Montana and Wyoming Wildlife and landscape Photography
"The mountains reserve their choicest gifts for those who stand upon their summits."
~Sir Frances Younghusband~
About the Photographer
"If you're lucky enough to be in the mountains, you're lucky enough."
It's long been a feeling of mine that some people are ocean people, or desert, or city people and some are mountain people. I'm a mountain person and always have been even though I grew up in southeastern Minnesota surrounded by cornfields. I've been taking pictures since I was about 12 years old. Three days after graduating from high school I left home and came to Montana and was fortunate enough to find work with the Park Service in Glacier National Park for the next seven summers while continuing my education during the winter months in Minnesota and then in Missoula, Montana. I moved to Montana to be a part of the spirit of the people who live here and to be near the mountains and the beautiful scenery they provide and for the wildlife that live in these mountains and in this state.
I created this site as a means of simply sharing the things I see as important and beautiful in the world. My hope is that you will see something in my images that will help you to understand that all things are connected to one another. We are all part of the Circle of Life and everything that is here is here for a reason or it wouldn’t be here at all. Yvon Chouinard, a noted American climber, once said, “As we destroy nature we destroy ourselves. It’s a selfish thing to want to protect nature. To do good, you actually have to do something.”
My pictures are about the natural world. With them, I hope to raise awareness of what we have been given as a home here on this planet. This is “something” that I can do. So few people have looked into the eyes of a wild animal and learned to appreciate just what they are seeing. They are creatures that have societies, families and languages of their own. Just because we don’t understand them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I saw a PBS documentary a few years ago where a Native American said, “Everything in the world speaks. We must learn to listen.” If you choose to look at my photography, please, also try to listen.
Thank you for visiting,
Steve
