All of these photos can be ordered as high-resolution prints here.
Though it felt like I didn’t get out much in 2024 because I was focused on finishing my book, in retrospect it wasn’t a bad year at all. Though the locations of where I’m running workshops heavily influence what I shoot, I don’t really plan my year of photography, but shoot whatever comes up. Surprisingly, 2024 ended up being the year of the birds, with comparatively little landscape photography. That’s fine by me as because wildlife photography goes back to my roots, and I love the technical challenge of capturing sharp birds in flight.
I photographed this Mountain Bluebird mama feeding her fledgling in Crested Butte in early July.
Two-hour star trails are a spectacular sight above beautiful Ouray in October.
The sunstar added pizazz to an otherwise dull sky on this brisk autumn morning in Marble, CO.
Perfect colors, clouds and a reflection in late September in Crested Butte.
Intimate landscapes are all about finding interesting patterns shrouded in chaos.
Dominant bull elk can never rest, always on the defense against satellite males.
Bull elk during the annual rut in September in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The October Milky Way over Bisti Badland’s Alien Eggs.
Bisti Badlands, with its ubiquitous mudstone formations, is a playground for making sunstars.
Infinite Horizons:
The Complete Guide to Nature & Landscape Photography
Join professional nature photographer Bryan Maltais on an exhilarating journey into the world of landscape, macro, wildlife, and astro photography. This all-encompassing book is your ultimate guide, starting with basic exposure settings and progressing to advanced techniques. Discover how to transform a regular lens into an ultra-high magnification macro lens, capture razor-sharp images of birds in flight, create dazzling star trails with long exposures, turn roaring waterfalls into silky masterpieces, merge multiple frames into gigantic panoramas, and much more. Order on Amazon
The Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 as seen from Wolf Lake, Illinois.
This will forever be one of my most memorable nights, and favorite photos. On Thurs, Oct 10, 2024 a massive geomagnetic storm hit Earth, causing vibrant auroras far beyond their normal latitudes. The charged particles collided at various altitudes, reacting with Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms, which caused a kaleidoscope of colors above Bisti Badlands, New Mexico. This is a single photo from a 45-minute sequence showing the best colors of the event. In this photo, star trails formed during A 45-minute timelapse sequence.
In May the meadows burst with a crimson explosion of poppies in my second home of Denkendorf, Germany.
A 12″ Great Plains Skink from the sandstone plains of central Kansas.
An Alpine Salamander in his defensive posture in a coniferous forest of southeast Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
I spent 5 days trying to capture this shot of a male Northern Flicker landing on the cottonwood behind my house.
Roseate Spoonbill from a rookery in SE Florida.
Snowy Egrets dancing in the wind.
Black Skimmers strafed back and forth along the shore, catching minnows in their bills.
An American Dipper rests in the snow on a chilly February afternoon.
I worked with this Six-spotted Tiger beetle to habituate him to my presence for an extremely close macro in which he didn’t fly away. Eureka, Missouri.
No, it’s not a tick, but a 3mm Velvet Mite.
It’s lovely having plump Bold Jumping Spiders on your very own porch.
Sweet harmony within the chaos of a launching flock of Snow Geese in Socorro, New Mexico.
Sandhill Crane in flight.
Sandhill Crane with intentional motion blur at dusk.
Angelic Snow Goose.
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About Bryan Maltais- Fort Collins, CO
About Bryan Maltais- Fort Collins, COBryan Maltais is an award-winning professional photographer, film-maker and founder of Wilderness Shots Photography Workshops. His images are displayed in spaces around the world and have been published in well known photography magazines and media channels. He’s also the author of “Infinite Horizons-The Complete Nature & Landscape Photography Guide“.
“I was addicted to exploring nature and observing animals very young, keeping terrariums full of insects and amphibians. Craving a camera to capture the beauty that I witnessed in nature, my dad gave me a manual Canon that he had lying around from 1970. A military brat, I grew up in Germany, New Jersey and Missouri. I received my BS in Wildlife Biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. This gave me a good foundation for understanding the natural world. I also did a stint in the Army, which gave me a good foundation for tolerating insects and lack of sleep. My dream was to live in the Rocky Mountains, so after college I moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado where I still live today. Since then I’ve been shooting and documenting the American West and producing wildlife nature documentaries. My latest film is on Amazon Prime. My goal with nature photography workshops is to share knowledge, fun and adventure with others while enjoying nature. I currently shoot Sony and Olympus gear. When not photographing, I garden in my raised beds and teach 3-4 year olds in Sunday School.”
