I took this photo Opening Weekend in Yellowstone. The third Friday in April the roads from Mammoth Hot Springs to Canyon and Old Faithful and the West Entrance open for guests. I took the opportunity on that Saturday to visit the Grand Canyon of the Yellowtone and photograph the rainbow from Lookout Point.
Broken clouds add some brooding drama to what would have been a plain photo of Castle Geyser splashing. I had hoped for a nice sunrise on my last morning at Old Faithful, but no such luck. So, I switched gears and used the clouds to my advantage, creating a moody image of one of my favorite geysers.
Marble Terrace in early morning light. The sunrise this morning wasn't all that I was hoping for so I scurried down to the viewpoint for Marble Terrace and waiting for light to strike the terrace. For a few brief minutes it did, bathing the terrace in a soft warm glow before the sun disappeared behind the clouds again. The Mammoth Terraces are always changing. With deposition in some areas being measured at feet per year, the flow, texture, and patterns are different whenever I visit. The green near the bottom of the photo is from thermophilic (hot water loving) organisms. The organisms are photosynthetic (they use sunlight for energy) so in the wintertime, they darken to accomodate the decrease in light.
