nature photography – NATHANSTUEVE.INFO

in recent years nature photography gives me tremendous pleasure : ) my best and latest stuff always viewable on instagram @naturalist_feelings

naturalist_feelings

the remoteness of the rio grande river canyon near

the remoteness of the rio grande river canyon near the CO/NM border always awes me as a place completely removed from time, so genuinely wild and far from ordinary reality one wonders if the modern world really exists at all. have never seen another human out there but abundant fresh tracks and signs of large and small creatures tell sometimes violent stories in the sand along a river flowing without pause through countless millennia. a deeply primeval place i especially revere.

#riogrande #river #canyon #wilderness #remoteplaces #landscape #landscapephotography #sonyA7s #FE24105G #CO #NM #publiclands #primeval #wild #timeless #tranquility

one of the more extraordinary wildlife encounters

one of the more extraordinary wildlife encounters this year = purely by chance walking up directly on this elk calf hidden in the sagebrush on a hillside overlooking brown's lake in central MT. at first i thought perhaps it had died because it didn't react to me at all but sure enough it's sides heaved rhythmically with breath and i understood perfect stillness + lack of scent = the survival strategy elk (and deer) calves employ to avoid predators while the adults forage nearby. indeed heard a heavy clattering of hooves further downslope. took a few pictures and continued on my way, amazed.
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#wildlife #wildlifephotography #elk #calf #ecology #naturalism #nature #naturephotography #hiking #publiclands #montana #MT #sonyA7s

seeing this cooper's hawk recently an awesome life

seeing this cooper's hawk recently an awesome lifetime first 🤗 fierce as they look predators of mostly other birds but also various mammals reptiles and fish. often observed ambush hunting from perches, strikes hard and fast with an observed 25% or so success rate. imagine seeing those red eyes up close and living to remember it!
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4 mile - san isabel national forest - central CO.
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#hawk #accipiter #birds #birdstagram #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #ecology #naturalism #ornithology #sonyA7rii #FE200600G

so much the most beautiful time of year, warm days

so much the most beautiful time of year, warm days, cool nights, sleeping cozily outdoors under blankets of down and stars, the blazing cottonwoods, the gorgeous aching impermanence of things and poignant sense of our own biological mortality. mere weeks remain before winter arrives, savoring every moment in one of my all time favorite western north american landscapes, san isabel national forest, central CO
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#landscape #landscapephotography #mountains #rockymountains #vanlife #boondocking #outdoorliving #getoutside #simplicity #poignance #autumn #publiclands #nationalforests #colorado #CO

astounding autumn scenes in the '4 mile' section

astounding autumn scenes in the '4 mile' section of the san isabel national forest, central colorado.
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#autumn #autumnleaves #aspens #sunset #fallcolors #landscape #landscapephotography #hiking #camping #vanlife #sonyA7s #colorado #CO #publiclands #getoutside #nostalgia #beauty

lately preoccupied with other very interesting thi

lately preoccupied with other very interesting things & not much on IG. that spectacular autumn time of year again in the rockies 🍂👀😍🤗 life = beautiful, hope everyone enjoying it to the fullest in spite of this crazy year 🌎 ♥️ ✨ .
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san isabel national forest, central CO
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#rockymountains #rockies #landscape #landscapephotography #hiking #nature #naturephotography #autumn #autumnleaves #fallcolors #aspens #sonyA7s #colorado #CO

incredible landscape and SOUNDS (audio ON) of the

incredible landscape and SOUNDS (audio ON) of the arapaho national wildlife refuge in north park, colorado. wetlands like this sustain a vast array of species, many multiples the number living further from water. migratory birds, amphibians, fish, insects, reptiles, mammals, flowers and others flourishing densely, a true oasis. despite many wetlands interrupted or destroyed for agriculture, quite a few federally protected national wildlife refuges like this up and down the rockies offer a chance to marvel at the incredible ecological diversity and beauty of western intermountain wetlands. priceless treasure!
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#landscape #landscapephotography #nature #naturephotography #audio #naturesounds #fieldrecording #natureaudio #birdsong #frogs #birds #publiclands #wildlife #wildliferefuge #northpark #colorado #CO #ecology #naturalism #wetlands #mountains #rockymountains #hiking #getoutside #zoomh5 #northamerica #earth

