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.

Over the course of three years, Vitale visited multiple panda bases run by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, chief among them Wolong and Bifengxia.

"Contrary to how we are used to seeing them in zoos, as very animated and social creatures, or in cartoons as almost clownish, giant pandas are quite elusive,” Vitale says. At Wolong, where pandas live in large enclosed habitats, the challenge was waiting