FISH AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION
Chair MONTANA STATE PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD
DONALD M. JONES
Cover:
KERRY T. NICKOU
Above:
KURT CUNNINGHAM
Right: Damselfly resting on a pelican feather, Helena Valley Regulating Reservoir
JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2023
ne of the highlights of working for Montana Outdoors is choosing the cover of our hugely popular annual photo issue.
Art director Luke Duran selects all the images for the rest of the issue, a task he both relishes and agonizes over for weeks on end. From the roughly 1,600 photographs he receives each fall, Luke has to choose just a few dozen that exhibit, as stated in his instructions to photographers, “tones and hues across the color spectrum, masterful use of light and focus, great composition, and unique angles and perspectives…that demonstrate the photographer’s thoughtfulness, artistry, and hard work.”
For the cover, all three of us on staff vote on several images that Luke selects as having the right composition (vertical, with space up top for the Montana Outdoors banner) as well as outstanding visual appeal. FWP’s magazine appears on newsstands across Montana and the entire Northwest. Its cover must compete with those gracing National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, People, and others for the attention of shoppers. The shot has to be stunning. This year our unanimous choice was for the striking photo of a bull moose in velvet lifting its massive head and antlers from a pond as it was feeding on underwater vegetation.
The shot was taken by Troy photographer Donald M. Jones, who has been contributing to this magazine for 30 years. He tells us he photographed the moose early one morning this past July in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. “For me, it’s all about getting the right perspective, and that morning I got real low, lying prone on a mat along the shore with my lens sitting on a skimmer pad in the water and then waiting for the moose to raise its head,” Jones says. “With this particular shot, it all came together with the soft morning light diffused by the smoke in the air, not too much vegetation in its mouth, and all that water cascading off its antlers.
“Whether it’s a moose or a praying mantis,” Jones adds, “I want to look the animal right in the eye.”
And that’s what goes into just a single photograph. Luke has selected and artfully arranged another 101 for you on these and the following pages of our 42nd annual photo issue. We hope you enjoy admiring all of these beautiful images as much as we did selecting them.
Tom Dickson, Editor Bull moose rising from a lake in Glacier National Park Osprey with rainbow trout, Pine Grove Pond Fishing Access Site north of Kalispell
MIKE HINES
Above:
SETH ANDERSON
Top
Right:
ERIC HEIDLE
Far
SHAWN T. STEWART
Opposite
JAY STYLES
Below:
Opposite
DAN ELLISON
Opposite
page left: Cedar waxwing in flight Eastern kingbird feeding its young JEFF MOORE page bottom left: Young mountain bluebird stretching its wing in Paradise Valley page bottom right: Calliope hummingbird near Helena JOHN CARLSON Bottom: Violet-green swallow stretching its wing in Yellowstone CountyKEVIN LEAGUE
PATRICK CLAYTON
CHRISTOPHER WAGNER
Above:
RANGANATH PARTHASARATHY
Right: Lightning over illuminated tepees near Yellowstone National Park’s Roosevelt Arch outside of Gardiner
COLTON STIFFNER
Above:
PAUL SIHLER
Left:
DUANE HUIE
TRACY ENTERLINE
Above
KARL KRIEGER
JEREMY ROBERTS
Above:
DREW BAKER
Below: Detail of a male brook trout, Georgetown Lake
STEVEN AKRE
Opposite page: Black-billed magpie, Missoula
JOHN LAMBING
Above:
QUINCEY PURCELL
Right:
MARK BOESCH
MACNEIL LYONS
Right: Wolverine
MARK BOESCH
KALON BAUGHAN
Far right top: Wolverine photographed with a camera trap in the Helena–Lewis and Clark National Forest
KATE AND ADAM RICE
Far right bottom: Badger and cub emerging from their den
JOSHUA RUTLEDGE
Above: Bull elk emerging from brush CHRIS AUCH
Right: Bull elk illuminated by the rising sun
JAKE WILLSON
Left: Elk herd silhouette JERRY
TAYLOR
Far left: Bull bugling at sunset in the Slippery Ann area of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
KENTON ROWE
Above:
PAUL HOLDORF
Left:
GRANT GOLDEN
Opposite
KEVIN LEAGUE
Opposite page: Sandhill crane wading in Lake Helena
STEVE McMORRAN
Top: Sandhill cranes and full moon over the Helena Valley
STEVE PARKER
Above left: Sandhill crane pair near Melrose
KYLE MOON
Above right: Sandhill crane and colt near Bozeman
DAN NICHOLS
Top: Sunset over an old stone building in the Helena Valley
JR McCURDIE
Above: Abandoned farmstead east of Brady
BILL KINNEY
RICHARD PRODGERS
ERIC HEIDLE
DICK WALKER
ESTELLE SHUTTLEWORTH
BECCA WOOD
BARBARA GARTEN
Below left: Bumblebee
Below right: Western tiger swallowtail butterfly, Helena–Lewis and Clark National Forest
Bottom: Arrowleaf balsamroot and lupine in bloom, Bitterroot Valley
RANDY SMITH
Top left: Western tanager near Dillon
JERRY TAYLOR
Above left: Western meadowlark, Swamp Creek near Big Timber
SHARON DEWART-HANSEN
Top right: Common yellowthroat near Helena
BOB MARTINKA
Above right: Yellow warbler, Grizzly Gulch near Helena
BILL KINNEY
Right:
BRETT THUMA
Below: 2022 Garceau Gulch Fire near Hot Springs
CHRIS McGOWAN
Opposite page: Full moon over a burned forest near Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park
NATHAN COOPER
Top: Ice formation on the lower Missouri River
KEN PLOURDE
Above left: Buffaloberry branches and fruit against hoar frost
ELISE HOMME
Above right: Ice crystals on grass leaves
STEVEN GNAM
Left:
DAVID GAITONDE
Below:
BRETT SWAIN
Top: Mule deer doe in patch of arrowleaf balsamroot
CAROL POLICH
Above: Mule deer doe in field
TOM REICHNER
Right: Whitetail buck in teasel
CHARLES RENFRO
Left: Cow and calf moose in a northwestern Montana lake TRISH HUDDLESTON Below: Bull moose
CHUCK HANEY
Opposite page: Ice formations with colored stones in the water below along Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park
LORNA MASON
Top: Rainbow reflections near Clancy
LAURA SAWAYA
Left: Mammatus cloud formation near Missoula
COLIN RUGGIERO
Starry sky over Rosebud County in southeastern Montana