woke up yesterday to heavy sniffing sounds, van sl

woke up yesterday to heavy sniffing sounds, van slightly rocking. this character here had it's paws up on the ledge where my doors hung open, head stuck in expressing keen interest in the previous night's leftovers! i sat up and it dashed off a few feet before ambling nonchalantly away. a known personality in this area, called "chocolate" by some. not the first and probably not the last time i'll closely encounter it (not sure male / female). luckily black bears pose no serious danger to humans. possibly solved the mystery of bigfoot ; ).
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#wildlife #wildlifephotography #wildanimals #bear #bears #blackbear #mammals #nature #naturephotography #vanlife #closeencounters #goodmorning #surprises #bigfoot #sasquatch #sonyA7Rii #colorado #rockymountains

tundra swan, kleinschmidt lake, central MT. . . .

tundra swan, kleinschmidt lake, central MT.
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#swan #tundraswan #birds #birdstagram #birding #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #ecology #naturalism #waterfowl #animalportrait #sonyA7rii #FE200600G

the omnipresent american crow. from the most desol

the omnipresent american crow. from the most desolate deserts to the highest mountain peaks they see it all, impossible to travel anywhere in the wilderness without crows observing your movements. i often wonder if they share a collective intelligence, the aerial eyes and ears of nature.
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#birds #birdstagram #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #ecology #naturalism #crow #americancrow #northamerica #silhouette #animalportrait #sonyA7rii #FE200600G #earth

larkspur sunset on beaver divide, WY. . . . . #sun

larkspur sunset on beaver divide, WY.
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#sunset #landscape #landscapephotography #publiclands #clouds #hdr #hdrphotography #sage #naturallight #earth #wyoming #wyoming #wildflowers #larkspur #sagebrush

ornate checkered beetles inflict all kinds of prob

ornate checkered beetles inflict all kinds of problems on solitary bee species (not honeybees). it begins when the beetle lays a single egg in the middle of a flower, which hatches into a larvae and waits to attach itself to the leg of a visiting bee, hitching a ride back to the bee's nest. there it finds its way into a pupal cell the bee has prepared and consumes all the food, and the pupa, burrowing through the wall into adjacent cells consuming the young bees until satiated, eventually metamorphosing into an adult and bursting from the nest. adults mostly feed on pollen (cinquefoil in this photo) but attack and eat any bees reckless enough to visit the same flower. insect natural history brims with parasitic life strategies which seem unfair or immoral by human standards, all part of the game among insects.
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#insect #insects #beetle #beetles #coleoptera #insectagram #bugs #macro #macrophotography #macro_vision #macro_captures #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #ecology #naturalism #naturalhistory #biology #entomology #northamerica #earth #sonyA7r #FE24105G #insectworld

love the classy plumage of eared grebes, one of se

love the classy plumage of eared grebes, one of several grebe species common in the intermountain west. grebes live almost entirely on water with lobed toes and rear positioned legs optimized for swimming and diving. mostly they eat aquatic insects, crayfish, and mollusks. they build floating nest colonies on shallow lakes since they can only take flight from open water. always one of my favorite waterbirds to see, so cool and stylish. kleinschmidt lake, central MT, earth.
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#grebe #earedgrebe #avantgarde #plumage #birds #birding #birdstagram #waterfowl #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #naturalism #naturalhistory #sonyA7Rii #FE200600G #montana #MT #hiking #publiclands #northamerica #earth

imagine living in a sprawling labyrinth of interco

imagine living in a sprawling labyrinth of interconnected spaces under a jagged rockpile at the very top of a mountain. a few brief months each year you deliberately harvest, sun dry and cache "haystacks" made from plants growing nearby, always on the lookout for predatory birds and weasels. when deep snow arrives early you spend all winter eating your hay in the temperature moderated space below actively focused on territorial and sexual exploits. the life of a pika, so cute, so industrious! in snowless alpine summer high pitched alarm calls announce their presence, need only wait in stillness for curiosity to bring them nearer.
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san isabel national forest, central colorado, earth.
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#wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #wildanimals #cuteanimals #mountains #rockymountains #colorado #CO #hiking #naturalism #naturalhistory #sonyA7Rii #FE200600G #northamerica #earth #hiking #cute

sublime enjoying a secluded alpine lake all to one

sublime enjoying a secluded alpine lake all to oneself. the water's vibrant blue comes from suspended "glacial flour", rock dust ground beneath last winter's melted ice pack so fine and light it doesn't settle out. a true skinny dipper's delight : ) spout lake, san isabel national forest, central colorado, earth.
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#summerthings #rockymountains #mountains #landscapes #landscapephotography #alpine #lake #colorado #CO #hiking #optics #sonyA7s #FE1224G #skinnydipping #elevation #northamerica #earth

