The White-breasted Nuthatch is one of the more entertaining birds to see in North America. They are a small bird, much smaller than a robin but still big enough to make a hummingbird look small. One of the funny things about these little birds is that they have no apparent orientation to what is up or down crawling around trees at times upside down, or right side up.

I love their nasal call. They are quite fun to watch in larger groups and this is often how they travel! Look out for them in a forest near you!

Be sure to check out our other Bird Pictures!

You can often look back and see a few times where things were just amazing photographically speaking. This was one of those times. I almost by accident found a place where Sora’s and Virginia’s Rails were playing and eating. My experience has been that these are very solitary creatures! They just were walking and scampering around me, most often 15 feet away or less. I was blown away at how unwary they were!

Be sure to check out our other bird pictures, and Fine Art Gallery!

These Common Merganser Babies were resting in Grand Teton National Park on a rock in the middle of String Lake. They had been swimming around quite a bit and I guess it was time to take a break. Their mother swam a small distance away and appeared to give herself some much needed TLC!

Be sure to check out our other bird pictures, and Fine Art Gallery!

It was hard to do but here are my favorite images from 2010. There is an interesting variety compared to what I have predominately photographed in the past. This year my most used lens was my Canon 100-400mm f4-5.6. I definitely shot a lot more wildlife at home and when I traveled! So here are the pictures in no particular order as well as a fun little video showing what I spent most of my time on this summer at the end. Let me know what is your favorite in the comments!

This was a hard picture to get, lots of waiting! The Sora is a shy little bird!

These baby Mergansers where so fun to watch I had to be dragged away from them! I could not accurately count how many there were even after more than a hour watching, they were moving and squirming all over each other continuously!

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of all time. Simple colors, lines, shapes and composition. Perhaps as well it was kind of magical because it lasted to briefly.

The White-breasted Nuthatch is such a fun bird to watch. They are so active and oblivious to gravity!

Here is another big time favorite image from the year. This Rufous Hummingbird was amazing to see and watch as it very determinately defended a feeder.

It wasn’t actually planned to have two hummingbirds on this list of favorite pictures, but the Violet-crowned Hummingbird is definitely one of the most spectacular birds I have ever seen in my life. It was so cool to see this guy out shine all other birds around!

Here is an example of why being prepared is so important! I was just hiking around looking for some birds and saw this rather large beetle. I believe it had just mated and was gathering itself while it appeared to be struggling to even stay on the branch while I photographed.

I was amazed again and again at the variety of rock formations in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. This was one such incredible thing that I was able to see and photograph.

This one just makes me think of my family, every time I see one similar to this I think of families and people holding together.  For me this is the most powerful personal image I took this year!

This image is one that I like as well. It is amazing how vibrant red rocks can make such powerful panoramas!

I was pretty worried about what this little guy’s mother would think about me being so close to her baby. It was her fault though, I was standing in the middle of a field of flowers and out they walked from dense trees almost stumbling on me. It was almost like the baby asked his mom “what is that?”, and her reply seemed like a “just ignore them they will drive you crazy if you pay any attention.”

I have seen quite a few fawns and deer in places I have camped in and explored but this was my first time to see triplet fawns, even though this picture only has one. Several mornings this mom and 3 babies would wander through our camp and we got to see them and the myriad of people following them around. All in our campsite…

This was maybe one of the most interesting things I saw this entire year. I still cannot believe this tree has grown so tall, on top of a rock in the middle of a stream that flows between Leigh Lake and String Lake in the Grand Tetons. This little river has been here much longer than the tree so it definitely started out where it is in the picture. I am just amazed every time I look at this picture.

The Other Favorites

Here are my four little people as well that I am incredibly thankful for! This year we added a new member to the family and we love her so much, but there are four kids and they are present nearby for almost every picture I take and were close for about every picture you see here on the site. It is so much fun taking these kids out into nature and seeing them love it again and again!

This baby girl is amazing! She actually entertained, distracted me, and has fallen asleep on my lap as I have worked on this post.

