One of the biggest challenges a visual artist faces is capturing people’s attention — and then keeping it. Compelling art captivates people. It inspires them to look around and appreciate every inch. Most pictures, however, are lucky to get more than a few seconds of anyone’s time.
I’ve used the moon as a prominent feature in my landscape photography for almost as long as I’ve been a photographer. One of my goals is to show that our world is alive — that it’s different from one moment to the next. The moon plays more of a role in that than most people realize.
It was just over a year ago that I caught the sequence of a bald eagle and young red fox struggling over a rabbit in midair. Since then, the image has run in newspapers from Moscow to Sydney, on network television and been honored by the National Audubon Society.
It was quite a ride — and not just for the fox. Given the new attention the work is receiving, I thought I would share some thoughts on the past year as well as a few images from that encounter that I haven’t previously shared.
The Montezuma Castle wasn’t built for the Aztec leader. It isn’t even a castle. But it and the other cliff dwellings in central Arizona are still supporting life to this day, even though people haven’t lived in them for 600 years.
I’ll be honest with you. I’m sharing this image because I know it will do well on Instagram.
Even though I consider myself a nature photographer — I photograph wildlife and wilderness! — on social media, my wildlife images take priority. It’s the animals that get the digital hearts from my followers.
This image should hit all the right buttons. Owls are always cute. Burrowing owls are among the cutest. Two burrowing owls cuddling should be off the charts.
Balsamroot is a member of the sunflower family, so it seemed only appropriate to photograph a hillside of the golden flowers in the first light of day. I also wanted to photograph the wildflowers in a way that illustrated how they can absolutely dominate the landscape for a couple of weeks in the early spring.
These dogs don’t look happy — and they’re not. While they’re on one of the most beautiful Caribbean beaches on the island of Vieques, they’re among the 200,000 dogs in Puerto Rico that were abandoned or abused and left to fend for themselves.
