Behind the Image: January 2026 — James Rodewald Photography

January was a difficult image to pick for the 2026 edition of my annual nature calendar. I wrestle with it every year, because it’s such a cold month here in the Adirondacks. The forest is more or less silent and monochromatic, but yet it’s also quite beautiful. I have gone with abstract images in the past, but lately I have been leaning towards larger-scale images as an attention-grabber for people viewing the calendar for the first time.

January 2026: “Shoulder season folding into Winter.”
Hasselblad on DJI Mavic 4 Pro.
f2.8 x 1/100s
ISO 100

January evaded me in 2025 for some reason. It’s typically a productive month, photographically speaking. The lead image does not necessarily have to have been taken in January to qualify in my mind, but I do want it to be at least somewhat representative of what one could see in my region. I had the good fortune of traveling to the deserts of Southern Utah in February of 2025, but those images didn’t speak “Northeastern forest” to me the way I prefer for opening the calendar.

In mid-November I had a breakthrough and managed to be home right on the cusp of an early season snow fall. The snow coated the forests around my house at a time when the oaks were still retaining some of their leaves. That contrast, to me, was perfect. It represents that shoulder season where one season runs into another.

The mountain in this image has been a common subject for me, its forest is absolutely brilliant at times. Several years ago I managed to catch it between Winter and Spring. The deciduous trees had already started to bloom at the lower elevations and a late-season snow came in that impacted the higher elevations. You could literally see the cutoff right in front of you, trees blooming fading into Winter in the top of the frame.

Included here are two different images from this same mountain that I took over the past several years. I have over two thousand different exposures, many of which are awful or redundant, but from time to time one rises to the surface that I enjoy working with. The point here is that photographing the same area over time can yield some really rewarding images if you stick to it and maintain consistency. Try different times and get yourself out into different conditions and you’ll most likely find some images you enjoy.

One of the interesting things that emerges from these three photographs taken at three different times on three different years is the consistency of the style. In particular, the perceived angles from which the images were taken. All three have a somewhat elevated feel to them. The first image, “Shoulder season folding into Winter.” was taken with a high definition camera attached to a drone from about 250 feet in elevation looking slightly down for horizontal. The other two were taken feet apart from each other at two different dates on two different years. In both cases a long lens was used from a pull-off which gave me a clear view of the forest. They have a straight-on to slightly upward feel to them. They could have easily been drone images as well, but that was not part of my equipment back then. The camera doesn’t necessarily impact what you shoot nor how you shoot, but can impact the results. It was a pleasure to see how consistent they were despite using three very different cameras for these — the second two being recorded with the Nikon D850 and the Nikon Z8 at about 500 mm.

Although the drone-based imagery is fairly new to my camera bag, I feel as though it’s enabled me to get images I couldn’t quite achieve with my standard equipment. Where I live views of the forest from the side or above are very rare, you have to find places where the forest has been cleared, where there is open water, or where there may be a rocky outcrop. That enables you to get around the trees that literally obscure most views of the forest. Now, being able to get just above the canopy allows me a whole new range of “uncluttered” views of this beautiful forest. That said, views of the forest that appear as though they were taken from said vantage points and not obviously from a drone or aircraft. Not to speak negatively of those alternative top-down or high angle of incidence images, it’s just not the way I experience the forest for now.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of this year’s calendar — including the option of getting “Shoulder season foldinging into Winter.” as a collector’s print — you can find them here.

Thanks for your ongoing interest. Questions or commments? Drop them below!