Yellowstone!

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Yellowstone National Park for a day last Saturday. I don't care who you are, the park should be on your personal list of "places I must see with my own two eyes". I took hundreds of photos, but there's nothing like being there and seeing it with your own eyes. Its a place of such majesty and vibrance that you don't really look at it as much as feel it. I'm simultaneously proud of the technical prowess of these photos, and somewhat disappointed that they fail to convey the breathtaking scale and color of the park.

This is an honest to gosh trumpeter swan, in its natural habitat. As I'm taking this picture, I'm thinking, "Its not in a zoo, its not being fed by a game warden or kept in a designated area. Its looking for dinner that it has to catch the old fashioned way, and this is where it lives and we just happen to be able to visit its neighborhood." There is an air of disbelief that comes over me when seeing exotic animals in their natural state of being.


Speaking of which, apparently the natural state of being for Bison is to breed like rabbits. They are no longer on the endangered species list, and the reason was obvious-- note the number of calves compared to the number of adults. Its like a Connecticut suburb in 1947! There's a hexoganal lens flare mark in the middle of this image which kind of spoils its artistic value, but it would be alot of work to remove it in photoshop and the picture isn't good enough to justify it.


A trout fisherman does his traditional slow dance.


Those of you who know me know that I generally don't have much use for environmentalist fanatics. I tend to dismiss them as myopic, naive, and simplistic people. However, one aspect of Yellowstone which struck me hard has me re-considering my position. A great forest fire consumed much of the area in 1989, 21 years ago, when I was only 13 years old, but the devastation brought on by that fire is still evident everywhere you look, contrasted with the various ways that nature has rebounded in the shadows of the burned devastation. If this beautiful forest still shows so many scars two decades after the fire, I shudder to think of the long term damage being done in the Gulf of Mexico right now because our governments and powerful corporations cannot be trusted to shepherd the natural resources they have been entrusted with. Maybe the environmentalists have a point after all. Anyway, enough lecture, here are pictures of the decades-old damage:




I have two different versions of this grizzly bear picture. One version is cropped, so you can see the bear better because he is a larger percentage of the overall image. In effect, he's "bigger" so you get to see him in more detail. The other version is the full, uncropped image as taken by my camera and 200mm lens (yes, he was pretty darn far away from us). In the original image the treeline of the forest presents as a green wall seperating the bear's "neighborhood" from our sight, and gives a sense of perspective. The grizzly is a large, powerful creature, but how small he seems compared to the silent might of the army of trees protecting him! Which version do you like better? Comment below!



More good news: the symbol of our nation is no longer an endangered species either. This may be one of my favorite images I've ever taken. The composition is fairly random (taken out the window of a car) but its intriguing to me. In other words, I like to look at this one and I don't know why. I could use photoshop to remove the blurred tree in the foreground, but somehow I don't want to. And the angled, dead tree trunk cutting diagonally through the image intersects with with the horizontal line between rain cloud and clear blue sky... there is so much going on in this image, I love it!


A picture of a bunch of dead logs? Look closer, friends (click on the image to see it in a larger format). Life is everywhere.


An extraordinary amount of geothermal activity means that some areas look as though they have been infected by an alien world. This geyser spewing out hot, sulfuric water looks like a UFO crash site and made me think of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". Perhaps the bent branch in front is actually a space creature's tentacle?


A quick self-portrait, "proof of life" photo to show that yes, I was really there and the trusty Canon 40D took these images.


This is a peaceful image. Elk graze in a lush valley being fed by a stream, the rememberance of the great forest fire literally and figuratively behind them now.


And of course, the trip wouldn't be complete without Old Faithful. I hope you all enjoy these images, as I enjoyed taking them and processing them. We should take care of our garden....



Goodnight.