“Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before…Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.” –Neil Gaiman

• Most popular photos on Facebook (Merry Christmas – below) and Instagram (Desert Snowflakes – above)

• Petapixel published a great 52 week photography challenge for 2017.

• A pair of common loons adopted a goldeneye duckling. Read about it at Audubon.

• China bans its ivory trade, moving against elephant poaching at the New York Times.

• 10 major Audubon conservation wins in 2016.

• This article includes a white giraffe, a skiing cat, and two-headed sharks. Check out NatGeo’s 10 weirdest animal stories of 2016.

• I took over 22,000 photos in 2016. Read about it here.

• My Instagram Best Nine of 2016:

• Throwback photo of week:

• Have you visited my Printshop? 20% of all profits will be donated to the National Audubon Society, the Ocean Conservancy, or the Sierra Club.