With only a few hours to spend in Yellowstone, we headed to one of the main geyser basins for a hike and lucked out in terms of timing. Over the course of a few hours, we saw Old Faithful, Riverside, and Daisy geysers erupt with jetting water showering the surrounding terrain and creating impressive plumes of steam. Although the geysers are always fun to watch, I focused my photographic efforts on looking for and then isolating interesting details, patterns, textures, and rhythms with my long telephoto lens. These are representative examples of the little visual oddities found in the transition zones around the geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs that dot Yellowstone’s landscape.
The wild colors, in part, come from the fascinating thermophilic (heat-loving) microbes that form mats, strands, filaments, and structures around the geothermal features. The more permanent structures are mineral deposits that have slowly formed over many years. Together, these details tell a story that is much quieter compared to the “look at me!” geysers but I find them equally interesting and worthy of my photographic attention with each visit to the park.
You can see more of my work from Yellowstone National Park here (ebook), here (portfolio one), and here (portfolio two).
