Yesterday we had made plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, with a quick stop to Oxbow Bend for a sunrise shoot. Wake up was set for 3:45 A.M. Yup, you read right, 3:45 A.M. We headed out and found Oxbow Bend was filled with other photographers attempting to take a sunrise shoot as well as us. The window of opportunity was very narrow to get that golden light onto the mountains. Here’s a tip for photographers. Set your composition and leave it alone, because light will change in the blink of an eye. And it did it that morning.
After that quick sunrise shoot, we headed north to Yellowstone. On the drive we would look at the outside temperature and that was heading south. As the fog rolled in it made for some pretty moody shots. Once we cleared the fog we headed to the most famous gyser in the world, Old Faithful. And the name doesn’t disappoint, it goes off every 90 minutes and like clockwork. We stayed for 2 separate eruptions. The first one was a wash, literally, as the gyser was erupting the winds shifted and the steam headed towards us.
After walking around the gyser basin we headed to Mammoth Hot Springs with a stop at the Grand Prismatic Spring. This is the one spring with all those cool saturated colors. I chose not to do the typical shot and worked on my abstract shots. With all the mineral colorations it made for some out of this world images. Let me tell you, this place was slamming with tourists with their annoying selfie sticks!! I cannot imagine what this place would look like during the summer time.
After a few hours in the car we finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. Here the only shots I saw were abstract ones. We all decided that we should head south and back home because we’ve been up since 3:45 A.M. and it’s now 4:00 P.M. We were about a 100 miles form home and the roads here aren’t the best in the world. A two lane highway and add some construction the drive would take about 4 hours.
Once we got back to Jackson, our hunger needed to be addressed. It was 8:50 P.M. when we pulled in and the first place we stopped closed at 9:00 P.M. So we headed to the local Wendy’s. The manager told us that we had to take our food to go because he had a carpet cleaner coming to steam clean the rug. Mind you, he was not even there yet. I guess we were so hungry that arguing would not solve anything and I took my food to go. Walking into the apartment felt good. A quick shower and an upload of images I finally made it to bed around midnight. It was agreed that sunrise would have to be rescheduled. I have two more sunrises left in this amazing place so I have to maximize my time. Looking forward to tomorrow, are you? I hope so.
A behind the scene look at yesterday’s sunrise.
The fog made for a great moody shot. It was hard not to stop and take photos.
The crowds of people waiting for Old Faithful to make an appearance
Looks like this was taken on another planet but it wasn’t.
These majestic creatures were almost extinct but have made a comeback. This particular bison was getting close to the boardwalk. A safety tip, do not approach these animals. Give them the distance that is required.
Mammoth Hot Springs is a great place to work on some abstract art