from the new book on Yellowstone NP
Chapter 8-
Harassed by Wildlife-
As a wildlife photographer, you might say that I’m an opportunist wildlife photographer. As I mentioned earlier, I have owned a photographic blind for almost eighteen years, but never used it. My philosophy runs along this line. If an animal is stupid enough to stand there long enough, I’ll take its picture. I’m not big on wildlife models either. Their actions and habits are more like submissive pets then wild noble animals. Besides I have a lot of respect for real wildlife photographers that head out into the field, position their blinds, hidden cameras and take the time to profile these beasts for days, weeks or months. First, I don’t photograph grizzlies because I’m not stupid. I do not own a 500mm lens so I could stay at a safe distance away. If a grizzly is in an area that I might be hiking though, I usually just hike noisily, “Beir Hear! etc, etc..” Though, I know I am not scaring them away more like warning them of an unappetizing bony meal. No reason to put my life in jeopardy for a photograph that I will sell and never see alive. Besides, the only photographs that make money on most animals are close-up portraiture work. Only when I’m in my car and a grizzly is in a meadow and I have a lens that could close in on an animal or at least get a good habitat image with the animal in a prominent position then I might then get out and shoot next to my car knowing I have a safe haven a few feet away. As I said I’m an opportunist, not nuts! But even then, most of my incidents with wildlife were when I was not even photographing them having been, well, bizarre to say the least. The stories that follow are from my experiences in the park. Stories in which I have done all to avoid an incident, yet still encounters with wildlife could have resulted in dire consequences- I have been harassed by animals!
to be continued...
Read what's been happening on Salvatore's Horizon
Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine Workshops
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape Part XVII
Chapter 7-
Widow Makers- continued...
It was on the return trip from here that I had experienced perhaps my most dangerous moment ever in Yellowstone. It had been just a few years since the Great Fires of 1988. Given enough time, standing charred trees start to rot to the point that strong high winds could blow them over and that is just what began to happen. A weather front moved in and caught me by surprise. If there had been a rainstorm associated with the front, I could have started back sooner to make it back to the unburned forest on the caldera rim. But on this occasion the wind picked up to speeds about 35-45 mph or more. I found myself bounded in by widow makers. Every few seconds one of them would crash down near me. On this day, I had my tape recorder with me- an interest of mine is recording the sounds of Yellowstone on a high quality mono tape recorder. When I got to an open clearing free of a having a tree fall on me, I pulled out the recorder to begin taping trees crash down one after another.
...one for every 10 or 20 seconds! Almost as abrupt as the storm started, the wind subsided to the point I could safely hike back to the trailhead making it there just before dark. I have hiked around and grizzlies, through bison herds and mad tourists but never before have I been this scared. This day Witch Creek became the Black Witch Creek!
Widow Makers- continued...
It was on the return trip from here that I had experienced perhaps my most dangerous moment ever in Yellowstone. It had been just a few years since the Great Fires of 1988. Given enough time, standing charred trees start to rot to the point that strong high winds could blow them over and that is just what began to happen. A weather front moved in and caught me by surprise. If there had been a rainstorm associated with the front, I could have started back sooner to make it back to the unburned forest on the caldera rim. But on this occasion the wind picked up to speeds about 35-45 mph or more. I found myself bounded in by widow makers. Every few seconds one of them would crash down near me. On this day, I had my tape recorder with me- an interest of mine is recording the sounds of Yellowstone on a high quality mono tape recorder. When I got to an open clearing free of a having a tree fall on me, I pulled out the recorder to begin taping trees crash down one after another.
...one for every 10 or 20 seconds! Almost as abrupt as the storm started, the wind subsided to the point I could safely hike back to the trailhead making it there just before dark. I have hiked around and grizzlies, through bison herds and mad tourists but never before have I been this scared. This day Witch Creek became the Black Witch Creek!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XVI
excerpts from my new book NOW AVAILABLE!-
Chapter 7-
Widow Makers- continued...
..As you move lower though a maze of depressions, as each one becomes wetter then the last, the closer you get to Witch Creek, you will find hot springs with muddy waters and openings of fumaroles expiring superheated steam. A few of the springs are brightly colored red from iron oxides. But, be very careful as you traveling here. Witch Creek is well known for its thin crust formations. It was near here that Truman C Everts, a member of the 1870 Washburn Expedition, badly scalded himself that he spent over a month in the wilderness without his pack horse and supplies. He survived on thistle roots..
