This entry wraps up the best moments series for mammals and landscapes. After a break of a day or so, I’ll come back with my best birding moments. These two photos certainly represent two of my favorite moments of 2020. I tried, unsuccessfully at first, to photography youngsters with a focus on deer species. I struck out yet again on moose calves and wasn’t having much luck with whitetail or mule deer either. But one morning I encountered this family as they were near the road along a stream. They paused long enough as they could hear coyotes yipping in the distance. The soft morning light was perfect and to get all three alertly posed was too good to be true.

I love autumn and especially the colors that come with it. I found this aspen grove and decided to walk around in it looking for interesting compositions. It’s not uncommon for me to do so if I find a grove that looks like it might have interesting possibilities but more often than not, it’s usually too cluttered and I’m not satisfied with what I’m finding. But in this grove, the experience was different. Mature aspen trees rose above a bed of beautifully colored foliage creating the perfect autumn scene. The soft, warm light coming through the breaking fog certainly helped! Thanks for reading along and I hope you enjoyed these moments as I did. Hoping for a safe, healthy and happy New Years!

If you’ve followed my blog this year then you will have seen these two photos already. The photo above was taken on my first morning into Yellowstone after the park finally opened for the summer season. Stormy skies coming in from the west usually means the weather’s not going to be great and before I finished photographing this scene, I did get wet from the rain. But it’s not very common to see a rainbow in a morning sky with beautiful sunrise colors. I thought perhaps it would be a good open for the summer in Yellowstone but it ended up being one of only three times in the park that produced photographs. However, each of those three days are represented in this five part series, so it wasn’t too bad!

This photo made the list because of several reasons. Martens are cute, though they can also be pretty mean, so keep a distance! The pose was pretty good considering it was the only photo I was able to take at the time. And the effort put in to capture this one image was fairly substantial. Ironically, a marten, possibly the same one, paid a visit to our backyard on Christmas day!

I’ve photographed many fox dens over the last several years and it’s always a thrill and a challenge. it’s a thrill to be able to witness these youngsters as they play and learn and a challenge because I want to minimize my impact as much as possible. The den above was very popular with photographers several summers ago and the location, outside of a national park, became very well known. So much so that the adults were shot. The den has continued to be used however, though I don’t know if the female survived or if other foxes have taken it over. But the foxes are considerably more wary than they used to be making it almost impossible to get photographs. I took this image from my car using a beanbag over the window but even then, simply stopping near the den would cause the kits to run for cover. This photo and this den, are an excellent example of why locations of sensitive places shouldn’t be posted on the internet.

As I mentioned in a previous post, aside from an occasional aurora, I haven’t really had a lot of interest in photographing night skies. But when I saw some of the amazing photos of Comet Neowise being produced, I had to give it a try. This moment was serendipitous since, during the 20 second exposure to capture the night sky, a car drove by lighting up the geyser briefly and a shooting star streaked through the sky.

If my first post in this series had a theme then perhaps it was winter. So if this one has a theme then it might be mountains. I drove past the above scene many times in April and May, as I have done in years past as well. Whenever the sun rose and the light hit the clouds and mountains, I always thought how great it would be to have elk or deer on a ridge in front of the mountains. This past April, it happened. And it happened on a morning when the light was pretty stunning. The elk were on the move already, so I didn’t have a lot of time to set up. The elk only stayed on the ridge for a few short minutes and I was able to get only a handful of photos, but I only needed one. This was one of those moments were I still had the rest of the morning ahead to photograph but knew if I didn’t take another shot, the day was already a success.

Besides admiring it when it looked pretty, I never really paid much attention to the moon, especially as a photo subject, until this year. I’ve been photographing it in the night sky quite a bit, trying to get as much detail in the moon’s surface as I can. But I also used it as part of a scene quite often too. In the photo above, a single image photographed with a telephoto zoom lens, the morning light made the mountains glow as the moon slowly retreated towards the horizon. While often when a scene like this is presented, it might be a composite of two photos, one of the moon and one of the mountains, this, as mentioned was a single photo, which made it special. I personally don’t like composites of the moon like that, so I was pleased to be able to find a scene like this that worked at such a long focal length so it all came together.

Here are my first two entries into my “best photo moments of 2020.” I decided on that title as they’re not really my “best” photos necessarily, and “best” is rather subjective, but they instead represent some of the best moments from the past year. And how better to start than with winter bison. Both of these images were from January and the bison were on a rather chilly morning with the temperature in single digits. Given the cold temperature and the nearby geysers and hot springs, the bison were coated in frost though the morning sun was quickly melting it away. Even though I was with a snow coach tour with other photographers, we were the only group there so it was a peaceful quiet moment which, with the beautiful light and frosty bison, certainly contributed to this being such a serene and memorable moment.

