A Land Built By Fire

coscorrosa

Ironic, but true. One of the most striking things about Yellowstone is the effect of fire, it's just another force, like erosion, that sculpts the landscape, although usually in quicker and more dramatic fashion. The effects are short term (smokey and dramatically colored skies) and long term (forests of dead trees still standing).

There were several active fires burning while I was there, including one that blocked the southeast section of the park from West Thumb to Bridge Bay (combined with the Norris<->Madison road closure due to construction, this effectively split the park into two parts that could only be reached from each other by a 3-hour detour).

Here are a few landscapes that highlight the effect of fire in Yellowstone.

#1: Firey Sunset. I was looking for a good place to show the dead trees silhouetted against a firey/smokey sunset due to the West Thumb fire mentioned above.



#2: A lone island on the blue and pristine alpine waters of Yellowstone Lake. The road where this was taken was closed a few hours later due to this fire (and would remain closed at least 6-7 days, even after a few days of snow).



#3: Fire cloud. This is the fire that closed the West Thumb section of the park.



#4: This is a separate fire near the Lamar Valley. Hot!



#5: Dead but still standing part 1



#6: Dead but still standing part 2:

rainbow

Well-done shots on a force of nature that has good and bad sides. I am surprised that you got close to the actual fire in #4.

California is a tinderbox because for decades on decades the forest service policy was to suppress every fire, allowing a disruption of the natural cycles and an accumulation of fuel that result in devastating fires that are not part of the natural cycle. The fires burn much hotter and devastate all the vegetation. Today, the heavy rains now caused landslides (and forced evacuations) in areas that were burned this past season.

Thanks for sharing. They are a good sampling of their part in Yellowstone's natural history.

ian408

I was in Yellowstone for the fires of 1988. The raw power of nature is amazing and the beauty from the resulting fires was amazing. I only made it back a couple of years ago to realize how the fires had revitalized the land.

Your pictures capture that raw power well.

squirl033

Ron, that first one is amazing... should be printed L-A-R-G-E and framed! the second one is pretty cool too... i like how you cannot tell where water ends and sky begins. very ghostly...

ront

Ron, great series, but that first one is just killer!! I agree with Rocky, this one should be framed large. What amazing colors!!

Ron

Awais Yaqub

I bet you are going to print that 1st one !!!!

hawkeye978

I'm with the others. #1 is outstanding. Nice series overall with an interesting theme.

schmoo

ian408 wrote:

I was in Yellowstone for the fires of 1988. The raw power of nature is amazing and the beauty from the resulting fires was amazing. I only made it back a couple of years ago to realize how the fires had revitalized the land.

Your pictures capture that raw power well.

+1, totally. Minus the "I was there" part because I've not (yet) been to Yellowstone. Awesome set, Ron and quite an eye-opener!

Schnauzer

This is a great series. I have gone back to look at them several times.

#1 is special. Very nice work.

coscorrosa

rainbow wrote:

Well-done shots on a force of nature that has good and bad sides. I am surprised that you got close to the actual fire in #4.

California is a tinderbox because for decades on decades the forest service policy was to suppress every fire, allowing a disruption of the natural cycles and an accumulation of fuel that result in devastating fires that are not part of the natural cycle. The fires burn much hotter and devastate all the vegetation. Today, the heavy rains now caused landslides (and forced evacuations) in areas that were burned this past season.

Thanks for sharing. They are a good sampling of their part in Yellowstone's natural history.

Full disclosure: The fourth shot was taken with a 500mm lens on a 1.3x crop body - so I wasn't that close. There's no way I would take that shot with a 100mm lens - I am stupid - very much so - but not to that degree

I agree with you on fires, there's definitely two sides. We should let nature run its course when possible, the problem obviously is that people and homes get in the way of that. That's why I live where it's wet and vacation where the fires are rather than the other way around

coscorrosa

ian408 wrote:

I was in Yellowstone for the fires of 1988. The raw power of nature is amazing and the beauty from the resulting fires was amazing. I only made it back a couple of years ago to realize how the fires had revitalized the land.

Your pictures capture that raw power well.

Thanks Ian - the aftermath of those fires is still very visible in the park, I can't imagine how it looked twenty years ago though.

coscorrosa

squirl033 wrote:

Ron, that first one is amazing... should be printed L-A-R-G-E and framed! the second one is pretty cool too... i like how you cannot tell where water ends and sky begins. very ghostly...

Thanks Rocky, the first one is definitely the keeper of the set, the others are more documentation (not intentionally - they just didn't turn out to be as interesting!).

coscorrosa

ront wrote:

Ron, great series, but that first one is just killer!! I agree with Rocky, this one should be framed large. What amazing colors!!

