I headed out late to squeeze in a few more scouting days before my upcoming Mountain Light Workshops trip, so I stopped a couple of hours down the road in Hope Valley. After a couple of mediocre stops I found this large, steaming vernal pool with a moderately large rock in it for foreground interest.
Moving to a different side of the pond I was able to catch the rock with different mountains as a backdrop.
A vertical orientation provided yet another interesting compositional variation.
WIth people staying home due to high gas prices and to watch the Olmpics, I was able to phone in a reservation for the Madison Campground on the afternoon of my arrival. My goal was to be near the geyser basins near Old Faithful.
I decided to spend my first sunrise at Midway Geyser Basin, but along eh way I couldn't help but stop to catch the full moon setting over the fog created by the steam from the geyser basins.
Midway Geyser Basin is tucked between two small hills, so my stop on the way there was productive while the sun climbed high enough to reach the basin. It will be weeks before I get through all of my Yellowstone photos, but a lot of the better ones will come from Midway Geyser Basin.
To successfully capture great images in a locaiton that you've never visited or haven't visited in a while, a lot much of your success depends on being in the right place at the right time. With dawn color well underway by 5am and sunset running past 9pm, logistical efficiency such as staying in a convenient location plays a role as well. I've been to this park before and I have a good photography guide to the park, but the days I've spent this week will set me up very well to crank out good shots on my next return. Hopefully I'll get some scenic weather!
This last dawn in Mount Rainier National Park offered the most intersting sky, at least for a few minutes.
The Paradise Ridge area still has about 10 feet of snow on the ground, but there were patches of flowers in places elsewhere.
