Daily Image - Sep '23 Archive

13 Sep 23 As you continue along the boardwalk to the top you come to the last of the main features on the south side, Grassy Spring. When we first visited, this spring was just a trickle of water running alongside a grassy area, hence its name. Looking at the image, you can see a portion of the current boardwalk at the middle left. At that time it went straight across and connected with the boardwalk you see on the other side where the furthest right individual is standing. None of the boardwalk that goes out of the frame on the left hand side and behind where I'm standing connecting to the right existed. Grassy Spring was just a trickle parallel to the left hand side of the boardwalk and was close enough to kneel down and photograph thermophiles up close. Now the entire area that was once grass is a part of the thermal area and as a result the boardwalk had to be completely rerouted to accommodate the rapidly changing area. Based on what I've been observing for the past decade plus I'm betting that it won't be long before that left hand section of the boardwalk will have to be moved. Stay tuned. This is what the camera captured with the aid of a polarizing filter. Take Over Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 1,250 sec @ f / 9.

05 Sep 23 With the exception of yesterday's shot of Undine Falls, we left off in early August just before my departure to Pelican with Rustic Falls in the Golden Gate area on the Grand Loop Road. Just beyond that you come to Benson Mountain and a marvelous - at least to my eyes - set of rocks called the Hoodoos, or, Silver Gate. They surround the road at this point plus there is a very short one way unmarked loop road on the western side of the Grand Loop - a remnant of the 1899 stage coach road that allows you to drive through them like several 0f the redwoods in CA. The rocks get the name Hoodoo which refers to standing columns or oddly shaped rock formations found in western North America, left when horizontal layers of rock erode unevenly. This particular set of rocks are topsy-turvey blocks of silver gray travertine thought to have been deposited by a large landslide from the slopes of Terrace Mountain to the west. In the shot for today Benson Mountain is on the right and the Hoodoos on the left. In the distance in the center is Hayden Valley on the other side of the mountains. The Hoodoos continue on for another 100 feet along this eastern side of the road where this was taken and for a larger distance on the western side of the road. There is a very small pullout on this side of the road large enough for two vehicles but fortunately for me there has always been room as most cars just zoom by not stopping to take in these marvelous rocks. You can't miss these rocks but you can ignore them; I recommend you stop and take them in for a short while, the view is spectacular on a clear day. This 12 pane pano is what the camera captured. Rocks Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 1,000 sec @ f / 9.

06 Sep 23 Departing the Benson Mountain area your next likely stop will be Mammoth Hot Springs. If it is your first visit you will probably drive by the Upper Terrace and go directly to the Lower Terrace. After spending time there, if you aren't too tired, you may elect to go back and visit the Upper Terrace. The Upper Terrace is always our first stop and often our last stop for the day if we have been in the northern section of the park for a full day. We did stop only to see that the area was closed to vehicles but one could ignore the gate and get in to walk the area. Before starting on the boardwalk we took a little jaunt on the pavement to visit Angel Terrace. I was shocked to see the change from just a year previous. Most of the terrace had dried up, and if you are among those who either keep these images or visit the blog, go look at the shots I've sent of Angel Terrace for the last several years. I'm told the terrace got the name Angel because it was so white. While that hasn't been so obvious in prior years, it certainly was on this visit. Almost the entire terrace was pure white save for two thermal areas, one of which was totally new and the other having grown substantially from the previous year. The ONE thing that is constant in this park is change, and it is a marvel to behold. Today we are looking at the larger of the two thermal mounds, and if you look carefully you can see the steam rising up into the air. The newer and smaller mound is found to the left out of view. This one has several dead gray trees in front of it but I've removed them for composition. While this shot doesn't show the white, most of the area was such; I can't explain the gray surrounding the mound. Maybe this next visit in a couple of weeks will provide the answer. This is what the camera captured although as mentioned above, I have removed several dead trees that were a big distraction. New Growth Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 /1,600 sec @ f / 9.

