Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge: Week #6

Horizontal lines and horizons with a dash of diagonal.

Getting horizontal lines isn’t always easy. The first photo contest I entered one of the panel told me to use a level to get the horizon straight, since then I developed an abhorrence for crooked horizons, unless it intentional. It’s a simple fix that will make your photos better.

I did learn to use the level on my tripod and if I’m “freestyling” it I am at least aware so I work to make the horizon straight. If it’s not possible I leave extra room for cropping which is what happens when you straighten. If I do need to do post editing I usually use the straighten tool in Picasa (a free edit program) or the rotate canvas tool in Photoshop. With rotate canvas you can get a more precise adjustment.

click on each to see full photo.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Blind Pass Beach, Florida

National Parks

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming

 

 

Cee’s Fun Foto: Sense of Smell

Some scents make us feel warm and nostalgic. I love the smell of vanilla, apple spice or pumpkin spice candles, it reminds me of fall, my favorite season. 

Other time a smell may just be repulsive. Like the 50-mile crater area at Yellowstone National Park. The smell of sulfur is quite unpleasant.

 

 

 

A Photo a Week Challenge: Dead Center

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

 

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Fresh

Fresh Water

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

 

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Sunday Nature Quote: Elk

The elk that you glimpse in the summer, those at the forest edge, are survivors of winter, only the strongest. You see one just before dusk that summer, standing at the perimeter of the meadow so it can step back to the forest and vanish. You can’t help imagining the still, frozen nights behind it, so cold that the slightest motion is monumental. I have found their bodies, half drifted over in snow, no sign of animal attack or injury. Just toppled over one night with ice working into their lungs. You wouldn’t want to stand outside for more than a few minutes in that kind of weather. If you lived through only one of those winters the way this elk has, you would write books about it. You would become a shaman. You would be forever changed. That elk from the winter stands there on the summer evening, watching from beside the forest. It keeps its story to itself.

Craig Childs

West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge, Week 39

Stone face

I think he was frozen in time during the last volcanic eruption 640,000 years ago. This was a time when giants roamed the earth.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

 

Photography 101: Landscapes

Landscapes are not only my focus in photography but also in my geography research. While photography focuses on wide sweeping landscapes geography looks at the broader landscape as well as singular elements and their connection to the broader landscape topic.

Yellowstone National Park, while not nearly the largest, is certainly a massive park. In square miles it’s nearly three times the size of Rhode Island. My first visit put all those square miles I read on paper into perspective.

We approached the gate in the early evening, still daylight, when the ranger warned that we may not have time to get to the closest campground before it filled. “What? How is that possible”. He explained it was 50 miles to the closest campground. Again, “What?” My mind couldn’t wrap itself around that number. He further warned if we didn’t get a campsite not only would we have driven 50 miles for nothing we’d have to drive back the 50 miles to the exit and another 50 miles back to Cody. Well we didn’t chance it and found a lovely cabin only about 20 miles outside the park.

This put these 3400+ square miles into perspective but the next few days would show me how vast and varied the Yellowstone landscape really is. It is one of the most amazing places I’ve visited in the lower 48 and one of my three favorite national parks along with the Teton’s and Glacier.

Ansel Adams is my favorite photographer and as good as he is even he could not capture the true vastness and sense of amazement of our national parks. Photos can entice us to visit but you will never feel that sense of wonder unless you are fully present, looking on its beauty with your own eyes.

It’s about 10 miles from Norris Basin in the forefront to the Gallatin Range in the back.

And here is my attempt at an Ansel type image…

Travel Theme: Inviting

Water is always inviting. On this hot day this river looked so very inviting. This pooled area of Firehole River is the only place swimming is allowed at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

 

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Cee’s Fun Foto: Blue

 

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Cerulean

Blue Pool, Norris Back Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming