A haphazard flourish of hardy plants caps a broken tree trunk submerged in Panda Lake in Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, China.
Michael Yamashita has worked for the National Geographic magazine for over 40 years, photographing wide-ranging topics throughout six continents. As the first person of color to be a regular contributor to National Geographic, his long career has seen him traipse through war zones, deserts and mountains, from the Great Wall of China to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan on 34 stories for the magazine.
