Close Encounters: Portraits of Nature

Calling all animal lovers! Close Encounters: Portraits of Nature is an astounding look at our wild creatures--mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and arachnids and insects (including a section of images of thousand-year-old insects preserved in amber)--close up and personal. Colby waits with patience, stealth, and reverence to capture the shot, and in so doing, manages to artfully reveal the human-animal connection in each photograph. Created with the utmost understanding of light and composition, Close Encounters is a compilation of Ray Colby's best wildlife photography from around the United States.

Ray Colby has been drawn to photography ever since middle school, when he took his first class with Mr. Klein. For thirty years, he worked as a professional freelance commercial, industrial, and documentary photographer, and numerous of his projects have been published, including in travel-guide books, scientific documentaries, and Science Museum of Minnesota publications. Colby has also had fine art showings in the Twin Cities of his black-and-white photographic work.

Now retired, he fills his days listening to music, reading, bicycling, traveling, and, as an amateur paleontologist, collecting fossils. Whether he's hiking or climbing in the mountains and deserts out West, or simply strolling through the nature preserve near his home, his camera is in hand. Born and raised in Minnesota, Colby lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Melanie, and cat, Baillie.