...Because of its remote location, if a hiker breaks though here and severely burns himself, it could be life threatening as what occurred to Mr. Everts such a long ago. Every once in awhile someone manages to boils themselves to death!
to be continued...
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape is now available! Click on the book link!
Chapter 7-
Widow Makers- continued...
..As you move lower though a maze of depressions, as each one becomes wetter then the last, the closer you get to Witch Creek, you will find hot springs with muddy waters and openings of fumaroles expiring superheated steam. A few of the springs are brightly colored red from iron oxides. But, be very careful as you traveling here. Witch Creek is well known for its thin crust formations. It was near here that Truman C Everts, a member of the 1870 Washburn Expedition, badly scalded himself that he spent over a month in the wilderness without his pack horse and supplies. He survived on thistle roots..
...Because of its remote location, if a hiker breaks though here and severely burns himself, it could be life threatening as what occurred to Mr. Everts such a long ago. Every once in awhile someone manages to boils themselves to death!
to be continued...
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape is now available! Click on the book link!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XV
excerpts from my new book-
Chapter 7-
Widow Makers-
About 7 years before my backpack trip to Heart Lake, and on the same Continental Divide Trail that leads to Heart Lake Geyser Basin, the intended point of interest was not Heart Lake, but the Witch Creek geothermal area which is about 2 ½ miles before Heart Lake. The Witch Creek geothermal area runs much of the length of Witch Creek. It is one of Yellowstone’s most interesting areas because of its altitude change of four hundred or more feet. If you make it to bottom of the valley the reward is a visible fissure that belongs to a fault line that circumvents the base of Mount Sheridan. Along it, geysers erupt. The features found along the creek correspondently change the geothermal water’s ph levels with the altitude: acidic at the top portion and alkaline near the bottom portion. This change in ph makes for some very interesting features...
...Once you drop of the rim, in top portion in the acidic region, you will find depressions from where the rock has been eroded by the acid leaving basins filled with an almost white to yellowish mud (this is broken down Rhyolite). As this mud pot area become drier, they form mud cones. This area, I call the “Valley of the Cones” because there can be quite many of them. More then I have found anywhere else in the park.
to be continued...
Chapter 7-
Widow Makers-
About 7 years before my backpack trip to Heart Lake, and on the same Continental Divide Trail that leads to Heart Lake Geyser Basin, the intended point of interest was not Heart Lake, but the Witch Creek geothermal area which is about 2 ½ miles before Heart Lake. The Witch Creek geothermal area runs much of the length of Witch Creek. It is one of Yellowstone’s most interesting areas because of its altitude change of four hundred or more feet. If you make it to bottom of the valley the reward is a visible fissure that belongs to a fault line that circumvents the base of Mount Sheridan. Along it, geysers erupt. The features found along the creek correspondently change the geothermal water’s ph levels with the altitude: acidic at the top portion and alkaline near the bottom portion. This change in ph makes for some very interesting features...
...Once you drop of the rim, in top portion in the acidic region, you will find depressions from where the rock has been eroded by the acid leaving basins filled with an almost white to yellowish mud (this is broken down Rhyolite). As this mud pot area become drier, they form mud cones. This area, I call the “Valley of the Cones” because there can be quite many of them. More then I have found anywhere else in the park.
to be continued...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XIV
excerpts from my new book-
Chapter 6- continued...
Reincarnated Geyser!Yellowstone geology is living. It can change in days. An earthquake might create a new spring or make a geyser pop out of an old spring and dormant geysers spring back to life. Once such feature that was slipping into a dormant or extinct stage but now erupting once again was Rustic Geyser found in Heart Lake Geyser Basin. Learning of this, I planned to hike in and spend an overnighter or two camping near it and hoped to capture it at sunrise or sunset while in splendid eruption...
...In 1996, park geologist Bill Hutchinson was busy unclogging debris from Rustic’s underground plumbing. Many times, park visitors are the cause of damage to geysers and hotspring, but nature too can be the assailant like a runoff channel that flows into Rustic. Sadly, during the winter of 96-97, Bill and an associate died in an avalanche near here while on a backcountry ski trip. Later that spring, backpackers witnessed Rustic Geyser erupting for the first time in many years...
