Hello, 你好-neih hou/nĭ hăo, hola, bonjour, नमस्ते-namaste, བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས,-tashi delek, kia ora, こんにちは-konichiwa, สวัสดี-swaddee, שלום-shalom!

My name is Jonathan, also known as Kai more recently.

Storytelling is a worldwide tradition that holds the ability to inform and transform. As a visual storyteller, I capture beauty and create purpose and impact-driven content from where I travel, live, and serve.

I am a Hong Kong-born, California-raised, earth and climate science-educated, permaculture-minded, food-waste-avoiding-opportunivore, and camera-and-microphone-equipped traveling documenter and content creator who frolics in the mountains, cycles everywhere with a deep interest to co-create a more beautiful world we know is possible. I now call Aotearoa New Zealand home.

Life in the last decade has taught me the power of stories, the goodness in people, the resilience of communities, and the wisdom of the earth. I believe that we humans have much more in common than we've been led to realize, and that food and stories bring people together, and that everyone is a student and can be a teacher. However, we live in a bizarrely inspirational yet despairing time in human and earth history. It's perhaps easier than ever to spiral downwards with the myriad of attention-grabbing and tragic headlines in the mainstream channels, and forget the prevailing forces of good, resilience, and beauty that surround us even more often. Photography to me has evolved to not simply be about immortalizing moments in time, but a medium and channel through which beauty and humanizing, vital stories can be told and reshared.

My intentions moving forward are taking part in systems change for a more harmonious lifestyle with our natural systems at an individual to societal level, bettering my skills in documentation and storytelling to inspire a necessary (and I believe ongoing) paradigm shift and collective action, while balancing that into a simple life that cultivates spaces and moments of tranquility, as well as awe, of wild places.

Besides storytelling through photos and videos, since early 2021 I have been publishing a newsletter filled with uplifting news, personal musings, and original content, and as of October 2023, just launched my own podcast, ‘Wilderness Within.’

One of the best ways to get to know me more deeply and to directly support me and my devotions is via Patreon. 

Services Offered:

• Documentary, wedding, nature, and time-lapse photography & videography, including aerial

• Video storyboard for short videos

• Stills and video editing and production

• Enlargements and printing

• Speaking, storytelling, and mentorship on travel, community, sustainability & social impact, and places & people I've had the opportunity to visit, spend time with, and meet

Contact me to chat about your needs and vision!

Wanna know more about me?

Since 2009, my interests, curiosity, and zest for our world have taken me to various regions of north and central America, south and southeast Asia, as well as New Zealand & Australia for learning, collaboration, and sharing in all forms -- from planting native woody and fruit trees alongside the indigenous Emberá people in Panama, to singing songs, sharing meals with children and their caretakers in Thailand while hearing about their sexual/physical abuse history, to harvesting barley in Ladakhi villages high in the Himalayas, to sharing knowledge and experience with land regeneration and organic food production in rural New Zealand. I have come to realize more and more the common threads that unite us rather than divide us, and with that, the solutions we can all take part in individually and collectively. 

Two notable mentions of collaborations are the Beacon Food Forest (beaconfoodforest.org), an open-harvest, urban permaculture-inspired food forest in Seattle, Washington state, and Conscious Impact (consciousimpact.org), a grassroots organization rebuilding in a rural Nepali village following the devastating 2015 earthquakes through earthen building materials & techniques, capacity building, youth empowerment, and communal decision making & living. 

Between September 2017 and April 2018, much of that time was spent in Christchurch, New Zealand, learning about the effects of the 2010 & 2011 earthquakes, and how the community has responded to the crisis while dealing with trauma and shortcomings. My recent and current projects and collaborations stemming out of this time align closely with my passions and values - they spread knowledge, share stories, build connections, put purpose-people-planet equal to or before profits, challenge and break down old paradigms, build resilience, heal, unite, and empower individuals, communities, and society at large. I wouldn't have it another way.

