Day 4 - Blacktail Plateau Morning

This morning we drove eastward once again from Mammoth Hot Springs toward Lamar Valley. On the way, we took a one-way gravel road onto the Blacktail Plateau. This is a special little nook in the northern part of the park. Immediately there is a sense of relief when you get off the paved road.



This morning Tom wanted us to practice our landscape photos in the nice warm light of early morning. Just to show you that I really did practice I am including a few of my better photos. Click on this first one for a better view of the different ridgelines and shades. As you look at the photo, imagine cool air and a warming sun hitting your face and you may get the sense that you are there. I think it was in the high 40s or low 50s but it was nearly perfect with the first rays of the day coming over the horizon. The other beautiful thing about this moment was that there was no one, and I mean NO ONE, around. It was just the four of us looking for an angle, a view, a scene worthy of capturing in a photograph.





In the photograph below, I was trying to make the photogenic tree a silhouette with some interesting shaded ridgelines in the distance. It's not a super-interesting photograph but I still like the simplicity of it.

Here, I am practicing my curves and shading.

Here is another very simple image. It's all about the tree. A lone tree on a hill with simple blue sky above and curves of green below. I normally don't like to show this much sky but it worked to my eye in this composition. It reminds me of a cover for an album or CD for some reason.

After our early morning stint on the Blacktail Plateau it was on to our favorite part of the park, the Lamar Valley...