...Sadly he never saw it erupt after all his work. As I watched, Rustic erupt under dramatic sunset lit thunder clouds in the distance, I couldn’t help think that it was more then just Bill’s action of pumping out the debris that got Rustic to erupt as it did long ago, but perhaps Bill’s spirit behind the force of that eruption. Bill had reincarnated as the geyser guardian.
to be continued...
Chapter 6- continued...
Reincarnated Geyser!Yellowstone geology is living. It can change in days. An earthquake might create a new spring or make a geyser pop out of an old spring and dormant geysers spring back to life. Once such feature that was slipping into a dormant or extinct stage but now erupting once again was Rustic Geyser found in Heart Lake Geyser Basin. Learning of this, I planned to hike in and spend an overnighter or two camping near it and hoped to capture it at sunrise or sunset while in splendid eruption...
...In 1996, park geologist Bill Hutchinson was busy unclogging debris from Rustic’s underground plumbing. Many times, park visitors are the cause of damage to geysers and hotspring, but nature too can be the assailant like a runoff channel that flows into Rustic. Sadly, during the winter of 96-97, Bill and an associate died in an avalanche near here while on a backcountry ski trip. Later that spring, backpackers witnessed Rustic Geyser erupting for the first time in many years...
...Sadly he never saw it erupt after all his work. As I watched, Rustic erupt under dramatic sunset lit thunder clouds in the distance, I couldn’t help think that it was more then just Bill’s action of pumping out the debris that got Rustic to erupt as it did long ago, but perhaps Bill’s spirit behind the force of that eruption. Bill had reincarnated as the geyser guardian.
to be continued...
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XIII
excerpts from my new book-
Chapter 6-
Reincarnated Geyser!
Geothermal areas are beautiful and strange. Like sirens, they beckon the visitor to satisfy his curiosity with their puffs of ephemeral ether. Without boardwalks to safely guide you, they can be lethal. Every summer someone is boiled. A few get just get third degree burns. On occasions some die. Most do so from stupidity. Some just from standing in the wrong place at the wrong time like what happened to a nearly scalded to death fly fisherman while casting next to Flood Geyser as it began to eject 10,000 gallons on top of him. People have been scalded while on the presumed safety of the boardwalk. In the event that worlds biggest geyser, Steamboat, blows, there might not be a safe haven within several tenths of a miles as an ejecta of cannonball-like boulders and other geologic shrapnel fall around you: sometimes no place is safe. Backcountry geothermal areas have no boardwalks. Here there no rangers to warn you when you are on dangerous ground. So why go boil yourself to death where no one can see you die? You do it to experience the natural Yellowstone! A Yellowstone as it was before the lodges, boardwalks, roads and crowds. Explore the backcountry in the hope to discover new and different features as each geyser, hot spring or geothermal feature has its own character as each person has their own personality.
to be continued...
Chapter 6-
Reincarnated Geyser!
Geothermal areas are beautiful and strange. Like sirens, they beckon the visitor to satisfy his curiosity with their puffs of ephemeral ether. Without boardwalks to safely guide you, they can be lethal. Every summer someone is boiled. A few get just get third degree burns. On occasions some die. Most do so from stupidity. Some just from standing in the wrong place at the wrong time like what happened to a nearly scalded to death fly fisherman while casting next to Flood Geyser as it began to eject 10,000 gallons on top of him. People have been scalded while on the presumed safety of the boardwalk. In the event that worlds biggest geyser, Steamboat, blows, there might not be a safe haven within several tenths of a miles as an ejecta of cannonball-like boulders and other geologic shrapnel fall around you: sometimes no place is safe. Backcountry geothermal areas have no boardwalks. Here there no rangers to warn you when you are on dangerous ground. So why go boil yourself to death where no one can see you die? You do it to experience the natural Yellowstone! A Yellowstone as it was before the lodges, boardwalks, roads and crowds. Explore the backcountry in the hope to discover new and different features as each geyser, hot spring or geothermal feature has its own character as each person has their own personality.
to be continued...
Friday, January 8, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XI
Chapter 5 continued...
