Photos by Daniel Seung Lee

Anonymous asked:

how did you guys plan out your trip & stops. did you just look at places to go in each state via lonely planet?

Dawn and I honestly didn’t make the trip official until about a week before we left so we were pretty unprepared. I’m the type that needs to plan out everything so I was freaking out but Dawn is a ~free spirit~ so she calmed me down. We literally were figuring out where we were going to stop as we were driving so it was pretty exciting. We would choose cities we wanted to go to and then find national parks along the way. Our trip revolved a lot around food also. We did get 3 books to sort of guide us in a direction:

1. National Geographic’s Guide to Scenic Highways & Byways
2. Reader’s Digest’s Off the Beaten Path
3. Reader’s Digest’s The Most Scenic Drives in America

We took “Off The Beaten Path” with us on our road trip and it was really helpful to find and choose the national parks we wanted to go to. Hope that helps.

Anonymous asked:

Who designed your website? great layout/design.

The website is made through Virb with their “York” layout. I guess I “designed” my site myself in the sense that I made some custom changes to make it look like what it is now.

I’ve been getting a ton of the same questions so I decided to make a FAQ page. I guess it’s not truly a FAQ page but more so an archived list of all the questions I’ve received.

Anonymous asked:

Hey Daniel. Ginormous fan of your work. Love all your portrait work. I was just wondering what kind of scanner you were using and what percentage of your work do you scan yourself. Thanks!

Thanks! Appreciate it. I got asked this question multiple times in just the past 2 days… weird. Anyways, I use an Imacon Flextight scanner and 100% of it is done by my interns, aka my hands.

Anonymous asked:

Hi! Is your road trip blog finished? There hasn't been an update for a while...

I think this is hilarious because I didn’t know people actually cared about it (which is why I stopped posting). I have so many photos and stuff to go through so I’ll definitely post more.

FYI, Anon is referring to this blog: http://dawniel.com — A blog my friend, Dawn Kim, and I made during our cross country road trip.

Anonymous asked:

Do you have Instagram?

Thank you, Anon!!!! I’m so glad you didn’t word that question “What’s your Instagram username?” I hate it when people assume everyone has an iPhone (*cough* Phoot Campers *cough*) because everyone does not have an iPhone and I am one of those losers. As you can tell, I’m really bitter about it because everyone I know uses instagram and I feel like that only kid at school without Pokemon cards, or a yo-yo, or pogs, or a bb gun (man my generation sucks). But SOON ANON, SOOOOOOOON!!!!

Anonymous asked:

I bet many people have asked you this already, but how did you get into the art of photography? How about art in general? It's so fascinating to learn about others' passions, especially those who have pursued it with great fervour. Thanks so much for taking your time to read this!

I always knew I wanted to do something in the creative arts but it took me a really long time to figure out what exactly. I grew up with a pretty artistic family with my mom going to school for ceramics and my older brother becoming a graphic designer. When I was really young, I took art classes with my brother but I was horrible at drawing, and still am. I remember thinking it would be so cool to be an “artist” and make “art.” I thought art = drawings so I continued to draw things like my childhood pet cocker spaniel, Cookie, but I was kidding myself with those drawings. I also grew up playing instruments and even joining the school musical (shhh secret) but nothing really vibrated with me. It wasn’t until high school that I realized what I wanted to do— but it wasn’t photography, not quite yet. I would go home from school everyday and watch the Food Network for hours and hours. I was obsessed. I was convinced I was going to go to culinary school and become a chef. I’m not sure exactly what happened with that but I do know that I started taking pictures and things changed. There’s still a part of me that wishes I was formally trained in the culinary arts (especially when I watch Top Chef) but I have no regrets deciding to pursue a career in photography. Even though I didn’t really consider going into photography until I was 15, I think I always had an interest in it growing up. My dad owned a lot of vintage cameras (mostly broken) around the house and I remember playing with them like they were toys. I was always really interested in the mechanics of the cameras. I remember getting my first 35mm point and shoot when I was about 8 or 9 but I didn’t take it too seriously. Fast forward another 8 years, I picked up a camera again and the rest is sort of history.

Ask a question!

hyvhuynh asked:

Hi Daniel, I really enjoy your work. It's always inspiring to find Asian American photographers. :) If you ever find yourself traveling in Vietnam, specifically Hue City, give me a shout! I live in the U.S. for half of the year, and then over in Vietnam for the other half for my non-profit work- and I gotta say, Hue is one of the most beautiful, magical places to photograph. Take Care! -Hy

P.S. I totally made that graphic myself. BayB Yammy x3 is my graphic designer name.

Anonymous asked:

Your photos are great. Do you use strobes of any kind?

Most of my work is naturally lit but it really matters on what project I’m working on. Naturally lit can also mean there are reflectors and silks involved. Again, it all matters on the situation at hand. But to answer your question— yes, when it is needed to create the shot that I want.

I like questions. (But I don’t always have the answers).

Anonymous asked:

just stumbled on your work and wow you are absolutely talented. can't explain how or why but looking at your photos, especially landscape, makes me feel good? at calm? anyways, keep up the amazing work - hwaiting .

Thanks so much! That’s awesome. That makes me feel good and calm.