Picture of the week

Another World

The Old Faithful geyser of Yellowstone with the rising sun behind it on a winter morning.  During the first hour at sunrise, the moisture in the air from the various thermal vents and geysers condenses to a fog that permeates the basin.  This creates some quite pleasing conditions for photography.  For this particular shot I used a sun angle calculator tool ahead of time to determine where to set up in order to line up the geyser with the rising sun.  A graduated neutral density filter was applied to better balance the exposure and not allowing the sun to blow out the details in the highlights.

I visited the Snow Lodge at the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone the last week of February for photography under winter conditions.  I got here by taking a snow coach from Mammoth, also stopping at the Norris Geyser Basin along the way. Staying for two nights at the Snow Lodge gave me plenty of time for photographing the area on foot and cross country skiis.  Landscape opportunities tended to be best in the morning when temperatures were colder and more condensation is present. Due to the amount of snowmobile traffic, wildlife opportunities were less and more distant in comparison to the northeastern region around the Lamar Valley (see the previous post).

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2016.  Last updated: 3/20/2016   ()