Hi, I'm Daniel.

I’ve been an educator for more than two decades, but my journey into education began with a simple realization: children genuinely want to learn. Once I discovered that, I knew I wanted to be part of helping them learn, grow, and discover what they were capable of.

I spent 15 years teaching middle school, always looking for innovative ways to make learning meaningful and memorable. Sometimes that meant creating learning songs to help students understand difficult concepts. That constant search for new and better ways to teach eventually led me to instructional technology and its power to transform the teaching and learning experience.

That passion led me to earn a specialist degree from Kennesaw State University and eventually teach the Online Teaching Endorsement to other educators.

While I was busy teaching, life was happening around me. My family was growing, and I wanted a way to document those moments. I had always wanted a really good camera, so I finally bought a Canon T4i.

Then something happened.

I started photographing everything.

I was fascinated by what the camera could do and wanted to understand how to do it better. What began as a way to document my family quickly became a passion. I immersed myself in photography, learning everything I could, practicing constantly, and eventually turning that passion into a professional photography business.

Over more than a decade as a professional photographer, I was fortunate enough to accomplish many of my photography bucket-list goals: photographing weddings in dream locations, owning cameras and lenses I once only dreamed about, photographing one of my favorite artists, and having the opportunity to create photographs in some truly amazing locations.

But eventually, I realized that there was another part of photography I enjoyed just as much as taking pictures:

Teaching it.

After more than a decade behind the camera, I began sharing what I had learned through social media. I started answering questions, breaking down techniques, talking about gear, and sharing the lessons I had learned through years of photographing people, events, and life itself.

And something clicked.

I realized that my two superpowers—teaching and photography—could come together.

That realization is the heart of Photography by Daniel Lee.

My goal is not simply to show you the photographs I create. It’s to help you understand why I created them, how I created them, and how you can apply those same principles to your own photography.

Whether you’re picking up a camera for the first time or looking to take your photography to the next level, I want to help you become more confident, more intentional, and more creative behind the camera.

Because I believe photography is something you can learn—and once you learn how to see, you’ll never look at the world quite the same way again.