07 Sep 23 About a minute or two walk from Angel Terrace is the boardwalk that will take you to Canary Spring. It is the only section of the boardwalks in the Upper Terrace that is handicap accessible as it features no steps. Canary Spring has been constantly changing during the time we have been visiting going from very active 15 years ago to almost inactive several years later, and now showing signs of increased activity. Change is always constant. Water, you can see traces of it to the right behind the dead tree, pours from the spring to the scallop-edged terracettes below; the dissolved minerals create the lovely colors, white, cream, and orange. Underground pressures and shifts move the water to new locations, sometimes moving the prime site of activity by hundreds of feet. At times you can hear the hissing of the escaping steam, sometimes the trickling of the water, and often nothing, due to too many visitors at one time. But the view is spectacular irrespective of what you hear. In the middle right hand edge you can see the southernmost parking lot for the Lower Terrace. Drive north for perhaps a 1/4 mile and you will be at the Lower Terrace where you can take several different boardwalks to see all of the Mammoth hot springs. Another 1/2 mile will have you at the original park headquarters, all worth visiting. If you can't give the hot springs the time they deserve - several hours - then by all means do take in the short walk to Canary Spring; it will give you a feel for the rest and a grand view of the ever changing environment. This is what the camera captured. Up Close Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,600 sec @ f / 9.

11 Sep 23 Retracing our steps by maybe 70, we come to the current area of Canary Spring where you can clearly see the transition from old to new. What had been active just a few years prior is now gray, and shows off the whitish hanging stalactites which used to feature dripping water. Directly above the dark and light gray travertine terraces you can see the result - "pools" of water - of a series of currently active vents bringing the water to the surface. At the top of the frame is another pool but it is mostly shrouded in steam. Near the top right third you can also see a small fall and rivulet of flowing water. This part of the hot springs always reminds me of the Grand Canyon on a teeny-weenie scale but nevertheless graphically illustrating the power of water. Of course, the park has another "Grand Canyon" of its own, but this little guy really illustrates things up very close and personal. As you continue your walk away from Canary Spring you see nothing but gray travertine until you reach Grassy Spring, a large active area that was just a small trickle of water when we first visited. More about it later. This is what the camera captured save for a wee bit of contrast enhancement. Yesterday and Today Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,250 sec @ f / 9.

12 Sep 23 As you continue walking in the direction we were going yesterday toward the main parking area on the upper terrace, you reach a high point in the boardwalk where you can see the majority of the spring from an overhead position without anything obstructing your view. This is perhaps only 20 feet or so above the plateau but enough so that you get a "feeling" of something having moved across the top leveling it off. Presently the active section is the middle half with the inactive sections being on either side. You can't see the inactive part in the foreground where I'm standing but you can see it near the far end of the plateau. If you were to position yourself at that far end you would be looking down at the main man made attractions in Mammoth Hot Springs. This is what the camera captured. Midfield Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 2,000 sec @ f / 9.

14 Sep 23 Having exhausted what there was to see on the southern portion of the upper terrace, we made our way to the central section of the parking lot where there is a large display of the hot springs telling you where you are and which trails (boardwalks) to take to go to the different sections of the hot springs. Everything was shown open so we proceeded down the trail that would take us past that section of the springs from which I shared an image from a friend last year that I mentioned is my all time favorite shot of the park. Now, as I age, I find the treks up and down some of the paths getting more and more of a challenge yearly. So the plan was for Jan to drop the two of us off and let us walk around and down the side of the "spring" to the lower terrace parking lot. Jan departed and we started our way down the spring. As we were going down we noticed a LOT of folks coming up and that seemed a bit unusual. By the time we almost got to our desired location, Minerva Terrace, we found out why. The trail was blocked off; one could go no further. So everyone who had or was attempting to walk down the boardwalk now had to turn around and walk back up!!! NOTHING on the display board to warn folks. I later mentioned it to a ranger who said it wasn't her problem. Your tax dollars at work!! Since I couldn't get to the specific location I wanted to take my version of the shot I shared last year, I took what I could from where I was. Today's offering is the best of those shots but significantly cropped to display the central section of the capture. So here is my take on Minerva Terrace. I employed a circular polarizer to reduce the reflection off the water and enhance the color. This is what the camera captured with the aid of a polarizing filter plus I've done some severe cropping. In All Its Glory Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

