If you have brought only one roll of Kodachrome to Yellowstone, this is your stop. The largest hot spring in the park, the Grand Prismatic Spring is indeed all three: grand, prismatic, and a spring.

The boardwalk talkes you right up to it, wending past the Excelsior Geyser Crater. But for another view, I suggest climbing up the hill to the east of the parking lot. The climb will give you a panoramic view of the Grans Prismatic Spring and the whole Midway Geyser Basin.

And here's a bonus photo from the hill, showing Grand Prismatic Spring with Excelsior Geyser Crater: Continue reading »

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Okay, now a little love for the geyser. Continue reading »

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More egregious bacterial color, this time from Morning Glory Pool.

This pool used to be hot hot hot, with a corresponding pale blue color - hence the Morning Glory name. But after bucketloads of Wishing Well pennies, the only wish that was granted was to clog it up and cool it off (and who wished for that). You can still catch a glimpse at the bottom of the blue it once was, but cooler temperatures allowed bacteria with their different colors to line the pool. Still remarkable, though.

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The geysers at Yellowstone get the lion's share of the attention -- and rightly so. A column of superheated water shooting out of the ground is usually in the domain of the SciFi Channel original movie, so to see it in real life with no subpar CGI effects is a real treat. But the real beauty of Yellowstone can be found in the hot springs. The colors and forms that water, bacteria, and algae compose are much more artistic and photogenic than the occasional spurt of water. Continue reading »

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I like shooting abstract images. In some ways abstract photography is a contradiction in terms -- it's always an image of something, however unrecognizable. Nevertheless, by concentrating on sheer color or texture the photo becomes more about itself than what it purports to represent. Continue reading »