Sharing a few favorites from 2025, which upon reflection, surprised me. I’m usually fond of bright, colorful springtime images, and this year, had me gravitating to colder, darker scenes of ice, snow and dramatic weather. Not sure why that is, but I’m just rolling with it. Happy holidays, everyone!
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all taken with the Canon R5 Mark II, usually with longer focal lengths using the 100-500mm zoom.
All four are excellent, Beth. It’s always nice to have a change of pace. It keeps things fresh.
Wow! Fantastic and beautiful photographs. The “Hot Creek” scene is full of wonder and artfully done. Thank you for posting these.
A beautiful and varied set of images. I particularly like the last one.
Will
A lovely set, Beth! That Hot Creek sunrise is spectacular.
Beth: 4+ spectacular IMO. Just a great collection. Hot Creek is really nice and even though this is just a showcase I could not resist tweaking it a bit. For me raising the shadows a bit brings out some missing FG detail without reducing the drama of the light. The square crop works for me but I would be curious what this would look like as 4x3 or 5x4. Great to have you posting again and hope to see a lot more of your wonderful work in 2026. >=))>
PS: If you don’t mind my asking, where is Hot Creek?
Beth all four are excellent, with Hot Creek being my favorite, where I especially like the reflected color in the creek and the two misty clouds
A beautiful set of images, Beth, ranging from the intimate view of fresh ice to the grand landscape of Hot Creek (and I do like Bill’s edit to that). The clearing fog at Cimarron is stunning. I’m new here and glad to be introduced to your inspiring work.
Beth, I am so glad that I didn’t miss seeing your favs - all spectacular and diverse. Thanks.
A very nice collection, Beth. The Black Oaks winter image is particularly evocative and strong.
That’s a cracker of a first image, Beth. I also like the smattering of gold in the wintery tree scene.
Only four? I want more!
I would be very happy if I had these four images in my folders! What a treat!
Bill, this is a great edit; thank you! I actually had much more detail in the original image but decided to darken the foreground to add more mystery to the image - I kept tweaking it and probably still will now! Hot Creek is located in Mammoth Lakes right by the airport, and one of my favorite camping stopover points when traveling down 395 in the eastern Sierra, mostly because sometimes I like to roll out of bed in our camper in the morning and set up for this view, when I’m being lazy with a cup of coffee in hand 
Thank you, Dennis! It’s nice to have a change of pace sometimes
Mark, I definitely enhanced the color and reflection using a mask in LR to enhance that curved form; thank you!
Sounds like my kind of morning!
Wonderful collection of images, Beth.
I’d like to add a note regarding Hot Creek. It is located in the Long Valley Caldera, a seismically active area that covers many square miles, including Mammoth Mountain, Glass Mountain, and Devil’s Postpile. The floor of the caldera is rising due to the magma pool below the surface and provides the heat that gives Hot Creek its name. There are spots on the creek where the water temperature is at or near the boiling point. In fact, one of the spots we used to swim, and soak, is now closed due to the boiling water after a quake altered the plumbing.
The two large mountains in the background are Mount Morrison (L) and Laurel Mountain (R) which rise above Convict Lake that is nestled in the valley below them.
-P
All are lovely, but Hot Creek is at least a 15/10!
Preston, how amazing to get the opportunity to swim and soak there! My understanding is that the fish love it also 