The Luck of the Shoshone-
excerpts from my new photographic book-
...Finally, the trail begins to flatten out. Steam rising off to the side of the basin. We’ve made it to Shoshone. Now Shoshone is not just another geyser basin though it is to some people when they compare to the Upper, Mid, Lower Geyser Basins and Norris Geyser Basin. If the fifth largest basin in Yellowstone was located anywhere outside of the park, it would be the second largest geyser area in the world behind Yellowstone. Shoshone also does not have the two major distractions of those others. First there are no tourists except for a lone hiker, group of hikers or canoeists (Shoshone Lake is a canoeist’s destination as well) and subsequently no boardwalks! Even as tired as we were, we were thrilled to finally have made our destination. Now we just had to set up camp then begin our exploration after dinner. It was then that I realized that the park service had moved the campsite to the far south side of the basin lengthening our hike another mile! Probably a good thing since the last time I camped there a problem grizzly was stealing food- off the bones of hikers! After a few curses directed at the whole National Park Service, we grudgingly marched across the geyser basin. Finally, we found our designated campsite just before the swampy delta mouth of the Shoshone River. Too tired after dinner, we just slept. Finally, we found our designated campsite just before the swampy delta mouth of the Shoshone River and made camp.
The next morning we were awoken by the sound of Sandhill Cranes flying over head on a beautiful late summer day. Frost covered the grass. We were briefly visited by a flock of Crossbills- a species I’ve been trying to find for my birders life list for some time and here, they fly in for morning coffee. I love birding made easy! Once on a trip to southern Arizona to find a rare humming bird, I drove to the only know place where its range juts into the states from Mexico, step out of my truck in a red tee shirt and this rare elusive bird I drove hundreds of miles to find flew almost into my face. As I say, “Birding Make Easy!”
continued...
The Luck of the Shoshone-
excerpts from my new photographic book-
...Finally, the trail begins to flatten out. Steam rising off to the side of the basin. We’ve made it to Shoshone. Now Shoshone is not just another geyser basin though it is to some people when they compare to the Upper, Mid, Lower Geyser Basins and Norris Geyser Basin. If the fifth largest basin in Yellowstone was located anywhere outside of the park, it would be the second largest geyser area in the world behind Yellowstone. Shoshone also does not have the two major distractions of those others. First there are no tourists except for a lone hiker, group of hikers or canoeists (Shoshone Lake is a canoeist’s destination as well) and subsequently no boardwalks! Even as tired as we were, we were thrilled to finally have made our destination. Now we just had to set up camp then begin our exploration after dinner. It was then that I realized that the park service had moved the campsite to the far south side of the basin lengthening our hike another mile! Probably a good thing since the last time I camped there a problem grizzly was stealing food- off the bones of hikers! After a few curses directed at the whole National Park Service, we grudgingly marched across the geyser basin. Finally, we found our designated campsite just before the swampy delta mouth of the Shoshone River. Too tired after dinner, we just slept. Finally, we found our designated campsite just before the swampy delta mouth of the Shoshone River and made camp.
The next morning we were awoken by the sound of Sandhill Cranes flying over head on a beautiful late summer day. Frost covered the grass. We were briefly visited by a flock of Crossbills- a species I’ve been trying to find for my birders life list for some time and here, they fly in for morning coffee. I love birding made easy! Once on a trip to southern Arizona to find a rare humming bird, I drove to the only know place where its range juts into the states from Mexico, step out of my truck in a red tee shirt and this rare elusive bird I drove hundreds of miles to find flew almost into my face. As I say, “Birding Make Easy!”
continued...
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part X
The Luck of the Shoshone-
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 5 continued...
We discussed our back country plan for our assault on Shoshone Geyser Basin. This would be my second trip into Shoshone named after the Native American tribe that once was lucky enough to claim this area their homeland until their luck had changed driven out by the “Progress” of the people of Europa. My first trip here was back in 1980 with a college girlfriend during my first visit to Yellowstone. The trip to Shoshone involves about an eight mile hike along the Continental Divide Trail. Most of the hike follows the meandering upper portion of the Firehole River as it makes it way though flat-wet meadow valley pocketed with geothermal areas. There is a gentle several hundred foot gain in elevation to the top of Grants Pass along the Continental Divide. It’s a nice quite serene hike, except if you’re with Tim. “Beir Hear! Get cha Beir Hear!: in his Chicago faux accent. Tim would repeat this call before he entered the thickets as on our way out of them as we ascended and descended Grants Pass. Actually, Tim practiced good bear country behavior with diligence.
to be continued...
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 5 continued...
