With the new year fast approaching, it's time for a look back on 2020. 

This was the second year of my full-time venture as a wildlife photographer.  I hope you enjoyed watching some of my new images this year and reading some of my articles and my book that was published this year, and I hope you'll follow me into 2021!

My year again started in the great country of Mexico where I was exploring the beautiful Baja peninsula. Unbeknownst to anyone, a virus was spreading like crazy early in the year, soon to be followed by lockdowns all over the world.  I found myself 'stuck' in a tiny town on the Sea of Cortez where I spent my time finishing and publishing my new book "Beginner's Guide to Bird & Wildlife Photography" (see it here) as well as writing several articles (see them here).

I finally left Mexico towards the end of May and headed straight to the Tetons and Yellowstone where I spent the late spring, summer and fall months photographing grizzly bear 399's adorable four new cubs, the bison, moose and elk rut, the wild horse herds as well as a host of other wildlife.

Late fall, I spent about one month along the Mississippi river to focus on the local beavers which was great fun.  Be on the lookout for the videos of the beaver lodge action.

Right now, I find myself in New Mexico, near Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, to photograph the amazing birds that spend winter here, as well as the local javelinas, coyotes, elk, mule deer, bobcat, etc.

In 2020:

- my new book was published: "Beginner's Guide to Bird & Wildlife Photography" (see it here)

- 5 of my articles got published (see them here)

- 24 images sold commercially to magazines/publishers

- after finally opening my new Etsy shop in late 2020 (see it here), I sold 37 wildlife fine art prints, which was a very nice surprise: Thank You!

- and, last but not least, I won several wildlife photography awards!  (see them here)

Social Media:

Facebook: astonishingly, my images reached an audience on Facebook alone of over 1,000,000 people this year on the social network, thanks to the power of sharing and re-sharing by Facebook users.  So far, I haven't spend a penny on social media ads, likes or followers so all growth and audience reach has been strictly organic. The number of followers on my Vango Photos business page on Facebook grew 175% in 2020: it just crossed 7,830 followers!  (see my Facebook account here)

Instagram: after getting a late start to Instagram in 2019, my audience has been steadily growing. Also here no money spent on sponsored posts, ads or buying followers, so I'm excited that my posts reached over 450,000 users in 2020 and the number of followers on my Instagram account in 2020 has grown 214%: it just crossed 8,500 followers! (see my Instagram account here)

What's in store for 2021?

As COVID-19 is still making any future planning highly difficult, I don't have any concrete travel plans for the next year, although of course I'll be on the road somewhere in wildlife areas.

- I'm planning on taking on the "365 challenge" during which I post one wildlife picture EACH day of 2021.  Keep an eye on my blog! (see it here)

- I'm committed to write 7 articles on various wildlife in 2021.  Keep an eye out for them throughout the year.

- If all goes well, 2021 will bring my new book.  I can't disclose yet what the topic is but depending on how it goes, it could hit stores (and online retailers like Amazon) by the summer of 2021!

- Hopefully offering my own photography workshops will become a reality in 2021, or perhaps 2022 as it currently looks (sign up on my mailing list if you're interested and when you do, you'll also automatically receive my free book: click here).  Current locations on the short-list include Hyder (Alaska) for the salmon run, bears, wolves, eagles, etc.; Grand Teton National Park for the spring and fall wildlife action and Bosque del Apache for the winter birds.

- I'll keep adding images to my Etsy shop to sell as fine art prints.  Keep an eye on my Etsy store here and add my store to your Etsy favorites so you'll be notified by Etsy when new images are available!

And now, here are your favorite images of 2020.  

I deliberately didn't choose my own favorites for this review but relied on my Facebook and Instagram feeds to tell me which images you liked the most.  Some of these images are available as fine art prints in my Etsy shop (see it here), or will be added to the store shortly. (let me know if you're interested in ordering one of these as a print and you don't find it yet in my Etsy shop)

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Have a happy New Year and a very prosperous (and healthy!) 2021!

- Jorn