elephant's head lousewart (Pedicularis groenlandic

elephant's head lousewart (Pedicularis groenlandica) easily one of the more fanciful wildflowers growing in the rockies montane zone, easy to see where the common name comes from. besides photosynthesizing it also parasitizes sugars from the roots of plants growing nearby. the cheyenne historically treated persistent coughs with an infusion of powdered leaves and stems.
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san isabel national forest, central colorado.
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#wildflowers #wildflower #botany #naturalhistory #naturalism #macro #macrophotography #ethnobotany #wildmedicine #rockymountains #hiking #colorado #CO #sonyA7Rii #FE200600G #hiking #earth

no matter how often i see this still the same feel

no matter how often i see this still the same feeling of awe. sunrise on the sawatch range (mt princeton), san isabel national forest, central colorado, earth.
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#mountains #rockymountains #sunrise #dawn #naturallighting #outdoorliving #landscapes #landscapephotography #camping #boondocking #offgrid #publiclands #nationalforests #colorado #CO #sonyA7s #FE24105G #northamerica #earth #vanlife #simplicity #awe

lately seeing this moose family in a certain meado

lately seeing this moose family in a certain meadow along the way to revisiting some favorite central colorado boondocking spots (left missoula, MT about 2 weeks ago to happily resume the hot springs based southern rockies outdoor vanlife : ) female moose have either 1 or 2 calves a year, protecting and teaching them moose ways until just before giving birth again the following year, when the mother drives them off to begin their independent adult lives. never previously seen the calves, so shaggy : ) grainy pics taken in the falling light of dusk, san isabel national forest.
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pretty deep backlog of photos from this spring & early summer haven't taken the time to fully process, watch out for increased postings as i get around to it in coming weeks
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#moose #calves #cute #cuteanimals #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #mammals #naturalism #naturalhistory #wilderness #publiclands #colorado #CO #rockymountains #northamerica #camping #hiking #vanlife #A7rII #FE200-600G

some days ago camping in seasonal wetlands of the

some days ago camping in seasonal wetlands of the blackfoot river valley rounded a little hill to see a pair of sandhill cranes browsing just ahead in wildflower carpeted meadow, bathed in the perfect golden light of evening, a beautiful sight! they tolerated me, eventually meandering casually to the top of a nearby hill and lingering there perhaps fifteen minutes surveying the surrounding landscape. very easy to understand sandhill cranes capturing the aesthetic and poetic imagination of so many, their huge size, beauty and grace truly enchanting. before this year had never seen a sandhill crane, recently encountering them in various scenarios definitely a highlight of 2020.
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#birds #cranes #sandhillcranes #birding #birdstagram #birding #ornithology #naturalism #naturalhistory #hiking #camping #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #sonyA7rii #FE200600G #montana #MT #rockymountains #wildflowers #goldenhour #grace

i've never used this instagram account to express

i've never used this instagram account to express political or social opinions. for me it exists exclusively to document encounters with the non-human world and intentionally has nothing whatever to do with human politics or social problems. the earth. ducks. only this. those of you who know me personally know my ideology basically amounts to vehement rejection of every political institution and power structure currently existing, that i've done a lot of protesting, been jailed and habitually broken various laws and social norms refusing obedience to "the system" for many years. beautiful to see and support a new generation of youth rising up to challenge the twisted world they've inherited. besides this many urgent problems simultaneously exist and to be completely honest i seriously doubt expressing my political opinions through a nature photography account to an audience of politically progressive peers on a social media platform wholly owned and manipulated by silicon valley plutocrats eagerly colluding with the world's most violent racist state stands to accomplish much besides (in this specific case) inconsequential virtue signaling. the fact the natural world exists and continues to follow timeless rhythms irrespective the anxieties and violence of our psychologically all-consuming human affairs i find deeply calming, an essential bedrock of sanity and will to persevere through difficult times. hopefully this is understood and not mistaken for complicity or indifference to urgent and long overdue developments in the socio-political sphere beyond the narrowly focused scope of this account. black lives matter defund the state all my love.
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view north to the swan range from the environs of kleinschmidt lake, western montana

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December 24, 2019