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Archive for the ‘Yellowstone’ Category

This morning I had planned on telling a different story, but the photos below captured my attention. The changes in the thermal features fascinate me, and the record keeper part of me wants to keep finding and pairing up these types of images. They aren’t stunning images that will take your breath away, but sometimes the story they tell or the record they keep is the focus.

Another change in a thermal feature – I think. I had asked a couple of more knowledgeable folks about Variable Spring (in the Upper Geyser Basin – it’s located sort of ‘behind’ Grotto) when I was there in June.  This year it had a small bubbler next to it. I’ve searched my photos, but haven’t found another one with the exact same view. The folks I talked with in June weren’t sure if that was new or just larger, but we all noticed it.

Here’s how it looked in 2009:

And here’s how it looked this June:

Then I enlarged the area in question. Here’s the 2009 photo cropped:

Is that depression there a small spring already? Maybe. Maybe not. Here’s that same area in question from the June 2010 photo:

Sigh. I’m not sure if we’ll ever really know for certain, but if I can get back up there before the snow flies this year, it’s one thing on my list to check on again.

OH! And speaking of changes…there was an email yesterday saying that a disturbance is going on over at Norris Geyser Basin. That means there’s more activity and things that haven’t been erupting now are. No idea of how long it’ll last, but if you have a chance, Norris would be more fun and interesting to visit right now.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Sponge Geyser – this is about it most of the time over the past few years. It simply cycles between low and high water – ‘a cyclic geyser.’ When at high water, it boils – ‘a boiling eruption.’ When I took these two photos I had a gentleman ask me what it does and upon learning this was it, he was visibly disappointed. The size of the cone does suggest maybe it does something more.

But then when I walked up to Sponge Geyser this year, it was different. Still not big, but different, and those differences capture me. There’s a bench to sit on at Sponge Geyser, and I sat for an hour or so – it’s really a great spot to watch much of the action on Geyser Hill. This time, at high water it bubbled and overflowed. Then as the water level dropped, the boiling began AND water spurted out some side vents I had not seen before. Some eruptions spurted water out these back or side vents fairly high, while others just splashed up a few drops. There might be a pattern to it – or there might not be any pattern. But a change definitely happened. And this change is the reason for the clicks.

Happy (photo) Friday!

I’ve been spending a few hours each morning just working on the backlog of photos I have to process. Right now I’m focusing on all the thermal features (geysers, hot springs and such) of Yellowstone that I took in June and July. Some are more striking than others, but I try to add in a few more each day to a gallery just for the geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and such and often will feature at least one of the new ones on my P365 blog. Normally the saying goes, “2 hours of processing for every hour of shooting.” My trips to Yellowstone, though, seem to generate more of a 4 to 1 ratio. I’m starting to wonder if I will actually ever be done with my Yellowstone photos and I can see why with each trip up there, I get farther behind. That’s both a tad terrifying and a bit comforting.

Taking a sip of hot coffee freshly brewed, the air was brisk this July morning as I looked out across the Lamar Valley. I had come out to the back deck where the silence of the morning wrapped itself around me to watch the shadow of the Earth set as the fog from the river off in the distance began to lift. I’m a morning person and enjoy taking time to welcome the day. This time between night setting and day dawning pauses like a Gift. I said my quick morning prayer which on this particular morning was overflowing with gratitude – “Glory Be! I’m alive and God has work for me to do today! Thank you, God, for another day.” And then worked to capture the gorgeous scene before me as a means to seal the moment in my mind.

This day I was at Lamar Buffalo Ranch for a class with the Yellowstone Association. Three days to learn and explore a few more creative rabbit trails. The class was a gift from my sister for my birthday – Susan Zwinger‘s Illustrated Journal for Heart, Art and Science. Here I was, on the porch of the Bunkhouse, welcoming the third day.

The class awakened something deep that I’m still getting to know better, but it also gave me definition to how I create with my camera – and that definition gives me a framework and structure to allow the creativity to flourish. As Susan guided us through her process for observing and sketching, I began to see parallels with my photography – how I connect with the subject before me, and then find how to best present it. Here, in the Lamar Valley, it’s easy to connect. Scenes present themselves for easy captures with the shutter release. Distractions are cut to a minimum. No cell phone service. No internet. Regular daily responsibilities are handled. It allows us to just be in the moment.

The trick, though, is to carry that home in the pocket of our hearts. All of us need that centering – and it takes practice – especially when the normal pace we’ve accepted is rocket speed. Since being home, I’ve deliberately taken regular breaks from rocket speed, and I can feel it becoming more comfortable and familiar to do. I just stop for a few minutes here and there throughout the day to connect with the world around me. Giving myself the gift of a rest stop of sorts. Blocking off yesterday and the next hour’s work.

This photo brings me right back to greeting that morning, and reminds me to slow at regular intervals.

Happy Friday!

Click to see more Yellowstone Scrapbook Pages

Since I’m often found for Scrapbooking Yellowstone, I’ve pulled together my layouts in a gallery at my Photoshelter account and embedded a slideshow here. I’ll be organizing and working to include credit for kits, templates and such over the next few days, but most come from DSP.  Hope you find some inspiration in there! If you have photos you would like help pinpointing a location or identifying a thermal feature or animal or whatever,  I’m happy to take a stab at it – either post in the comments or email me.

And if you’ve got layouts of Yellowstone, I’d love to see those! Post links in the comments so I can take a peek and find inspiration as well.

