Eric Cheng

Eric Cheng is an award-winning photographer, technologist, drone expert, and author. He works at Facebook as Head of Immersive Media. Throughout his career, Eric has straddled passions for photography, entrepreneurship, technology and communication. He publishes Wetpixel.com, the leading underwater-photography community on the web, and writes about his aerial-imaging pursuits at drone.farm. His work has been featured at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and in many media outlets including Wired, Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Make, Good Morning America, CNN, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and on virtually every news network around the world. In 2017, Eric is featured in 2 episodes of the Netflix series, Tales by Light, Season 2, which showcase his underwater work with sharks and anacondas (originally sponsored by Canon and premiered by National Geographic in Australia). Caught between technical and creative pursuits, Eric holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Stanford University, where he also studied classical cello performance. He leads regular photography expeditions and workshops around the world, and has given seminars and lectures internationally at events including TEDx, e.g., TTI/Vanguard, the Churchill Club, DEFCON, NASA UTM, Photoshelter Luminance, Photographers@Google, CES, NAB, SXSW, AsiaD, Creative Mornings, Tested.com's Live Show, ICCCP, DEMA, and others. Through Wetpixel Expeditions, Eric leads regular photography expeditions and workshops around the world. Eric is also involved in ocean conservation, and has served on the Board of Directors of Shark Savers (now part of WildAid) and the Board of Advisors of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He was also head photographer for Operation Musashi, Sea Shepherd's 2008-2009 anti-whaling campaign in Antarctica, which was featured in season 2 of the hit TV show, Whale Wars. Eric is on the Board of Directors of WeRobotics (and the UAViators Humanitarian UAV Network). He advises Wirecutter, OpenROV, Light.co, Crave, Drone World Expo and UAVUS (U.S. Association of Unmanned Aerial Videographers), and is a mentor at Startupbootcamp. Eric is also a Field Associate with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. Previously, Eric was Director of Aerial Imaging at DJI and General Manager of DJI's SF Bay Area office, and Director of Photography at Lytro. In October 2015, Peachpit published Eric's first book, Aerial Photography and Videography Using Drones. Eric lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Pam, and son, Mako.