Many have asked if I went to school for photography. I am primarily self-taught, and started as a young teenager. I often credit my mom's automatic film camera as well as my cousin's Sony Mavica floppy disk digital camera in the late 90's that captured images at a whooping 0.3 megapixels for having developed my initial interest. When the consumer tech jumped to 2 megapixels in 2000-01, in the form of Canon's ELPH S110, my sister bought the camera (for herself), but I ended up using it much more than she did. While in high school, after much personal research and begging, my parents bought me the Canon S50, a 5(!) megapixel camera with full manual functions. That exponentially opened up my photographic world. After working and saving up for several months after high school, I picked up my first DSLR, the Canon 350D/Rebel XT, and since then it's been a cascading rush of expansion. My first paid gig came a year or two later ($50?), and today, it's still a happy long-term relationship. 

Since graduating in 2010 from University of California, San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography with a degree in Earth Sciences and Environmental Systems, I have worked in the realms of community development and environmental stewardship locally and globally while doing photography continuously. Between 2015 and 2016, whilst living in Seattle, Washington state, I was actively involved at the Beacon Food Forest, a community-driven, open-for-all, food-producing garden and forest in the city. I had the opportunity to serve on its Site Development and Steering Committee for a year, and together with my neighbors we did some radical things to bring folks of various backgrounds and social-economic levels closer in a safe space that (re)connects people to one another, to food, and to nature.

In response to the devastating earthquakes in Nepal in April and May 2015, I have spent much time in the village of Takure in the Sindhupalchok district with the organization Conscious Impact, where we've lived and rebuilt alongside locals and international volunteers while documenting the collaborative work. Together with the Conscious Impact team, we have leveraged social media to spread the word, tell stories, and continue the funding for the rebuilding project. Besides the Beacon Food Forest, I haven't found a better, more meaningful way to use photography and social media for social and environmental good alongside selfless individuals with the common goal to help and serve others. Check out their site, Facebook and Instagram to see the latest projects and community updates working on the ground, and possibly how you may get involved! 

I adore bicycles, bike touring, backpacking, wilderness, and am fascinated by gigantic mountains, as well as the wisdom, culture, and way of life of indigenous peoples all around the world. Traveling has added tremendous global perspectives and knowledge I wouldn't have gained from formal education. Through my work and travels, I have spent time with the indigenous Emberá, Guna, and Ngäbe-Buglé peoples in Panama, the Sechelt/Shishá7lh First Nations of coastal British Columbia in Canada, the Ahka people in northern Thailand, the Ladakhi, Spitian, and Sherpa peoples of the Himalayas, and recently the Māori people in New Zealand. I have deep, profound respect for their wisdom and connection to the earth and its natural cycles.

Sometimes I like to geek out on gear, especially outdoor gear and lenses. But over the years I have slowly learned that it's still first and foremost the photographer and her/his vision, the time and place, then lastly the camera/lens. The camera helps create the image no doubt, but just as you wouldn't complement chefs for their *amazing* frying pan or wok for their gastronomic creations, why are so many people fixated to ask the photographer the camera that they use? A quality camera only takes quality images if you bring it with you AND gets utilized. Having the foresight, the patience, and often local knowledge are some of the numerous factors that go into the creative process of capturing an image that will be remembered forever. The best camera is quite often the one in your hand. 

Note that this site may not yet have my latest work. If you’re on socials, connect with me via Instagram and Vimeo.

I've had some great opportunities to present my work and stories of places and people I've been and crossed paths with. A few presentations and talks have been recorded: with Upstream Daily during the Social Enterprise World Forum 2017, at PechaKucha Christchurch, for Ministry of Awesome's Coffee & Jam in 2017, with Steven Moe for Seeds: Talking Purpose Podcast in 2018, on Sprocket Podcast in 2019, and on The Altruistic Traveler, also in 2019. Since 2021, I’ve shifted my focus on creating a newsletter, and as of late 2023, my very own podcast.

Wanna buy a print? #subtledreamPrints is now available! Discounts on prints are available by subscription-based support for me on patreon. Not only would you get discounts (5-50%(!)), you’d be supporting me as well as other content creators and organizations who I believe are adding creativity, harmony, and wisdom to our world, as I donate ~15% of my monthly patreon income.

Get in touch for commissioned work, printing, licensing, and collaborations to discuss your needs and/or vision. :)

Me, in photos:

Photo credit: friends and strangers from all walks of life. Notable mention: Graham Wynne (grahamwynnephoto.com) top left.

Instagram @subtledream