25-MAY-2010
Trying their legs, Yellowstone National Park, 2010
Amazingly, these newborn bison calves are already testing newly discovered legs just hours after birth.
27-MAY-2010
On the road, Yellowstone National Park, 2010
The final image in this bison sequence within this photo-essay features the heart of a herd of buffalo heading directly towards us, with the newborn calves keeping up the pace and the adult bisons guarding their progress. I made this image through the front window of a car while stalled in traffic waiting for the herd to clear the road near the Madison River.
25-MAY-2010
Newborn bear cub, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
Bears are quite secretive during the day -- most of them rest and forage deep in the forest. Yet we saw this mother Black Bear and her newborn cub grazing in a field of dead trees, at a considerable distance from the road. Using a 400mm lens, and cropping my image in half, I was able to picture them here grazing on a thin green band of grass, surrounded at front and back by a fallen forest probably produced by a violent windstorm.
26-MAY-2010
Honeycomb Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
The violent eruptions of Yellowstone’s many geysers are crowd pleasers. I waited for eight tourists to gather at the foot of this erupting geyser and made this image to demonstrate both the force and scale of the event.
27-MAY-2010
Ice breaks up on Lake Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
Lake Yellowstone is North America’s largest mountain lake. It is 20 miles long, and can be as deep as 430 feet. During the winter, it freezes over. We were there as the ice was breaking up, the blue sky reflected in the patches of frigid water. I watched the body language of the tourists viewing the lake from Pumice Point and made this image at the most expressive moment. Snow may still blanket the distant peaks, yet there is no doubt that spring has come as well.
27-MAY-2010
Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
A rising sun puts the force of this erupting geyser into contrast with a partially overcast sky. My 14mm wideangle lens stretches the scene wide and tall enough to embrace the height of the column of water and the surrounding terrain. This image opens a four-picture sequence that boldly symbolizes the beauty and grandeur of the vertical works of nature here at Yellowstone.
27-MAY-2010
Lone pine, Yellowstone Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is 1000 feet deep. Hot water acting on volcanic rock created the canyon’s distinctive colors. To create this second image in the four-picture sequence, I found a narrow tall pine standing alone on the side of the canyon and moved my camera position so that it fit neatly within the vertical streak of white rock on the opposite side of the canyon. Outlined against that band of contrasting color, it seems to soar even higher.
26-MAY-2010
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
The third image in this series of vertical thrusts is a long vertical trail of brilliantly colored calcified rock that characterizes the stunning beauty of the Grand Prismatic Spring. The largest hot spring in the United States, it is known for its vivid colors, the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of mineral-rich water. The color varies by season, and with the coming of spring, the orange and red colors replace the winter mats of dark green.
27-MAY-2010
The Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
This image concludes the penultimate four-picture sequence of the powerful vertical thrusts that mark nature’s imprint on Yellowstone. The force of the Yellowstone River as it courses through the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is evident in the surging white water that fills the gorge following the snowmelt each spring.
27-MAY-2010
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2010
The final image of this photo-essay offers a strikingly different vision of one of the most photographed vistas in the world. Normally, photographers are likely to concentrate on the thundering Upper Falls and its relationship to the Yellowstone River. I’ve done this myself on previous visits to the Park. (See
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/zooming ) In this case, however, I wanted the scene to work more as a symbol of the coming of spring, a visual story of growth and regeneration. And so I used a 14mm wideangle focal length to devote over half the image to the powerfully symbolic burst of clouds high over the scene. The mighty falls and the river that flows from it are minimized here, becoming mere context for the cloudscape, instead of the subject itself. A closer look reveals spots of melting snow, and a screen of foliage frames the scene in the foreground. The image works as a metaphor for the coming of spring to Yellowstone, and this scene offers a perfect context for it.