@kiliiiyuyan

Fronds of bull kelp sway in the surge current of God's Pocket in Canada. This region is now a marine protected area, formerly solely stewarded by the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation. Today marine protected areas of the North Pacific are increasingly becoming co-managed by its Indigenous peoples, ensuring humans will continue to exist harmoniously with these stunning temperate seas.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

An opportunistic kelp greenling follows a giant pacific octopus around on its hunting forays, hoping for scraps. While octopus do occasionally catch fish, they excel at finding crabs and other invertebrates. An octopus this size has attained it in just a few years, speaking to the richness of its garden in this current-scoured seascape.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.⁠

Finally get to share that I have received a grant from @InsideNatGeo’s Global Storytellers Fund and their new collaboration with @TheClimatePledge! 🎉 I’m photographing the Indigenous stewardship of land and biodiversity across the globe- from Greenland’s narwhal hunters to Palau’s reef protectors. Learn about the fund and the projects it will support in the link in my bio! Illustration of me as a @natgeo photographer by the brilliant @joemckendry. Shoutout to Joe, who is faculty at @risd1877 where I studied design for a summer back in the day!

The intertidal zone is the interface between the rainforest above and the anemone forest below. Denizens of this area must endure wave-pounding and potential drying-out. In 2021 a heatwave across the Pacific NW killed billions of intertidal organisms, a little spoken-of climate disaster on a massive scale.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

An orange irish lord perches on a rock ledge to take advantage of prey swept by in the current. Numerous hydroids anchored to the rock add to the sense that the reefs of Vancouver Island are an undersea garden.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

Thick-stemmed laminaria kelp waves in fast current. The stems of this hardy brown algae host a variety of other species, anchoring a forest in a tremendously dynamic environment.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

Young bull kelp grows toward the surface in spring, forming the top story of a kelp forest. The upperstory will die back each winter as kelp is ripped from its moorings by massive Pacific storms, but shorter kelp species often remain.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

The life brought by cold currents extend into Kasaan Bay in SE Alaska. Hidden inside a crack is a small giant pacific octopus, flushed pale in submissive expression to a passing larger octopus moments earlier.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

Looking so much like a carefully curated flower garden, these feather duster worms spread their bright fans into the water column, picking up zooplankton drifting by in the current.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

Riding with Greenlandic hunter Qumangaapik Kvist with his Greenland huskies and writer @glebraygorodetsky as we search for seals on the ice- #onassignment for @natgeo. Hunting by dogsled is a critical part of an Indigenous lifeway, providing for subsistence and ensuring stewardship of the Inguhuit homeland– an understanding that Western conservationists are finally beginning to recognize.  #dogsledding #greenland #qaanaaq

A lone fish-eating anemone in an anemone forest blossoms with color. Despite its name, certain fish and crab species seek shelter in these anemones, immune to the toxic stings hidden in their tentacles.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

Like fireworks across a night sky, the incredible globular eyes of a red irish lord allow it to observe its surroundings without moving its body. Although it stands out on the sandy seafloor, the camoflauge of the red irish lord is nearly perfect on the colorful rocky reefs it frequents.⁠ ——⁠ Welcome to #OctopusGarden, my series over the next three weeks that looks beneath the cold seas and swift currents of the Pacific Northwest, from Washington to Alaska. The temperate rainforests topside are mirrored by kelp and anemone forests underwater, explosions of color and life.

I love ice. I mean, as a human being it’s nice to have ice to cool your drinks, but as a photographer I LOVE ICE. It has infinite textures, all the deep colors from blues to yellows, and translucency to boot! Smartphone maker @OPPO (and @NatGeo CreativeWorks) asked me to go anywhere to photograph with their OPPO FindX5 Pro (basically 3 cameras with a smartphone attached), so I put it through a real test- Iceland in deep winter. Just barely out of polar darkness. A pretty tough time to test anything electronic outdoors, and even more for a camera given the low light levels. ⁠ ⁠ I came out impressed by not just how far smartphones have come in terms of photography, but also how a computational AI camera can actually take away technical constraints, allowing creative freedom. And though I was totally and completely soaked by Iceland’s rain, frozen by hellacious 60kt constant winds, and battered by hail, I was actually able to be out in it. I made photographs that spoke to me, and got a chance to experience Iceland the way I like to- slowed down to the rhythms of winter in the North.⁠ ⁠ #ad #OPPOFindx5Pro ⁠ #EmpowerEveryMoment

Honored that my story #IndigenousFire, on Indigenous cultural burning in California, has taken 1st place in the @socialdocumentarynet Award for Systemic Change along with @giacomo_dorlando. The theme was Climate Change, and I appreciate the prize was focused on solutions.⁠ ⁠ Each summer, headlines around the world shout about the seemingly apocalyptic wildfires raging across the American West. Despite the intense focus on the problem itself, scant attention is paid to solutions- including one particularly pragmatic solution to climate-change exacerbated wildfire. It’s at first non-intuitive– fire-lighting rather than fire-fighting– but it has proven to be an exceptional weapon against a seemingly impossible opponent on a landscape-level scale.⁠ ⁠ It’s known as cultural fire. People like Margo Robbins and Elizabeth Azzuz of the Indigenous Peoples’ Burn Network are training others in an ancient technique of ecological restoration, which is to safely light low-intensity fires in wet seasons that remove the small fuels on the forest floor. Not only does it effectively prevent wildfires from spreading, but it also performs a 13,000 year old function- the restoration of health of the forests of Northern California, the most diverse coniferous forests on earth.⁠ ⁠ #cultural burning #yurok #karuk #trex #zekemagazine #indigenouspeoplesburningnetwork #goodfire

Image by @kiliiiyuyan A herd of muskox stands steadfast against biting thirty knot winds during temperatures of -15F. Although once locally extinct in this region, muskox were reintroduced from Greenland. They are well suited for these frigid conditions, so much so that they usually face directly into the freezing wind and snow. #IndigenousPhotograph