Wildlife and Wildlife Art
The Bull
The Bull is from my first trip to Yellowstone in 2021. I photographed this big boy on a ridge overlooking Mammoth. He was rounding up his harem getting ready to move to on to a new place when we stopped and got as close as I would want to get to an elk bull in season.
His neck was wet from urine and he was bugling every few seconds. It was fantastic. I decided I wanted something cool on the wall of my house and I created this digital painting. I took him off the original image and converted to black and white before pulling out the art pen and drawing in some hairs, painting over it, giving it the graphite look and feel.
Snow Wolf
I captured this image of Bridger (again) and created the snow around him using snow I photographed in Montana and Colorado over the last couple of years. I had wanted to take a break from the usual work that pays the bills here and needed to stretch my legs, so-to-speak. Was very happy with how it came out from the paint all the way to the snow prints I made around his feet.
Spirit
Award-winning digital art
This eagle is a resident at the Grizzly and Wolf Discover Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. I photographed him using a borrowed Canon (I am a Nikon user) and created this graphite-style digital painting. I really enjoy this kind of work. It’s different and it fits the style that I like.
Plus, I can relate to a bald eagle…because we’re bald…
The Stare
I created this piece from an image I captured in Colorado back in January. I got to make it in a live class online with the International Society of Animal Photographers in July of 2024.
The Woody
I have two different digital paintings of this particular wood duck. Wood ducks are one of my top three favorite ducks – super tasty, by the way – but also just to look at. I think the only duck I’m missing from my top three is a good photograph of a pintail.
This wood duck is a resident of the Montgomery Zoo in Montgomery, Alabama. I was able to spend some time in the bird cage with him and the other ducks and birds. I took him off his original background (zoo) and created this lovely headshot to pull out the colors and beauty God gave this creature.
Alabama's Favorite Duck
One of my favorite duck images I’ve managed to make is Alabama’s Favorite Duck. As I’ve mentioned before, a wood duck is one of my top three favorite ducks. I photographed this one in the Montgomery Zoo and created this little scene for it. The first in my duck series like this.
This wood duck is a resident of the Montgomery Zoo in Montgomery, Alabama. I was able to spend some time in the bird cage with him and the other ducks and birds. I took him off his original background of a shallow pool.
Frozen Paradise
On one of my many trips to Montana/Wyoming, I was able to capture this herd of bison in the winter. Joni stopped the car for me to roam for a few minutes as these guys crossed the road ahead. There were probably between twenty to thirty in this herd but they stopped on the ridge and looked back at me. It was perfect.
I absolutely love visiting Yellowstone in any season.
Frozen Bison
This big guy was resting on top of a ridge in Lamar Valley in the cold of winter. The frozen landscape was dotted with bison trying to find a scrap of grass to graze on, digging in and shoveling snow with their heads. It’s tiring work, so this guy was obviously just taking a short break.
It made for a perfect little view for myself and Lisa and Chris.
It was also minus twenty degrees.
The Heart of Yellowstone
Full-disclosure…the bear may or may not have been there. I’ll never tell.
I forget what this little valley is called but it’s in Yellowstone, looking back toward the mountains. All throughout the landscape are little white dots. Those white dots are actually mule deer butts.
It was about five-thirty in the morning in May 2023 when our Find Your Focus group traveled across the park on our way to Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic. It was glorious light for only the amount of time it took to capture this scene (around 10 seconds). It then became overcast for a while, taking away what little light that managed to shape the mountains.
Colorado Buck
Me: “Look at that beautiful buck!”
Kory B: “He’s looking for some—”
That’s exactly how it went.
This handsome fella was sniffing the air during the rut in Colorado. He was on the side of the road in the park we were in. He took off running toward the doe he was tracking shortly after we captured this.
Lamar Valley Sunset
This coyote, whose name may or may not be Wile E., was standing still in the snow of Lamar Valley in the 2023 winter season. Gorgeous and one of the few coyotes that weren’t mangy, I had no choice but to create this award-winning art piece using snow, background, sky, and wildlife from the amazing views that Yellowstone National Park has to offer.
I had to paint in the color on the fur, creating sunlight hitting the fur where it was actually overcast and negative twenty-degrees. It was one of the top ten wildlife images from the Animal Image Makers competition in 2023 – one of my favorites – and earned me enough points for my Accredited Professional of Animal Imagery designation (a 3 year journey).
Delta Eagle
When you spend all day photographing two guys on their mud boats, getting soaked in murky water and smelling of farts, they tend to make requests when you see something you want to photograph. Thankfully, these were friends who know I’ll do anything for an eagle.
This eagle was roughly a hundred and fifty yards off in the top of a dead tree with its mate. Just as I was starting to capture it, it flew up, giving me this amazing wingspan and composition.
Unfortunately, at the time, my skills to bring out details and paint were virtually non-existent. But in 2022, after getting a ton of practice in, I was able to create this painting seven years later. I turned a cloudy day with no light into this sunset painting of an eagle.
Goals, folks. Goals.
Heron in Flight
So this has an interesting story, both positive and unfortunately negative.
I’ll start with the negative because I feel like that’s what the regular person visiting nature and enjoying life needs to know.
I’d been sitting and observing this heron for about three hours at this point, working my way close enough to it, inch-by-inch (literally). I was making a zigzag pattern to get into the good light and that took twenty minutes to move six feet. I didn’t want to spook it and I didn’t want it to feel threatened.
Getting close to wildlife is hard on a good day. This particular morning I was struggling to find anything good to photograph and having this heron come in close enough was a blessing from the good Lord!
Then comes a douchebag. If that term offends you, you probably shouldn’t hear the other words I used to describe the following individual.
Naturally, when you’re in a public fishing area, you’re going to deal with other people. No big deal. Everyone’s out enjoying nature, fishing, and having a good time. Except Douchebag. Douchebag walked through the woods and down the path to the sandbar that was set up on. He walked all around the sandbar and took his time, again, enjoying nature. When he was coming close to where I was set up, with the big 600mm lens attached to my camera, having seen me doing my inch-by-inch approach, Douchebag decided to pick up a rock and throw it at the heron.
So the heron, who had not felt threatened the entire time I was getting closer (and in fact began posing the closer I got), took off flying. I threw my hands in the air only after I caught this gorgeous bird in flight.
“Are you kidding me, dude?” I shouted. Douchebag just shrugged.
Moral of the story: DON’T BE A DOUCHEBAG.
The Mandarin
I’ve always wanted to SEE a mandarin duck. Well, as it turns out, there’s one in the aviary at Gulf State Park.
I photographed this little guy on a cold, windy day in 2023 – mid-morning, too, which means I had to wait for him to get in a little shade to photograph what I wanted.
I got him and painted him as part of my series of waterfowl art images. 1 of 3 so far. Definitely planning on more. One of the three you will never see. It was made exclusively for a little boy named Parker.
Bedding Down
Our backyard family bedding "down" for the evening. I'm only a little punny, I swear.
Longhorn Sunrise
I got to visit the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in June of 2024 to browse the amazing herds of longhorns roaming freely through the area. I caught this one after she came running to a man that knew she'd respond. It was fantastic. I took her off the original image and created the tall grass and sky and then digitally hand-painted it all together to create this beautiful sunrise.