Welcome to the Images in the Backcountry website! My name is Mike Matenkosky and I’m a Central Valley California (Atwater, Merced & Modesto) photographer specializing in fine art landscape, nature, wildlife and inspirational photography. From the smallest bird to the largest mountain; I love it all, but my passion is landscape photography. I enjoy capturing the moment and feeling I get when I’m out in the outdoors and convert that image I see with my eyes, into that picture - that experience - for all to see, forever.

You can find me taking pictures of all sorts of nature subjects around the Central Valley. Some of my favorite locations are the Merced NWR, Yosemite Lake (here in Merced), Yosemite National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, and sometimes my own backyard. I just love seeing what God has created!

I encourage you to spend some time browsing my online galleries and I hope you find that perfect photograph for your home or office. If you’re looking for something that you don’t see here, visit my nature photography blog. I post all of my new pictures here first, and some of those images never get posted to my online nature gallery. So I encourage you to subscribe to my blog with updates and new pictures via e-mail.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to help you!