiful and lovely creatures.

In order to shoot this beauty and grandeur of wildlife, courage and energy are not the only thing a photographer must have, but also good luck. It is this good luck that nature gives to you and makes you encounter the rare moment. Fan believes he was sometimes very lucky to discover a rare species.

Reporting by Deng Jianhua (Kaiping News); Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi