The sun is fading over the Rocky Mountains on a late winter Friday afternoon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Tom Mangelsen, a powerful man in his mid-50s, is tucked away in his downtown studio, surrounded by 2,500 boxes of film he has shot and developed in the past few years but not yet had time to review. With his whirlwind schedule this spring and summer, he's unlikely to catch up anytime soon.

By the end of June, he'll have released a new catalog, published a new book and opened his thirteenth Images of Nature photo gallery, this time in Kirkland, Wash. He'll miss the late April opening gala, however. That week he'll be spending his evenings huddling in a bamboo thicket...

This is an issue I’ve been looking forward to since last summer. While on a nature photography road trip from Seattle to Grand Teton National Park, I stumbled on a photo gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyo. It was a Sunday night, so the gallery was closed, but I was transfixed by the photos displayed inside. I was heading back on the road early the next morning, so would not have a chance to enter the gallery, but I grabbed a courtesy catalog from a dispenser outside the door.

Continuing on my trip, the memory of those photos stayed with me. As I looked over the catalog along the way, I knew we had to share those photos—and this photographer—with our readers. One of the highlights of this issue on nature and wildlife photography has been getting to view more...

The North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) has announced the winners of its prestigious awards for 2000. The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Erwin and Peggy Bauer of Sequim, Washington, while Thomas Mangelsen of Jackson Hole, Wyoming has been named Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year.

The awards will be presented at the Annual Summit in Austin, Texas, January 12-16, 2000.