We discussed our back country plan for our assault on Shoshone Geyser Basin. This would be my second trip into Shoshone named after the Native American tribe that once was lucky enough to claim this area their homeland until their luck had changed driven out by the “Progress” of the people of Europa. My first trip here was back in 1980 with a college girlfriend during my first visit to Yellowstone. The trip to Shoshone involves about an eight mile hike along the Continental Divide Trail. Most of the hike follows the meandering upper portion of the Firehole River as it makes it way though flat-wet meadow valley pocketed with geothermal areas. There is a gentle several hundred foot gain in elevation to the top of Grants Pass along the Continental Divide. It’s a nice quite serene hike, except if you’re with Tim. “Beir Hear! Get cha Beir Hear!: in his Chicago faux accent. Tim would repeat this call before he entered the thickets as on our way out of them as we ascended and descended Grants Pass. Actually, Tim practiced good bear country behavior with diligence.
to be continued...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part IX
The Luck of the Shoshone-
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 5- continued...
Owning a bicycle shop in Livingston had some perks other then a great place to ride. It was a good place to meet friends. Especially well known transplants from the east and west that came out to Montana to live the good life. Some of these people are famous. Writers, actors, TV personalities and other paparazzi of the outside world as well as famous magazine editor and writer, Tim Cahill, editor of Rolling Stone magazine and co-editorial-founder of Outside Magazine He was not only a good customer, but also a good friend at the time. Tim not only a big man, but a big man with a big heart. When I was starting my bicycle business, Tim helped me out and helped to introduce the community to me. After seven years or so, he also knew that I wanted to get out of the bike business and back into the creative fields. Deep down, he might have thought it would be a good way to get me off his back from trying to get him onto the bike for a much needed workout on my daily shop rides. Well, one day he needed something to do so he could write about it- no, he didn’t make up all those great Outside magazine stories! They’re true. So one day, after dinner at his house, he invited me along to shoot this trip he had thought about doing. He would then mail the slides along with the story and maybe they might be picked by the photo editor. Thusly, project me on my way to a successful editorial photographer. Of course I jumped at the chance.
to be continued...
Please support this blog by clicking on our sponsor's ad links!
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 5- continued...
Owning a bicycle shop in Livingston had some perks other then a great place to ride. It was a good place to meet friends. Especially well known transplants from the east and west that came out to Montana to live the good life. Some of these people are famous. Writers, actors, TV personalities and other paparazzi of the outside world as well as famous magazine editor and writer, Tim Cahill, editor of Rolling Stone magazine and co-editorial-founder of Outside Magazine He was not only a good customer, but also a good friend at the time. Tim not only a big man, but a big man with a big heart. When I was starting my bicycle business, Tim helped me out and helped to introduce the community to me. After seven years or so, he also knew that I wanted to get out of the bike business and back into the creative fields. Deep down, he might have thought it would be a good way to get me off his back from trying to get him onto the bike for a much needed workout on my daily shop rides. Well, one day he needed something to do so he could write about it- no, he didn’t make up all those great Outside magazine stories! They’re true. So one day, after dinner at his house, he invited me along to shoot this trip he had thought about doing. He would then mail the slides along with the story and maybe they might be picked by the photo editor. Thusly, project me on my way to a successful editorial photographer. Of course I jumped at the chance.
to be continued...
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part VIII
Park Photography: a new approach-
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 4- continued...