18 Sep 23 Leaving the Upper Terrace you drive about 3+ miles steeply downhill to the Lower Terrace, the most prominent feature in Mammoth Hot Springs although there are several. The view in today's offering is the other side of Canary Spring. From the Upper Terrace you can only see a slice of the spring, like a quarter moon, but from down below you get the full impact. For the previous shots of the spring I was standing where you see the dozen or so dead trees in front of a cloud on the left. It is a great view, but doesn't fully show how large it is at the moment. There was quite a lot more activity at an earlier time, the indication of which can be seen at the lower right. I thought about sharing a greater expanse but that would have been at the expense of this active section which is what I wanted to emphasize. The green grassy area at the bottom continues out of the frame for another 100 feet or so before ending at the road. We'll pick up there tomorrow. This is what the camera captured. I was going to take a slice out of that blue sky for a better composition but couldn't get it to work. Just Around the Bend Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,600 sec @ f / 9.

19 Sep 23 One of the nicest things about a visit to Yellowstone is the opportunity to view lots of large wildlife reasonably up close and personal. An old saying you may hear seasoned photographers tell you is "after you've taken the shot(s) you want, turn around and have another look." All too often we get so engrossed with what we are shooting that we fail to see what else is in the vicinity. While I was aware of everything in the vicinity of the Lower Terrace, just because of how you approach it from the Upper Terrace, today's offering is what was 180° behind me as I was taking the picture I shared for Monday. There were a couple dozen of these cows that were mostly in a straight line having an afternoon meal. The path you see at the left parallels the road and it was blocked for periods of time as the critters moved back and forth crossing it in both directions. Granddaughter Selby is just out of sight on the left taking her shots of the group. They were all a bit scruffy having not fully shed the winter coat and most looking like they could use a few square meals. Had this been a Sept shot there would have been a 6 point bull with them. We watched them for maybe 30 minutes before driving past them to reach the boardwalk(s) for the Lower Terrace where we'll pick up tomorrow. This is what the camera captured. Line Up Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,250 sec @ f / 9.

20 Sep 23 From the rest area where we watched the elk yesterday, it is a very short walk, or drive, downhill to the 4 way-too-small parking lots adjacent to the Lower Terrace boardwalks. The furthest downhill is handicapped accessible and initially takes you past Liberty Cap ("locally it goes by another name"), an extinct hot spring cone, probably the most photographed feature in Mammoth Hot Spring and then past a set of features, the last of which is Palette Spring where today's shot was taken, at which point the boardwalk terminates. About 20 feet prior you reach a very prominent, now dormant, dark feature called Tom Thumb which is the centerpiece of today's offering. The travertine terrace is very active all around it and you can see both steam from the water at the top plus, if you zoom in some, flowing water in many places. Actually, zoom in to a point where the picture starts displaying spectral highlights (little circles of color), the highlights are indications of wet surfaces. This part of the terraces is currently different on each visit and I'm always amazed to see how it changes season by season. There is a boardwalk directly above the top of this terrace but the terrace drops off so steeply that you can't really see much of what's below. Zoom in again and move around the image end to end and take some time to view all the intricacies of the travertine; it is truly beautiful. We'll look at some more of this tomorrow. This is what the camera captured. Tom Thumb Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

21 Sep 23 For the last of the Mammoth shots before departing for the condo I thought I'd go with a pano of the area between the end of the hot springs and the tourist portion that starts with a small private residence followed by a large restroom facility and then all the park buildings. Once you reach that first private residence the land is flat and easy to amble about. You can't see any of this because it is just out of the frame to the right. When I first started photographing this area none of this brightly colored runoff was there. Little by little it has been working its way downhill until now it continues running to a point where it is encroaching on that first residence. Currently it is a flowing stream that parallels the parking area but is growing such that now the park has placed barricades along its edges for protection. As you look around the frame you can see various trails you can walk close to the springs. The elk - you can see several in the grassy section -like to hang out in this area and frequently walk around on the travertine but I've never been fortunate enough to see them doing such. Looking at the lower right you can get a rough idea as to the thickness of this material. Not all that easy to actually fall through it. All of the white area on the left used to be active but hasn't been so for the last several decades. When we first visited in the mid 70s it was a blaze of orange, yellow, and cream colors. I won't be surprised if on one of these visits the white area becomes active again. Other than creating the pano, this is what the camera captured. Encroaching Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

