My Favorite Photos of 2019

I’ve visualized taking this shot of star trails over Ouray for a few years, but I was never there at the right time of night with cooperating clouds. In 2019 the stars finally aligned during my fall colors trip. This is a composite light stack of 2 hours of continuous shots. In other words, if you point at the north star and let the camera expose for 2 continuous hours, star trails are the natural result of the stars traveling around the frame as the earth spins.

 

I made a trip back home to Missouri in mid Spring to visit family and go herping. Here a male Gray Treefrog calls from the edge of a fishless pond in Columbia, MO. It was a mystical night as hundreds of frogs from 4 species vigorously chorused from the pond’s edge, owls hooted from the tress above, and a giant silver moon shone over a misty night.

 

I photographed this aspen forest with crispy ferns near Crested Butte out of necessity. There were no clouds at sunrise or by mid-morning. Clouds are desirable to fill the otherwise empty upper frame and to catch the sun’s color, so cloudless skies aren’t necessarily good photography weather. These conditions chased me into the forest to find alternate compositions and I’m glad they did.

This is a roadside shot of Owl Creek Pass, but it still took me several years to capture. After faithfully returning year after year, I finally got the shot with nice light and clouds.

 

 

I took this portrait of a Slimy Salamander (actual name) on my trip to Missouri while searching an Oak-Hickory forest from Timber Rattlesnakes and Copperheads.

 

In 2019 I was lucky enough to visit Oregon for the first time in my adult life. I was happy when golden light and a wreath of clouds materialized just for a moment around Mt. Hood. I got to explore several waterfalls of the Cascade Mountains and Columbia River Gorge, and photographed Hood from several angles.

 

 

 

Most of Colorado received anomalously high precipitation in the first half of 2019, creating a record wildflower year in the mountains. In Crested Butte certain valleys were painted blue with fields of Silvery Lupines.

The welcome rain and frequently cloudy skies in Spring of 2019 made astrophotography difficult during the short weeks of the Milky Way’s optimal position.  Most of my outings to capture it were foiled. On this night the sky was thickly veiled when I took a chance and hiked into RMNP. I was rewarded with a brief window, dramatic swirling clouds, the MW in its prime, and Jupiter shining proudly. To illuminate the foreground I light painted it with my headlamp.

 

In early Spring of 2019 I made an epic trip through AZ and NM where I got to shoot Sedona and the Four Corners area for the first time.

The Alien Egg Factory of Bisti Badlands.

 

Shiprock, NM.

Owl Creek Pass, Colorado.

RMNP in mid spring.

I witnessed a most spectacular light show on July 4th in my backyard as a powerful thunderstorm swept over Ft. Collins. It cast spectacular lightning, pulse-raising hail, and left these brilliant mammatus clouds in its wake.

I ended the year back in Arizona and New Mexico. This is Lost Dutchman State Park in Phoenix, AZ around sunset.

Sedona Agave

I made a trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Here Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese stop along the Rio Grande River on their migrations, and other wildlife like bobcat and deer are common.