Great photography is rare! Sure there are a lot of great photographers that do great work, but what percentage of their work is actually great? Even the best have far fewer great images then good ones. They also have waste paper baskets full of ones that you will never see. So to find a new angle or a truly unique composition is many times rarer. One such feature is Old Faithful Geyser. You might say that it’s a Meat-And-Potatoes shot for a Yellowstone photographer. It is the image in most demand that editors will use to depict Yellowstone. Artists go nuts trying to capture a new look. I’ve gone crazy in the process- you just don’t notice it! You say that you have photographed Yellowstone, but if you don’t have a good shot of Old Faithful you have not really haven’t shot Yellowstone. For me, and I have good images of Old Faithful, but I never felt that I had the “Iconic” Old Faithful shot. Ansel Adams has two great images of Old Faithful partly because of dark room magic, partly because he was so prolifically published and quite frankly, they are of Old Faithful’s two best angles. One is between the visitor center and the geyser. The other is from the east between Old Faithful Lodge and the geyser. It’s has the only tree in a composition that works. The tree is still there as Ansel photographed it and it doesn’t look at it has grown much. To me, its Mr. Adams tree, but not his geyser. If you take your photo from any other point on the boardwalk the encompasses it, you are either too far away or too low of an angle. Luckily, he only photographed them in Black and White. I did take on image from across the Firehole River on Geyser Hill that work well enough to become a two-page spread in a book. It worked out because I used 200mm lens and conveniently a group of photographers stop right in between the geyser and me. Otherwise is would have been just another nice photo of Old Faithful- Humans are Homocentric. Unless there was dramatic light, cloud or rainbow, Old Faithful was becoming the feature I would walk right by. Then finally one day, the composition I had always imagined began to coalesce was I compelled to set up the 4x5” large format camera. It then became a race with the clock as these elements moved into place while Old Faithful eminent eruption loomed ever closer. It was almost too close! By the time I had set up the camera on the tripod, focused it, loaded the film holder into the back of the camera as the bison moved into position- a position I could not have place any better then if I had placed them there myself- cocked the shutter and Old Faithful exploded into the sky. It happened so quick only one image out of four nailed Old Faithful at its peak- if you don’t have Old Faithful at its peak then you don’t have Old Faithful- and remarkably, the Bison had not moved! That image, “Ol’ Faithful Bison”, became the most iconic image of Yellowstone Park since Ansel Adams “Old Faithful” some 60 plus years ago! It has been the cover of several books and calendars on the park as well as the cover image on this book. It is also my most successful selling Yellowstone image ever. I will never take a better shot of Old Faithful. I know that. I also know no one else will ever take one so dramatic as well. I have shot Yellowstone’s essence! Now to get the same image with a double rainbow and lightning with wolfs sitting opposite the bison! It’s OK to dream.
to be continued...
excerpts from my new photographic book-
Chapter 4- continued...
Great photography is rare! Sure there are a lot of great photographers that do great work, but what percentage of their work is actually great? Even the best have far fewer great images then good ones. They also have waste paper baskets full of ones that you will never see. So to find a new angle or a truly unique composition is many times rarer. One such feature is Old Faithful Geyser. You might say that it’s a Meat-And-Potatoes shot for a Yellowstone photographer. It is the image in most demand that editors will use to depict Yellowstone. Artists go nuts trying to capture a new look. I’ve gone crazy in the process- you just don’t notice it! You say that you have photographed Yellowstone, but if you don’t have a good shot of Old Faithful you have not really haven’t shot Yellowstone. For me, and I have good images of Old Faithful, but I never felt that I had the “Iconic” Old Faithful shot. Ansel Adams has two great images of Old Faithful partly because of dark room magic, partly because he was so prolifically published and quite frankly, they are of Old Faithful’s two best angles. One is between the visitor center and the geyser. The other is from the east between Old Faithful Lodge and the geyser. It’s has the only tree in a composition that works. The tree is still there as Ansel photographed it and it doesn’t look at it has grown much. To me, its Mr. Adams tree, but not his geyser. If you take your photo from any other point on the boardwalk the encompasses it, you are either too far away or too low of an angle. Luckily, he only photographed them in Black and White. I did take on image from across the Firehole River on Geyser Hill that work well enough to become a two-page spread in a book. It worked out because I used 200mm lens and conveniently a group of photographers stop right in between the geyser and me. Otherwise is would have been just another nice photo of Old Faithful- Humans are Homocentric. Unless there was dramatic light, cloud or rainbow, Old Faithful was becoming the feature I would walk right by. Then finally one day, the composition I had always imagined began to coalesce was I compelled to set up the 4x5” large format camera. It then became a race with the clock as these elements moved into place while Old Faithful eminent eruption loomed ever closer. It was almost too close! By the time I had set up the camera on the tripod, focused it, loaded the film holder into the back of the camera as the bison moved into position- a position I could not have place any better then if I had placed them there myself- cocked the shutter and Old Faithful exploded into the sky. It happened so quick only one image out of four nailed Old Faithful at its peak- if you don’t have Old Faithful at its peak then you don’t have Old Faithful- and remarkably, the Bison had not moved! That image, “Ol’ Faithful Bison”, became the most iconic image of Yellowstone Park since Ansel Adams “Old Faithful” some 60 plus years ago! It has been the cover of several books and calendars on the park as well as the cover image on this book. It is also my most successful selling Yellowstone image ever. I will never take a better shot of Old Faithful. I know that. I also know no one else will ever take one so dramatic as well. I have shot Yellowstone’s essence! Now to get the same image with a double rainbow and lightning with wolfs sitting opposite the bison! It’s OK to dream.
to be continued...
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