Happy Holidays to everyone, hard to believe we are starting the final month of 2025 and what a year it has been. I have not fully processed all that has happened this year, nor how many images were captured over the past eleven months. Maybe I will try to determine that value before next month but I may not want to know the number either. I am already planning personal trips for the next two years and rescheduling one for next year, so more details on those once all is finalized. A few weeks ago, I was able to head west for a week of photography with visits to Badlands National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. In case readers have not heard of the Little Bighorn Battlefield NM, it was originally named "Custer Battlefield National Monument" but was changed in 1991 to honor all who fought in the two-day battle in 1876. Both of our images this month are from the same day, November 11, which I did not plan but based on Christmas colors, I thought they were appropriate, plus most people don't want to see images of snow.

Would like to say thank you to those who responded to last month's newsletter question. We really appreciate the feedback. Wishing everyone a wonderful and safe holiday season and an even better beginning to 2026.

The first image this month was not something I was expecting during my visit to Yellowstone NP and honestly was not prepared for equipment-wise. I really needed a super wide-angle lens but those were 1000 miles away. About the time I arrived in the park, there was a coronal mass ejection that sent material towards Earth but the full magnitude of the event was not known until I was already in the park. In case you missed it, November was host to the strongest geomagnetic storms in 2025 and this particular event was the most intense I have seen in the lower 48 states. The storm was so large that I read reports people in central Mexico were able to see the aurora (aka Northern Lights). At my location in Mammoth, Wyoming, the sky was nearly completely covered at times; it was a wonderful experience - hopefully everyone had an opportunity to take a quick look. Camera Data: 24mm 6.0 sec F5.0 ISO800

Staying with Christmas colors, how about a Red Fox for the second image? Not sure if this fox was recently from the groomers or what but the coat of this animal was wonderful plus you can see it's ready for winter with the thick coat and tail. I was lucky enough to watch this beautiful animal hunt for food nearly an hour before I decided to leave it alone and hunt without me capturing images, most other people who had stopped took a quick few pictures with their phones and went on their way. I enjoyed the time and learned more about their behaviors while hunting for food, something you can not achieve at a zoo. Camera Data: 540mm 1/1600 sec F7.1 ISO1600

Here's a link to download the appropriate version of this month's image for your desktop, one for standard screens and one for wide-screens along with a Mobile Phone Image. For desktop computers or tablets, Right click on the text for the format you need and select Save As, save to a location on your device and change the background as needed for your OS.

For Mobile devices, most mobile phones require a long press and a menu pop-up will be displayed. Click save then follow the steps for your operating system to set as your background image.

If anyone has problems or questions, let me know and I will try to assist.

http://www.timlesterimages.com/calendar/december.html

Enjoy the images this month and let me know if you have any comments!

Tim Lester

TIM LESTER IMAGES
Email: tim@PROTECTED
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