Non-fiction review: Spirit of the Rockies: The mountain lions of Jackson Hole by Thomas D. Mangelsen

The photos in this book are outstanding, although knowing much of Mangelsen's other work, this is not a surprise.  To the amateur, the photos might seem not quite 'all that', and Thomas makes few apologies for the nearly impossible shooting conditions.  It was bitterly cold, the lenses required to shoot in very low light are incredibly heavy-- some of these are more than 35 pounds just for one lens and require one or two tripods-- and any subtle movement by the animal can blur the photo due to the low light.  But Mangelsen won't go into details about that because the photos he provides are likely the best that anyone could have taken.  Cara Shea Blessley's accompanying story is a wonderful explanation of how a family of mountain lions briefly moved into a cave on a Butte just outside the ski town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and provided an extremely rare glimpse into the life of a reclusive animal in the wild.  Mangelsen has other books of his photography, but none capture the spirit of a singular once-in-a-lifetime event like this one does.