Also taken in January, and while again, it might not be a “best” photo, this one rates high as a memorable moment because of the subject. Steamboat Geyser has stayed in a very active phase for a couple of years now, erupting every 7 to 10 days, give or take. Considering this geyser is the largest active geyser in the world and can go decades between eruptions, that’s pretty special. But even with such an “active” phase still on-going, catching an eruption of the geyser requires some luck. Again, on a snow coach tour into Yellowstone, we were fortunate enough to arrive while the giant geyser was still in it’s water phase. While it wasn’t near it’s maximum height, it was still erupting hundreds of feet into the air and the roar from the eruption made it difficult to hear people talking, even if they were right next to me. I did see Steamboat erupt a couple of times, but on this day, the clear skies and low angle of the sun made it the prettiest eruption I had the chance to witness (and photograph).

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy Holiday season!

Here’s a few more of my favorites that didn’t make it to the final round of my “best of…”, or perhaps better described as “most meaningful” or “most memorable” images of 2020. Above is an image of a badger and it’s youngster interacting. This was the second year in a row I’ve found the badger denning in basically the same place and I really liked this image as it shows the claws on the youngster really well.

The image above is from one of my five trips into Yellowstone National Park in 2020. One trip was in the middle of the night to photograph Comet Neowise, one trip was this one, and two others resulted in me turning around and leaving within an hour due to traffic on the roads being so bad. I suppose if there had been a herd of bison in this meadow, as there often are, then this image might have made it into my top five, but then, I might not have chose this composition.

I didn’t travel in 2020, at least no farther than I could drive to be somewhere for sunrise or sunset and be home again. But spending more time at home allowed ample opportunity to watch wildlife in my own backyard. The interaction between these two male Cassin’s finches was pretty cool and I was pleased to capture this moment. I’ll start the posts of my favorite, most memorable, best photos of 2020 after Christmas.

I haven’t done a “best of …” year end post in a couple of years. In part because when it comes to a visual media like photography, “best of” is super subjective. But with all that’s happened in 2020, I thought some positivity would be a nice idea, so decided to post some of what I felt were my best shots of 2020. Even though it was a difficult year in many regards, I’m thankful for my family, our health, that I’m still in business doing what I’m doing, and for the opportunities to capture each of these images I’ll share here at the end of the year. The images that I’ll share are my personal best, not necessarily because of the photo itself but also because of the moment in time. The only rules I imposed on myself was that 1.) I’d post in three categories; mammals, landscapes, and birds in order to diversify the images and 2.) try to not repeat the subject matter. For today and the next couple of days, I’ll share one photo from each category that didn’t make it to my final selection which will be five landscapes, five mammals, and ten birds.

For me personally, it was hard not to include this image of a pronghorn and two fawns as one of my top five wildlife images. Honestly, it’s probably a very close number six. They were part of a larger nursery herd which included about twenty fawns and almost as many mature and immature females. What made this a favorite is not only the beautiful early morning light but, just as important, the background. The doe was standing on a bit of a rise as the fawns moved towards the rest of the group. I framed the photo to purposely include the mountains in the background as I feel backgrounds tell as much of the story as the rest of the image.

I have to admit, I don’t get as excited as I should about things like meteor showers, comets, and such. But when I start to see the amazing photos from other photographers it inspires me to get out and try to do the same. This image didn’t make the final five only because I chose another image of Neowise but I still really enjoy this image too. Again, with an image like this, it’s not just the photo but the experience. I was out with no one else around for no telling how many miles. There was little sound and a slight breeze cooled the summer temperatures down considerably once the sun was gone. But as the sky darkened and the comet became visible, it was a pretty magic moment, to be out in the vastness of it all under the big Montana night sky.

I’ve always enjoyed hummingbird photos and have never really had much of a change to photograph them, until 2020. Again, this one didn’t make the final cut only because I chose a different photo. but I still loved this moment as it brought together two of the things that made the year more bearable; the large number of hummingbirds that came through the backyard and the beautiful sunflowers that bloomed.

This is another image of Earthquake Lake before the snow covered the ice. While difficult to tell, even in person, the cracks and details in the ice are about eight inches deep. Most of the sky was clear but as sunset approached, clouds moved over the lake from north, allowing me the opportunity to capture some color in the sky.

There’s a lot of talk about the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky lately. We’ve had cloudy skies and snow recently, so this image is from July. Jupiter is the brightest light in the sky, near the center of the image, to the left of the milky way. Saturn is to the left of Jupiter.