Here is my oldest displaying a frog he caught and carried for several miles in his pants pocket when we were in Idaho, he is dang excited and proud as well as worried the frog is going to make a jump for it (he didn’t, and he got to go play in the river soon after because my son was worried he would miss his family!).

My first daughter, growing up so fast, a tease, and already a wonderful little mommy to her baby sister!

Lastly our youngest boy. I have never met a busier toddler in my life and I have brothers who as twins were and are still horrors! He keeps us out of breath and on our toes! He is also possibly the happiest little kid I have ever been around, I will keep him forever! There is nothing small about this little kid!

Lastly if you have made it this far here is a big project that took up a lot of my summer. No not the baby, she came just in time for Thanksgiving. I bought a house that has needed major yard work, and I have begun to capture our progress in a stop motion video…

Thanks for stopping by and remember to let me know what picture was your favorite! Have a great 2011!

Fire Arch or Windstone Arch is another new picture from the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. This little arch took quite a while to find but it was an amazing little adventure.

The Valley of Fire is an amazing place, I have said it many times but wow this is really a great place! I am so glad that I live a short 40 minutes away in Las Vegas. For me it is definitely one of the best parts about being in Vegas.

Fire Arch or Windstone Arch is a part of a cave located near the campgrounds in the park. I personally had seen pictures of this arch but never in person and to find it I spent 3 days worth of hiking and exploring. When I finally stumbled on it I was amazed that I had walked by it at least 4 times!

Be sure to check out my Valley of Fire page, and my Valley of Fire pictures on my main picture library site!

The Rufous Hummingbird is a bird I have really wanted to get pictures of, And I recently was able to shots of them! I have seen them often but never through my lens!

Here is the best shot I was able to get…

So I have now created a new pages for the Rufous Hummingbird, and hummingbird pictures. I am pretty stoked about getting this guy in a picture.

I was able to find this Rufous Hummingbird in Kilgore, Idaho. I was at my grandparents cabin and they have a feeder they had set up. I sat down to watch it one morning and there came this bright red hummingbird. It seriously looked like a red bullet many times that it flew in.

In a way it is fortunate that these guys are so aggressive because they definitely were hanging around the two hummingbird feeders that were set up. The sad thing is that they also drove of a Calliope Hummingbird, and several Broad-tailed Hummingbirds so I wasn’t privileged to get shots of those as well. The male that came to the feeder so often wouldn’t even let the female close to the feeder for long, though ironically it looked like they were periodically sitting together in a nearby tree!

Getting the shot was relatively easy once I knew where he was likely to land. Then I just waited at the times of day that the light was the best. For much of the day this little bird would sit in the shade, but with no sunlight he never had is little gorget (the throat feathers) lit up at all so the pictures were pretty plain. Or like my kids he would turn or zoom away right when I want to take his picture. I honestly got a lot of shots of that branch with nothing on it!

Last September and October I spent a few days in the Grand Tetons photographing the fall colors. It was going to be a trip with fall colors everywhere, but it turned out that the fall colors were actually really weird. Some places perfect colors, others still green like the leaves had just sprouted, and yet other places where it appeared the leaves had fallen weeks before.

Luckily there is a lot to photograph in the Grand Tetons, and after my visit there I think that time of year is a great time to go, but overall the fall colors aren’t a major reason to actually go to the Grand Tetons. If you want to focus on fall colors there are many places with more variety of potential colors closer together.

I did have a chance to visit quite a few iconic places while there and this picture above is from Schwabacker Landing along the Snake River. I love the reflections in the still area of water and even more love it as a panorama. That is one thing about the Tetons,  they seem to have been designed for panoramas!

Green River Overlook in Canyonlands National Park is amazing. In fact this national park in southern Utah that is so often overlooked is one of my favorite national parks I have visited. You can go there and be troubled by only a few other people at almost any location at almost any time. There is one exception to that and that is Mesa Arch, but that is only one place of hundreds that you can head to in Canyonlands National Park.

