The Unusual Difficulty Of Photographing Pandas

Pandas are undeniably adorable to behold, but that is not what made photographer Ami Vitale fall in love with them. In fact, finding new ways to photograph these iconic bears for National Geographic made this one of the most challenging projects she has worked on.

Photographer Ami Vitale spent three years taking snapshots of pandas in China, a process both heart-warming and surprisingly challenging.

A mother panda cradles her cub inside the Bifengxia center.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

A mother and her cub play inside an enclosure at Wolong. The cub is being trained to go back into the wild but must be deemed fit to survive on its own, including being able to recognize predators.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Baby pandas wean from their mothers between 8-9 months and a year old and generally stay with their mothers for 2 years.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

A pair of panda cubs interacts while being cared for at Bifengxia.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Six month old pandas munch on carrots at the Dujiangyan Panda Center.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

A panda mother that bears twins usually fails to give them equal attention. Keepers at Bifengxia reduce the load by regularly swapping cubs in and out—making sure each gets both human and panda-mom care.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Blind, nearly hairless, squeaky, and 1/900 the size of its mother. But it won’t be for long. The panda is among the fastest growing mammals, increasing from around four ounces to four pounds in its first month.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Three-month-old cubs nap in the panda nursery at Bifengxia. A panda mother that bears twins usually fails to give them equal attention. Keepers reduce the load by regularly swapping cubs in and out—making sure each gets both human and panda-mom care.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

A giant panda cub lies on the grass at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in China's Sichuan Province.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Three panda cubs are being raised by the same mother at the Bifengxia center. Transferring a weak or rejected infant from its birth mother to a surrogate is helping to boost cub survival.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Panda keeper Liu Juan interacts with a pair of panda cubs as tourists look in at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Panda keeper Zhang Xin weighs a panda cub at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.. ‘We look every day at the adults, the babies, how much they are eating, what their poo looks like, if their spirit is good. We just want them to be healthy,' she says.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Six month old pandas play at the Dujiangyan Panda Center. At one year old, babies are brought here to buddy up. These pandas will spend their lives in captivity. In the wild, giant pandas prefer to live alone.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE.

Ying Hua is photographed with her baby at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

A pair of panda cubs practice climbing in and out of trees at the Wolong China Conservation & Research Center for the Giant Panda. Pandas born here do not interact with humans in hopes they will be able to live in the wild.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

A cub explores her enclosure at Wolong.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

YeYe and her two-year-old cub Hua Jiao explore their enclosure at Wolong. Away from human influence, YeYe will gradually train her cub to survive in the wild.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.

Camouflaged by a bamboo thicket, a giant panda will spend much of the day surrounded by and munching on its favorite food at Bifengxia. Pandas used to eat both meat and plants. At least two million years ago, their diet shifted to bamboo.PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION