Favorite Images of 2024
Sunrise over a field of golden banner and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
It is that time of year again when Father Time reminds us of the ticking clock. The calendar will change to 2025 in a few days, making me reflect on a year of ups and downs, inspiration and challenges.
It never fails, however, that as I look back on the year at the end of December, I go into the process thinking things didn't go as well as I had hoped they would when the year started. But then I look through the images and realize it has yet again been another stellar year, full of adventures, beauty and new opportunities!
2024 was no different. Although there were certainly challenges on many levels, I am yet again reminded of how lucky I am to live the life I do. Further more, I feel quite grateful to share those adventures with you – either through my writing that you may read, my photos you may review or the tours you may participate.
The sun sets behind the Never Summer Range in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope my stories with words and photos inspire you to take life a little slower because it goes so dang fast.
Here is this year's collection of images. There are definitely more landscapes and night photos than previous years but the wildlife certainly captured my attention too.
A composite showing the phases of the total solar eclipse in April 2024.
Under the cover of darkness
This year marked the peak of the 11-year solar cycle. The sun produced a lot of coronal mass ejections, creating numerous geomagnetic storms that culminated in vibrant, colorful northern light displays that haven't been seen in decades. One G5 storm on May 10 could be seen in all 50 states and a G4 storm on October 10 gave a stunning light show in southern Colorado.
The northern lights dance over Lake Erie near Toledo, Ohio.
But I also visited a couple of locations where the dancing lights make regular appearances, even on slow years. Places like Alaska and Churchill, Canada give Aurora watchers numerous opportunities to witness the dancing colors in winter.
The northern lights put on quite a show during the fall of 2024 above the boreal forest near Churchill, Canada.
Seeing the northern lights, however, in Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, San Juan Mountains and Ohio was just the icing on the cake this year.
In addition to the northern lights, 2024 had a total solar eclipse – the Great American Solar Eclipse – on April 8. Although my original plans involved a visit to Texas, the weather said otherwise so I diverted to Missouri. So glad the change of plans worked because the conditions were perfect.
The northern lights made an appearance above Estes Park, Colo. as a bright meteor from the Perseids meteor shower burst across the sky.
In addition to the regular meteor showers, like this bright meteor during the Perseids shower, this year also had a comet that was visible in September and October. I tried a few times to photograph it when it could be seen in the early morning hours, but I didn't have much luck. The evening time frame, however, produced a couple of nice images on the few nights there were clear skies. This photo was captured on the tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park just days before the road across the park closed for the season.
Comet A3, which was visible in September and October this year, shot across the sky and showed off its 18-million-mile tail above the tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
And no year can go without a few new images of the Milky Way. Although there were more than these couple, these two photos – a fall image in Rocky Mountain National Park and a snowy scene in Colorado's mountains in May – rang out as two of the more unique photos I took of our galaxy.
The core of the Milky Way rises above Hallett Peak and the fall colors above Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
In May, the core of the Milky Way sits at an angle above the still snowy landscape of the mountains west of Denver, Colorado.
A beautiful world
The stunning beauty of the varied landscapes on this planet blow my mind. I am lucky to live in the U.S., where we have a wide variety of landscapes to enjoy – from coastal views of the vast ocean to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains to look out on a sea of mountains.
A still Chasm Lake sits below the diamond of Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park’s tallest mountain.
I worked harder this year to find more photos of wildlife in the landscape, but as I have told my photo tour clients, successful environmental portraits can be one of the hardest images to produce. I fell into that scenario this year – those critters just didn't want to follow my requests for where to stand!
But I still managed to capture some unique photos – and some not so unique but new to me, like the dancing trees of southern Colorado.
The dancing trees of southern Colorado on a late fall morning.
I hiked some of the hardest trails I have tackled in a few years (and need to do more of that in 2025), like Flattop Mountain, Mount Ida and Chasm Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The accomplishment of reaching those destinations keeps me motivated to do more of that because being that deep in the park just blows my mind with the scenery and serenity.
But there are also the easily accessible locations within Rocky Mountain National Park that, although they draw big crowds, are still some of the most scenic views in the park.
The dramatic light of sunrise hits Hallett Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Outside of Colorado, I explored Alaska, visiting Anchorage, Haines and Nome, where I photographed moose, an endangered fin whale, bald eagles and muskox.
The blue hour of Haines, Alaska shows off the few town buildings along the coastline.
Wild places, wild faces
I had no shortage of landscape opportunities this year but I didn't seem to have much time to photograph wildlife. Wildlife photography really takes a ton of time to sit and patiently wait for the right light, opportunities and behaviors. There are many days that just don't produce a lot of worthy images, but boy is it fun just to enjoy the outdoors.
A snow bunting foraging for food on the snow-covered ground in Churchill, Canada.
This year I spent a lot of time writing, producing at a minimum four columns a week for the Estes Park Trail-Gazette. Although that means I am grateful to make a living doing what I love and share stories about my explorations, it does often mean that my time must be dedicated to that first. That doesn't always leave the time needed for the wildlife photography that I would prefer.
A large male polar bear walks along the seaweed-covered coastline of Hudson Bay.
I did, however, work as a guide for several photo tours, including to Yellowstone National Park in winter, Belize for birds and monkeys, the Amazon rainforest in Peru, Nome in Alaska, Churchill for polar bears (and FINALLY a photo of a snow bunting), and owls and other wildlife in Minnesota.
A lesser kisskadee feeds on some bugs in the Amazon rainforest of Peru.
The Yellowstone trip in particular provided one of the most amazing wildlife encounters I have ever witnessed. For a full day, our group watched the Wapiti Lake Pack interact with an injured bison. The 12 wolves patiently waited for the bison's demise, all the while wearing it down a bit too. It was hard to watch but the opportunity to see such behavior was once in a lifetime.
The pups of the Wapiti Lake Wolf Pack in Yellowstone National Park follow their father along the river bank.
A wolf stares down an injured bison along a riverbank in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
My second trip this year to Alaska was to photograph bald eagles in Haines but I also had plenty of local trips here in Colorado to photograph deer, mountain goats, moose, sage grouse, ducks and elk.
A pair of bald eagles fly above the snow-capped peaks near Haines, Alaska.
Year of the weasel
For as little time as I had in the field as I would have liked to photograph wildlife, what time I did have produced a lot of photos of weasels this year for some reason.
A long-tailed weasel pops up from behind a rock on Mount Blue Sky, Colorado.
Weasels, which includes long-tailed, short-tailed, martens and black-footed ferrets, are hard to photograph. They move quick, blend into their environment extremely well, and are few and far between. But even with those challenges, I had several opportunities with long-tailed weasels, a few ermine, black-footed ferrets (see below) and pine martens.
An Ameican marten climbs around the branches of the pine forest in northern Minnesota.
I'll take that as a success for the year! Now to add wolverine to the list!
Making an impact along the way
One of the most exciting opportunities I had this year was to participate in the release of 18 black-footed ferrets, the most endangered land mammal in North America. Released on a private ranch in southeastern Colorado, the release included 14 kits that were raised in captivity and four adults who were being retired from the breeding facility. What an opportunity to not only watch those adorable little predators but learn more about the program to help bring this animal back from extinction. (Yes, BFFs were thought to be extinct until a small population was discovered in Wyoming.)
One of 14 endangered black-footed ferrets released onto a private ranch in southeastern Colorado.
One of the newly released endangered black-footed ferrets enjoys its new freedom on a ranch in southeastern Colorado.
These are just a few of my favorite photos from this year. So many photos are about the experience and the stories behind the photos, and I hope you have enjoyed learning a little about each of these photos. A larger set of images from 2024 has been compiled into a video available on YouTube. Please check that out at: https://youtu.be/VMkRAMA1LM4.
2025 adventures in nature
And I hope you will join me on my 2025 adventures. There is still space available on the following photo tours:
- Yellowstone in Winter
- Amazon River Adventure in Peru
- Birds and Monkeys of Belize
- Nature of Nome
- Brown Bears of Lake Clark COMING SOON!! Email me for info.
- Polar Bears of Churchill
And of course don't forget private photo tours for landscapes, wildlife, night skies or a combination of these in Rocky Mountain National Park.
There are many more tours that will be added as well, including photo tours for birds, night skies, northern lights and eagles, so keep an eye on my social media pages and website for the latest updates.
Again, thank you for an amazing year. I am so thankful for all of the photographers and nature enthusiasts I have met, taught and laughed with this year.
Have a very happy New Year!!