My Favorite Photos of 2024. Why Now?

Why Share These Photos Mid-2025?

Halfway through 2025, you might wonder: why now? I actually began curating these images back in late 2024, planning a January YouTube episode to showcase my favorites from the year. That video never materialized, and as I map out my 2026 calendar, I hesitated to commit any of these shots. But here we are—better late than never.

A Grounded Year of Preparation

Travel hasn’t been on the itinerary this year. Instead, I’ve been hoarding cash and gearing up to become a full-time YouTube creator. My office chair has seen more scenery than my hiking boots—especially now that summer has arrived in full force under the Sonoran Desert sun. With triple-digit days keeping me indoors, I’m already craving fall: crisp mornings, a thermos of coffee, and nights beneath the stars

Fall Dreams & Wilderness Plans

I’ve been deep into Gaia Maps, marking epic campsites with panoramas worth a six-hour drive. Each pin on that map is a promise—a future autumn adventure when temperatures drop and I can finally swap the air-conditioned cave for a tent under pines

From Stock Photos to Fine Art

Staying home has its perks. I’ve channeled my energy into future projects: refining my editing workflow, scripting a YouTube series on Lightroom techniques, and transforming my favorite 2024 shots. What began as quick stock-photo edits has evolved into meticulously crafted fine-art prints destined for my online shop. Witnessing these images transform under my retouching brush has been unexpectedly rewarding.

The Best of 2024

Below are the images that defined last year. From rare snow falls to wildlife encounters, each photo tells a story of light, color, and timing. Enjoy!

Snowy Cliffs of Sedona Arizona

On an exceptionally rare snowy morning in Sedona, I found myself surrounded by crimson sandstone cliffs dusted in fresh white powder—an almost surreal winter wonderland unfolding before my lens. After years of chasing this fleeting spectacle, the sunrise spilling golden light across that frosty landscape felt nothing short of magical. It’s experiences like this that make December through February my absolute favorite months for photography in Arizona, when the desert surprises you with its most mesmerizing transformations.

You can experience this photo shoot by following this link : Winter Photography in Sedona Arizona: Capturing Stunning Landscapes & Red Rocks

The Milkyway

Astrophotography is arguably the most demanding branch of photography—one that lures you far from civilization into pitch-black landscapes. You end up awake long past midnight, camera humming under a sky so dark the Milky Way blazes overhead, while bears and wolves prowl just beyond your tent. Every frame tests your patience: exposures can stretch from ten minutes to over an hour as you coax the faintest starlight into view. And that’s just the fieldwork—next comes the marathon of stacking, tweaking, and color-grading your RAW files.

I captured this shot on a solo camping trip in Arizona’s White Mountains, dialing my white balance to 3600K to bring out the ethereal green airglow dancing above the horizon.

The American Bison. King of the Prairie

No animal embodies the spirit of the American West quite like the bison. Once numbering between 30 and 60 million and thundering across the plains, they were almost eradicated—hunted down to just 325 individuals in the 1880s as part of a cruel strategy to undermine Indigenous peoples.

Thanks to relentless conservation efforts, those numbers have rebounded. Today roughly 30,000 bison roam free in national parks and protected reserves, with another 200,000 on private ranches. Seeing these majestic beasts grazing beneath open skies is nothing short of miraculous—a living testament to what dedicated stewardship can achieve.

Experience capturing this photo with me: Arizona Wildlife. Bison Photography

Closeup of an Elk

On a crisp January morning atop the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, I froze this majestic elk standing sentinel against a backdrop of a frosted forest. With winter blanketing the canyon in silence, Grand Canyon Village felt almost ghostly—just six of us braved the cold to witness that hush. The elk’s calm gaze and graceful posture made me forget I was anywhere but in a private, snow-dusted amphitheater of nature.

Moments like these—solitary wildlife encounters in one of Earth’s grandest galleries—remind me why winter reigns supreme at the rim.

A Midget Faded Rattlesnake Coiled on the Rocky Ground

At Forest Gump Point, just outside Monument Valley Tribal Park on the Navajo Nation—we scored an unforgettable encounter. My wife’s keen ears picked up a low, rhythmic rattle. Seconds later she froze, just a few feet from a coiled rattlesnake camouflaged in the red sand. Adrenaline surged as I framed a quick shot of its patterned scales, keeping a safe distance, my heart was racing as I photographed this deadly creature in the high winds before he disappeared beneath the safety of a rock.

Moments like that are powerful reminders: on any reservation, we’re guests in a place rich with history and sacred traditions. Tread lightly, stay on marked trails, and treat the land, its people and wildlife with the same respect you’d expect in your own home.

Safely enjoy this encounter: Photographing One of the Most Deadly Animals

Horses at Sunet

There’s a memory I still chase: those Indiana sunsets drenched in liquid gold. While growing up in rural Indiana, every evening I’d wait until thirty minutes before dusk, lace up my running shoes, then head either north or south—any direction was fine—just to feel that warm light spill across the fields, turning tall grass and grazing animals into silhouettes bathed in honeyed hues. It was my daily ritual, a fleeting moment of magic and motion I long to experience again

Relax with this video through my old stomping grounds: Farm Animal Photography

For 2025, I enjoyed a few trips out into the wilderness during the cooler months, and I have a few planed starting this fall. A huge benefit of living in the American west is our vast expanses of public lands where you are free to roam. That is something that I am looking forward to enjoying and sharing with all of you.