04 Sep 23 We return to Yellowstone for a bit more of the May venture. About 3 miles east of Mammoth, on the Grand Loop Road, you will pass Undine Falls. Most likely you will drive right past it and not even know it exists although there is a small park sign indicating its presence. This 100 foot drop in Lava Creek is, to the best of my knowledge, the main attraction of the creek. Now the name is a bit of a curiosity as a Undine is a water spirit capable of earning herself a soul by marrying a mortal and bearing his child. Not sure what the offspring look like, but perhaps one of them took the form of this fall. In any event it is a triple drop fall and quite lovely, more so in the spring during the snow melt and less so in the fall when there is substantially less water. It is getting harder and harder to both see and photograph as the foliage is growing up and not being trimmed, and the viewing area more constrained for "safety" each season. The base of the fall runs for quite a distance and you used to be able to see a large proportion of it but the trees are blocking more and more of it annually. When I first began shooting it that tree on the left wasn't obscuring the view. Now you can no longer see the left most portion of the creek. It is a charming sight so put it on your list of falls to see on your next visit. This is a 4 frame pano but otherwise what the camera captured. Full Drop Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 200 sec @ f /11.

01 Sp 23 Missed the blue moon Wednesday due to cloud cover so went out Thursday thinking it couldn't be much smaller but I was wrong; either it was a lot smaller or it ran out of light on Wednesday and needed to take a day off to recharge. The "lesser light to rule the night" never appeared. So no super blue moon photo in my lifetime. Back to our regular programming. It being Friday macro/close-up I've selected - well, actually, Jan selected from 15 options - a purple (her favorite color) dahlia to share with you. This one is another of the shot from behind approaches I like to do and this time it presents the base of the flower in harmony with the petals. Others I've shared put the emphasis on the base. Jan's crop of dahlias this year was a big disappointment in that none got very high and perhaps 25% at most grew. We thought it might have been related to how she handled them last fall but all the local growers and display gardens had the same results. Most everything else in the garden grew with aplomb, especially the lilies, so something must be affecting them uniquely. While we were in Yellowstone this past spring I purchased a new lens for Jan to use that was much lighter and smaller in form factor. It is similar to my workhorse 18 - 200 but has double the focal length at 18 - 400. This shot is from a series I took using the new lens to compare with the much older 18 -200; I believe it performs equally well. Those of you who keep these images can compare it with any previous dahlia shot I've shared to make your own judgement. This is straight from the camera save for some blemish removal and creative application using the Topaz plug-in Glow 2. Outlined Nikon D500; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 /1,000 sec @ f / 9 with the Tamron 18 - 400.

08 Sep 23 For this Friday's macro / close up I tried something new to see how it would work. I think I'm rather pleased with the result. For those of you who keep these things this was shot with the Nikon 18 - 200 as opposed to the Tamron 18 - 400 for last week's offering. Compare the sharpness and see what you think; my vote is they are equally sharp. Today's shot of a pair of sunflowers started out as three, the third being in the bottom left and I thought it distracting. So I tried using a new tool (to me) in Affinity Photo called the in-painting brush to remove that third blossom which was behind and surrounding that leaf in the lower left. The original capture displayed a lot of bokeh and the in-painting effect left a lot of faint blue material that complimented the light blue circles in the lower right. At one point the brush made multiple layers of the same thing, quite intriguing, but I felt that that effect was counterproductive so I simply painted over it with a black paint brush. While the bokeh effect is very subtle , I think it contributes significantly to the impact of the image. You will have to judge for yourselves. Other than the manipulation described above, this is what the camera captured. Two Sunflowers Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 640 sec @ f / 9.

15 Sep 23 For this week's Friday macro/close-up I'm once again sharing an image of a dahlia. This one was taken in the Silverdale display garden which of all the dahlia displays / farms seems to have had the best crop of all of them. As usual I've made many variations of the original and this was Jan's choice so it will likely be well received. The original capture had a few competing elements so I've endeavored to remove all of them via cropping and erasing. If you look critically enough you may be able to determine where, but it will be a bit of a challenge . . . . I hope. 😂 This shot is comprised of two flowers, one just slightly offset and behind the other. Normally I like to go for a single unencumbered blossom but in this case I thought the second softer (out of focus) bloom added some interest to the composition. Other than the alterations I mentioned above, plus the manipulation using the Topaz plug-in Glow 2, this is what the camera captured. Outlined Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,250 sec @ f / 9.