“Within a few weeks the golden leaves of the aspen trees will have fallen,” says artist Rod Frederick, “but at this very second this bull moose has stumbled into a magical moment with his lovely lady. Autumn is my favorite season of the year, when the leaves begin to change and the large ungulates—the elk, deer and moose—try to take care of all the things they need to do before the long winter arrives.

“The scene shown here exists in no particular place, but is in fact a composite of several locations from Alaska to Wyoming and Montana. These hardy spruce and fir trees have seen quite a lot of snow, but they’ve been around long enough to see that spring is never very far away . . . except in Alaska.”