Marty’s photo of the day #4495: Leopard seal, photographed off the coast of Antarctica.
Leopard seal
Heliconia vaginalis
Marty’s photo of the day #4494: This is a Heliconia vaginalis (wild plantain), photographed on a night hike in Costa Rica.
Spruce grouse
Bear and Bernie
Marty’s photo of the day #4492: Yesterday, I featured this bear shot from my motion-sensing camera as part of my Sunday “This Week at the Essen Wildlife Refuge” series. But I love this picture so much that I’m giving it its own solo post. With one slight improvement, however.
The Porcupine caribou migration
Marty’s photo of the day #4491: This is a tiny section of the Porcupine caribou migration, the longest terrestrial migration of any animal on Earth. I shot this photo in 2002, while traveling for my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. This spot is in Canada’s Northwest Territories, which, unfortunately, is […]
A big Fuck You to the Republican Party
Marty’s photo of the day #4490: I photographed this gorgeous elk on Deb’s and my epic trip to the top of Canada for my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. For many months my wife and I have been planning routes and acquiring new gear to redo that adventure this fall. […]
This is why I live in the Bitterroot Valley
Marty’s photos of the day #4483-4489: People often wonder how I can be happy as a liberal in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, where roughly 60 percent of the people are hardcore Trumpers. Well, when Deb and I moved here in 1996, we did so because of nature, not politics. And yesterday was one of those days […]
A Canadian redo?
Marty’s photo of the day #4482: This is a scenic shot from somewhere on Deb’s and my epic journey to the top of Canada for my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. We’ve been hoping to redo that 5,572 mile-long adventure for many years. For the past year, we’ve really gotten […]
Is she a fan?
Marty’s photos of the day #4480-4481: Deb’s and my house sits roughly in the middle of the 25-acre Essen Wildlife Refuge. A long gravel driveway comes in from the side, crosses in front of the house, and wraps around to our garage. A long raised porch runs across the front of our house, the porch […]
White mariposa lily
Marty’s photo of the day #4479: One of the cool things about living in a mountainous state like Montana is that for much of the summer, if you want to see spring flowers, you can just move higher. While my wife and I were staying at the Canyon Creek Cabin last week, the elevation ranged […]
Rock Mountain Dwarf Sunflowers
Marty’s photo of the day #4478: One of the cool things about living in a mountainous state like Montana is that for much of the summer, if you want to see spring flowers, you can just move higher. While my wife and I were staying at the Canyon Creek Cabin last week, the elevation ranged […]
Spring flowers in the summer
Marty’s photo of the day #4477: One of the cool things about living in a mountainous state like Montana is that for much of the summer, if you want to see spring flowers, you can just move higher. While my wife and I were staying at the Canyon Creek Cabin last week, the elevation ranged […]
The glistening water scene
Marty’s photo of the day #4476: When I’m out photographing nature, I carry two cameras with me: my new Canon R50 with interchangeable lenses, and a pocket-sized Panasonic DMC-ZS100. Usually I use the Canon when I need a powerful lens, and the Panasonic for casual shooting or when I don’t want to take the time […]
Dog interruptus
Marty’s photo of the day #4475: Last week, Deb (wife), Nellie (dog), and I spent a delightful few hours wading in Canyon Creek, which runs parallel to the U.S. Forest Service cabin we rented. Sometimes all the colorful rocks under the crystal-clear water just sparkled! Once, when the sunlight was perfect, I lowered my camera […]
Charcoal kilns . . . or something else?
Marty’s photo of the day #4474: One of the weirdest moments of Deb’s, Nellie’s, and my stay last week at the Canyon Creek Cabin was visiting the Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns. From 1884 to 1900, men made charcoal there, which they shipped via horse-drawn wagons to the Glendale smelter, five miles down the road. We […]
Four-wheeler devastation
Marty’s photo of the day #4473: Today I have some photojournalism. I shot this picture last week, looking down from a mountain in a remote area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. If you look closely, you will see the gravel road and then a bunch of 4-wheeler tracks going off-road in the foreground. I fucking […]
Melissa blue butterfly
Marty’s photo of the day #4472: This is a Melissa blue butterfly (the topside of its wings are blue), photographed last week in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest of Montana. This species of butterfly is so small that even if you’re viewing this photo on a smartphone, you’re seeing it larger than actual size.
Apocalypse Cabin
Marty’s photo of the day #4471: Each summer, Deb and I rent at least one U.S. Forest Service Cabin, and last week we rented the Canyon Creek Cabin in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (west of Melrose, Montana). One Montana cabin tradition that sickens me is that quite literally every cabin has skulls and bones hanging […]
Don’t eat this!
Marty’s photo of the day #4470: AI technology amazes me. Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my eighth book, “Barry and Beth,” and in that novel, my characters are trying to produce a short video to stop barbaric alligator hunting practices in Florida. For a script idea, they try AI. Well, I did that […]
What would you do?
Marty’s photo of the day #4469: Want to have some fun with an interesting moral question? When Deb and I took three days off-the-grid to rent the Canyon Creek Cabin, we did a lot of playing and hiking in the area. On our second day, we spent a few hours along a tiny stream. These […]