While in The Illustrated Journal class taught by Susan Zwinger, she mentioned doing postcard poetry – finding something that captures your heart each day and writing a few sentences about it and perhaps add in a sketch. Being a photographer and scrapbooker, I took this basic idea and saw the potential in it for me. I love the concept and have continued to create a few more ‘postcards’ to add to the album. A few simply document this trip, but others fall more into the poetry/prose category.  Just another way to document. These will be printed as 4×6 photos and the panoramics as 4x9s – some of the same sizes I do offer as actual postcards.

There are so many things I picked up from the class I took at the Yellowstone Association. I’m still working to organize all of my thoughts on it, but I’ve started on a few quick layouts (in random order for now) to include in the Yellowstone 2010 album I’m working on. They’ll be ordered as 4×6 prints and added in somehow.

This first one was a bit blurry, so I altered it until it made me smile.

The mix of people in this class was perfect. Lots of backgrounds, lots chatting and sharing and lots of giggles and laughter.

Used to getting up early, I was out wandering around with the camera. Sorry about the watermark covering the lone bison – it’s the dot in the top of the n.

By the third day…

More to come…

I’m back from 3 amazing and inspiring days. Just trying to sift through all the thoughts, organize and process photos.

Biggest Lesson: Unplugging from cell phone and internet does a body an immense amount of good and should be practiced more often.

Photos + Words to come.

Ah, July is quickly slipping away and I *still* don’t have the mini-album done yet of our last trip to Yellowstone. But let me share where it stands now with no promise of when I’ll get it finished.

THE IDEA:

• The whole idea came to me last year on our trip when I found many panoramic postcards – the same size as those rack cards – 9″x4″ – that you see in lobbies of most any hotel telling you of all the wonderful activities there are to enjoy in that area. This size would also accommodate 4×6 prints and 4″ high by any length up to 9″. AND as a bonus, this is conveniently about the size of a regular envelope.

THE PLAN:

• I scoured the internet looking for a chipboard book this size with little luck – and as I was about to give up, I finally found one on Etsy.  It’s perfect! I also pulled together some other papers and envelopes I had around. I was set – and planned to purchase all the panoramic postcards I could find, journal on them and send them home to myself (the larger postcards take regular $0.44 stamps).

THE FIRST GLITCH:

• Heading to Cody, I had no idea of what to do to get the album looking better. But, I found that The Cody Scrapbooking Company is once again open for business. I got great advice (this is really my first attempt at a paper album) and papers and got the book ready to hold things. (Papers used are: Tan paper – Fleur De Cowboy by Rusty Pickle; Red paper – Red Bandit, part of the Horsin’ Around Collection by Flair Designs).

THE REALITY:

• The reality I found had very few panoramic postcards. Was last year a fluke? Perhaps. But I DID find a wealth of stickers this year. It seems that’s the latest trend over in West Yellowstone – to have a custom sticker for your shop for sale (especially the fishing stores). Once I noticed a few, I found them almost everywhere – even in Yellowstone. OK, so I can shift the idea around. And, since I’m actually going to make numerous trips up to the Greater Yellowstone Area this summer, I can continue to add and shift things.

THE NEXT GLITCH:

• I didn’t do a very good job of tracking what we did each day – we didn’t spend the vacation quite in the same manner as we had others. Normally I think of scrapping vacations chronologically. But two similar articles by Debbie Hodge have stuck with me – I wasn’t quite sure why, but the AHA! came recently that she DID have the answer for me. This was more of a “being there” type trip. I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Here’s the first article I found on her site. And the second one I saw as a guest post on Ali Edwards’ site.

So – here I am, ready to carve out a bit of time to get some 4×9 layouts done for this mini-album. I have at least a few photos to share my first steps into the scary paper world (yeah, I know it’s not all THAT scary, but it really pushes me out of my comfort zone – there is no UNDO button!).

Happy Friday!

I’ve been up to my elbows in processing images this week from our vacation. Since my mom always wonders just how many I take, I took 5118 photos while wandering. Many are comparison photos of the thermal features (geysers and hot springs) – not all are stunning, but they work for my ongoing collection. Others are like the one I shared last week – of people out in the geyser basins. I think the more I visit, and the more I learn about the geysers and hot springs and such, the more I start to really see them. And the more I see them, the more I work to find different shots to take of them. In fact, I find enjoy the small geysers just as much as the large ones – sometimes more when looking at them through the lens.

This week’s photo is of Grotto Geyser. My husband took a shot last year with basically this view, and gave me the inspiration to try this if the conditions were right. His photo was my calendar/desktop background photo on my computer for June – keeping that inspiration in front of me. I sat on the boardwalk that gives you a view of the “back side” – or at least the opposite side from where the typical photos are taken of it – waiting in hopes of a photo of a Rocket Major – that’s Rocket Geyser behind it in the photo.

While Rocket splashes a lot during a Grotto eruption, an hour or two (or a bit more) into Grotto’s eruption, if Grotto seems to slow a bit,the energy may shift to Rocket and Rocket might give a tremendous burst – a major eruption. As time passed this day, the clouds moved in and the light for the shot I want of Rocket disappeared. But as the temps cooled slightly, the steam from Grotto increased and I started to see the shot I hoped for of the splashes from the backside of Grotto. In the end, I have about a hundred shots of Grotto from this short time there. A few slight tweaks to curves and a small increase in vibrance and this photo reached what I had hoped to capture. It’s now my current favorite from this trip – but I’m not done processing yet.

I hope you enjoy it, too. It’s also the photo of the day over on my P365 blog – I have one I like of Chinese Spring up there as well.

Have a great day!