Milu deer, also known as Pere David"s deer, are endemic to China but nearly vanished due to hunting and habitat loss. After they were reintroduced from a British herd, a nature reserve for milu deer was established in 1991 in Shishou, Hubei province, to return them to the wild. During a severe flooding disaster along the Yangtze River in 1998, only a few milu deer made it across the river and arrived at East Dongting Lake in Hunan, where they found a new home. Over time, the herd has grown in numbers.

　　Today, about 400 milu deer live freely in the region"s wetlands, according to the South Dongting Lake Nature Reserve. However, most images of the milu deer are captured by drone footage, as the animals live deep in the wetlands and seldom appear near the shore. Yang often walks for more than an hour across the reed beds, carrying his heavy camera gear, only to find nothing.

　　"That happened a lot. Photography on the lake takes luck," he said with a smile. "But I kept going anyway. You never know."

　　That luck found him once when he was deep in the wetlands, and a deer herd emerged from the mist. "The closest one was only 10 or 20 meters away," he said. "That was the nearest I"ve ever been."

　　Another memorable encounter occurred about two years ago when a large herd of milu deer came ashore near the dike. "Some were on the dike, some in the village, running in and out of people"s houses," Yang said. The local villagers, he said, cautiously kept their distance and didn"t disturb them. He also seized the opportunity to capture some close shots of the animals.

　　After nearly four decades of photographing the lake, Yang published Shouwang Dongting (Watching over Dongting Lake) in 2019 — a collection of nearly 150 photographs taken between 1981 and 2019. The images depict fishermen at work, birds in flight, the lake in both flood and drought, and the city of Yueyang growing along the shoreline.