Ron

It was pretty cool seeing it in person, there were three straight nights where the colors just got crazy well after sunset. I was fortunate to find a foreground just in time.

coscorrosa

Awais Yaqub wrote:

I bet you are going to print that 1st one !!!!

Thanks Awais - I still have a bunch more photos to process from the trip before I decide if I'll print any of them. I probably should, I don't have any prints on any photo I've taken in the last two years. I just upload it and move on to the next location

coscorrosa

hawkeye978 wrote:

I'm with the others. #1 is outstanding. Nice series overall with an interesting theme.

Thanks Tom, that's my favorite too. I was trying to find a way to split up all these Yellowstone photos so I didn't completely overwhelm the forum, I think I have one set left before it's on to the Tetons

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

+1, totally. Minus the "I was there" part because I've not (yet) been to Yellowstone. Awesome set, Ron and quite an eye-opener!

Apparently there's this shoot-out thing next year at Yellowstone and the Tetons in the fall, it would be a good opportunity for your first visit. We could get (sacrifice?) a random dgrinner to agitate a bison or bull elk and you could get some wildlife shots even with your wide angle T/S lens!

coscorrosa

Schnauzer wrote:

This is a great series. I have gone back to look at them several times.

#1 is special. Very nice work.

Thanks, Yellowstone is a goldmine for nature photographers, so many landscapes and wildlife in a relatively small area. I'll definitely be back.

Andy

coscorrosa wrote:

So good. WTG, Ron.

kdog

Andy wrote:

So good. WTG, Ron.

Absolutely. Home run there, Ron.

The rest of the shots ain't too shabby either. You've got a great eye for composition.

Cheers,
-joel

ian408

coscorrosa wrote:

Thanks Ian - the aftermath of those fires is still very visible in the park, I can't imagine how it looked twenty years ago though.

I was traveling through the park and camped for a couple of days. Intense smoke and burning trees everywhere yet the animals seemed to take it all in stride. The smoke made it difficult to see and two days was really all we could stand. We headed over to Jackson and the tram. On the day we were on the tram, they almost lost the hotel. From the peak, the smoke rose in a most defiant fashion (near Old Faithful). So intense was the smoke that Glacier NP was clouded by it too.

The fires burned until the first snows eventually put it out. It's something I'll never forget.

wirehunt

1 is nice no question.
But for me 2 is the better one. I love the solitude and the space, also the irony of the lone tree....

dseidman

More good pictures! I'm liking them all.
It really sounds like it was a big pain to get around the park. With all the driving you had been doing it probably wasn't even a big deal, though.

pathfinder

Andy wrote:

So good. WTG, Ron.

Complementary colors are always a winner!

coscorrosa

Andy wrote:

So good. WTG, Ron.

Thanks Andy! One of the rare times when I had a planned shot (based on the previous day's sunset) that actually ended up working!

coscorrosa

kdog wrote:

Absolutely. Home run there, Ron.

The rest of the shots ain't too shabby either. You've got a great eye for composition.

Cheers,
-joel

It's my left eye, my right eye is pretty much useless. Fortunately I can still walk in a straight line but I have a feeling my paths will be more circular as I age

coscorrosa

wirehunt wrote:

1 is nice no question.
But for me 2 is the better one. I love the solitude and the space, also the irony of the lone tree....

Thanks Stephen, that little island did seem pretty desolate with the smoke, enough so that I decided to unpack all my gear even though I was just out scouting around.

coscorrosa

dseidman wrote:

More good pictures! I'm liking them all.
It really sounds like it was a big pain to get around the park. With all the driving you had been doing it probably wasn't even a big deal, though.

I don't mind driving, but when one section of the park goes from 20 minutes away to 4 hours away, it does limit your flexibility, and on trips like this I don't really plan far in advance, but try and adapt to the conditions (overcast = wildlife and waterfalls, bright sunny days = find a good sunset/sunrise spot, etc.). I was going to stay the entire time in north Yellowstone (Gardiner/Mammoth) but half way through went to West Yellowstone so I could access that part of the park (that's where all the elk were). So yeah it wasn't great. Hopefully the next time I'm there all the roads will be open.

coscorrosa

pathfinder wrote:

Complementary colors are always a winner!

They actually weren't that complimentary, they were shouting insults at me the entire time criticizing my composition and exposure settings. Or maybe those were the voices inside my head. Something was doing it anyway...

schmoo

coscorrosa wrote:

They actually weren't that complimentary, they were shouting insults at me the entire time criticizing my composition and exposure settings. Or maybe those were the voices inside my head. Something was doing it anyway...