Photographer Wansun Luk traveled to Western Mongolia to spend time with and photographing eagle hunters preparing for the Golden Eagle Festival. (Wanson Luk)

When photographer Wanson Luk traveled to Mongolia, he wanted to experience more than just a vacation, he wanted to capture something unique—the lifestyle and culture of Kazakh eagle hunters in the Bayan Ulgii area.

Kazakhs are the , according to the BBC. With less than 400 practicing falconers, Luk had the chance to immerse himself in the culture, staying with a few families there.

“I just follow[ed] their everyday life,” Luk told weather.com. He spent several days living with a few families, observing and partaking in their daily routine: eagle hunting, fishing, milking animals and visiting other families. Their lives were very much embedded in the nature around them, he said.

The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia move and live according to nature, moving seasonally in search of good pasture for their livestocks, maintaining horse-based nomadic cultures and hunting with trained golden eagles. Their horse-riding falconry is a hunting method used to during winter months, according to Geographic Expeditions.

“What I learned is how every one of them respect[s] people and nature,” Luk said. “They make use of everything, but never polluted the environment.”

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Their respect, in terms of falconry, can be seen through the relationship each hunter has with his or her—Ashol Pan is the only known eagle huntress in Mongolia—eagle. The Kazakhs only choose young female eagles that are taken from their nests, since female eagles grow larger than the male eagles and are more aggressive. However, they will eventually be released back into the wild to reproduce and create future generations of strong newborns.

“It was quite an [experience],” Luk said. “Eagle hunters are just like other people who show their hospitality and also eager to show foreigners about their traditions.”

Though it was the travel photographer’s first time in Mongolia, he hopes to go back to photograph the nomadic Dukha people in Northern Mongolia, also known as the “reindeer people.”

“I love visiting places that could inspire people,” he said. “By capturing things like cultures, people and landscapes, we could open up our mind[s].”

Luk hopes to inspire people living in modern cities to understand nature better.

“Sometimes, city people should not only cherish what they have, [but also] they should question themselves about the meaning of life and understand [that we are a part] of the nature part of the world.”

For more of Wanson Luk's photos, take a look at his .

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