1st PLACE
Fire and Ice, Pam Dorner
"A sandhill crane does his best dragon impersonation a cold January morning in central New Mexico. I spent the first months of the year hoping to photograph sandhill crane breath in backlit conditions. I quickly realized this was going to be tougher than originally thought, as certain conditions had to be in place to capture this. First, it needs to be cold, with very little wind and full sun to light up their breath. I also needed a dark background. One morning, the stars aligned and I was able to capture this sandhill crane amid preflight calls. The light gave the impression this crane was breathing fire.” —Pam Dorner
2nd PLACE
It's Only Monday, Aaron Lewis
"I came across this great blue heron at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge last fall. The trip to Bosque was memorable to me because I was there with my uncle who was visiting from the Midwest and also my brother who also lives in New Mexico. Growing up, my brother and I learned a lot about waterfowl and wading water birds from my uncle. He would take us out to the wetlands where we grew up to scout for birds. This trip meant a lot to us to be able to show him Bosque and recapture a glimpse of that excitement from when we were kids." —Aaron Lewis
3rd PLACE
Bighorn Battle, Ben Chesebrough
“I’d never heard the sound of bighorn rams battling until the morning I took this shot. The sound of a low, deep ‘crack!’ not unlike the report of a rifle echoing through the high alpine valley deep in the New Mexican wilderness is something I’ll never forget. I stumbled upon these two during a 20-mile hike on a lovely Sunday in September below towering 13,000-foot spires.” —Ben Chesebrough
HONORABLE MENTION
A Window into the Life of Sparrows, Eldon Vita
"This photo was taken on the drive back to Santa Fe from Folsom. My wife told me about a rest stop that we had to stop at because of the swallows. We ended up staying to photograph these little guys because the lighting was just too perfect. They had completely taken over the rest stop, using every nook and cranny as a nest. A small field gave us a space to watch them hunt and feed their young. We enjoyed their company for a while until the sun had gotten too low and the light had faded too much to take any more photos." —Eldon Vita