I have visited this place often because I really enjoy it, and because I am still trying to capture a photograph that lives up to the memories I have of Canyonlands. I think after sunset in the last light of the day is getting closer to being the type of image I am looking for.

This image as well is more of a panoramic format at an aspect ration of 2:1. I really like this ratio in photographs, and may try and shoot it quite a bit more. I guess we will see. When I shoot I honestly shoot what feels right and the time. That leaves me with photographs in quite a few different formats. I do like the variety that results!

Honestly looking at this photograph from the Green River Overlook makes me want to go there again. I really love being able to overlook huge expanses of nature and feel really tiny!

What is one of you favorite places to photograph and visit?

I may have mentioned it before, but I really like Valley of Fire State Park. Living in southern Nevada having the Valley of Fire close is a huge benefit. Here are some more of the latest pictures I have taken there .

The first few pictures are some shots of the many types of petroglyphs that you will find in the area. I thought I had seen some amazing congregations of these examples of ancient rock art before coming to the Valley of Fire, but here it goes to the next level.

I really like the above image. Several forms holding hands just feels like a great message. I am very glad that my wife pointed this one out to me!

In this image, if the desert varnish hadn’t worn away, I bet the rock art here would be even better preserved that examples nearby because of the roof. Interesting how the things you don’t expect are what often ruins projects!

The variety of rock formations in the Valley of Fire is impressive. I took the next few shots near sunset as I hiked around looking for a nice sunset spot. I think I like lines best when I look at rock formations, and the above miniature fins on that rock just lead you into the image!

This image reminds me of a nice little pastel painting. The muted colors, and shapes are very relaxing. What do you think about this one?

This is a cave that my 4 year old and I found and had some fun playing in. I forget if I made this picture before or after several crazy faced self portraits made looking out the window. The narrow canyons and high walls give you really nice reflected light almost all day if you keep your eye out for it. This spot doesn’t get direct sun until after lunch (in March at least).

Here is one of my favorite subjects in nature, lichen. I am not sure why, because most of the time it isn’t really photogenic. I like searching for the variety of colors and types you can find. Perhaps it is the search that gets me excited!

I know I posted quite a few night pictures the other day, but I really like this one as well, so here it is. The lights of Las Vegas are the source of the non star light. I was surprised that the artificial lights of the city worked so well in the night images that I made.

There you go, quite a few more shots for you from Valley of Fire. There will be more in the future, because I can’t wait to go back again. We will see where the next photography adventure takes us!

The Valley of Fire is amazing and a great place to try and implement the practice of taking more panorama’s, which I have been working on lately in my photography. The panorama is one of my favorite mediums to capture in, so on my recent trip to Valley of Fire State Park in Southern Nevada I made an effort to shoot with panorama’s as the first priority and then shoot for everything else if they didn’t work or after I was able to make one that worked.

Below is one of the first panorama’s I was able to capture on my short trip to the Valley of Fire. This photograph is a great example of reflected light lighting up a scene. The many canyons and narrow rock bands make great natural reflectors for this type of light, especially in the middle of the day! So in the Valley of Fire there is no reason to stop shooting in the middle of the day!

Here is the same picture but in black and white. I really like this version, because the texture and patterns are expressed beautifully in black and white rather than the natural deep saturated colors that can occur from such nice reflected light.

Here is another panorama taken near the area where one of the Star Trek movies shot a few scenes. It is near what I believe is called Fire Canyon, a great place to visit in the park!

The last shot is taken as the sun was setting on the scenic loop. This is an area that I believe shows just how amazing the area is, and not to be missed if you go. I made a short hike to the top of one of the buttes and was able to witness this scene all alone for more than an hour!

Those are the panoramas that I was able to capture, I really hope you enjoy them! I plan to visit the Valley of Fire again, and again. I hope next time I will get a bit more cooperation and get some clouds to show up as well!

Let me know which panorama is your favorite in the comments!