On Location at Yellowstone
On a return visit to Yellowstone I decided to show the location at Mammoth Hot Springs and perspective of my photograph 'Spirit Dance.' This video shows how small the two trees are and how I was standing just above them on the board walk. Check out the video!
Limited Edition of 50 Museum Grade, Fine Art Prints.
Spirit Dance
Here we stand all alone
branches bare roots still strong
love in the air there’s still a chance
when we feel the spirit dance.
By Judy Lentz, of Sumner, Missouri.
I took this photograph on 6/26/2020 while in Yellowstone National Park. It was on a quick trip through the park on my return home from Montana and I was looking for interesting trees in the hot springs. I was walking on the boardwalk at Mammoth, looking off the edge for anything interesting when I saw this scene. This is actually nine vertical images panning from left to right and then stitched (combined) and cropped in Photo Shop to a 2:3 ratio image. It looks like an aerial photograph from a drone or aircraft but I was literally just looking down on the scene about four feet above the trees, which are only about two feet tall. I love the brilliant colors of red and yellow and the texture of the mineral deposits from the springs. The whole image has an otherworldly abstract feeling to it.
When it came to naming this photograph I was stumped so I decided to ask on social media what I should name it, and the winner would get a free framed 8x10 inch print. I ended up with over 1000 suggestions! Right off the bat I had suggestions of dancing because of how the trees are posed. I really liked that concept. The winner, Judy Lentz, said 'Spirit Dance'. I knew that was the one! When I contacted Judy she was very happy she had won. She also informed me she liked the image so much she had written a little poem about it. With her permission I have included the poem. Thank you Judy for such a wonderful and perfect suggestion!
Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Because of the huge amount of geothermal vents, travertine flourishes. Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.
