Kah-Wai Lin's Winter Landscape Photography

These amazing photographs of icy landscapes are simply all we need to fall in love with the season of winter. Taken by Dr. Kah-Wai Lin, they are a testament to the beauty and magic of winter.

Kah-Wai Lin is based in the United States but was born in Malaysia. After moving to the US in 2012, Lin decided to pursue photography full-time, giving up a great career as a researcher.

His amazing images include pictures of the aurora borealis (the northern lights), snow-capped mountains, icebergs and glaciers, as well as human habitations in deep winter.

In an interview with Dunja Djudjic of the photography site, 'DIYphotography', Lin explained the photography equipment he uses and how he obtains his amazing photographs.

Lin said:

"I am currently using Phase One medium format camera, as I start collaborating with Phase One USA a short while ago. While most of the images here were photographed using Fujifilm GFX 50R medium format camera. I like a wide-angle lens for grand landscape and night photography, as wide-angle lens allows me to be creative while composing and putting all the elements together in the image. I also like to use a telephoto lens to capture the intimate landscape, something that is not easily seen by the naked eye. Seeing the unseen, as we always said. I also frequently use ND filter as long exposure is one of my favourite techniques."

He added:

"I don't really take specific measures to protect the gear from cold and elements. I think that today, modern camera is very capable to handling the cold and adverse weather condition. I do clean my camera and gear after the photography session, especially shooting in the shore where salt water is hitting the gear… Knowing how to predict the aurora, and where to photograph them are important. Finding interesting landscapes, especially the foreground element, is also very crucial. An aurora image without landscape and composition is nothing in terms of photography."

(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)

h/t: DIY Photography

Winter simplifies some details and emphasizes others

An icy landscape can make a small change in color or surface stand out against a quieter background. Lin's collection offers different ways of organizing that contrast. The photographs are records and compositions from particular places and times; they provide visual inspiration without acting as a current forecast or a guarantee of conditions for a trip.

From cancer research to landscape photography

Lin grew up in a small city in Malaysia and bought his first camera, a fully manual analogue SLR, in 1996, at the age of 13; that year he was also given his first telescope, and he was already an amateur astronomer. He trained in medicine, earning an MD from Lviv National Medical University in Ukraine and a PhD in medical science from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and spent four years researching the molecular genetics of cancer at Princeton University before becoming a full-time landscape photographer. He has lived in New Jersey since 2012.

Sources: Iceland Photo Tours, updated 9 July 2020: Interview with Kah-Wai Lin