I zoom my lens all the way out here, abstracting the scene as much as I can. This is more an image about the titanic forces of nature than it is about Yellowstone, its Falls, or its Canyon. It stresses, for the first time in this set, the unique coloration, texture, and markings of the cliff – the result of a river cutting through rock that was once part of a thermal feature. Today, this ancient rock supports a massive waterfall, but we only see a fragment of it here. I leave the rest of it to the imagination. The texture within this massive curtain of water, and the mist gently rising from its base, speak of its energy, scale, and majesty.

When I had finished making this set of six comparative images, I had to overcome the urge to select a favorite. There can be no favorite, of course, because each photograph tells a different story, and tells it well. Any selection, therefore, must be based on the answer to a simple question: what do we want to say? Once we answer it, we choose accordingly.