Wildfire Burn, Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone N.P., Wyoming © Jay Goodrich

Last year Art Wolfe posted a time-lapse of the Arnica Wildfire in Yellowstone National Park which ended up burning close to 10,000 acres. The great part about this wildfire is that it crossed the road that parallels the shores of Yellowstone lake allowing easy access for photography and anyone willing to walk into the forest and have a look. Now I know many would wonder why you would want to photograph a freshly burned area, thinking that it would just be a charred mess. The reality is that this place is a photographer’s paradise, allowing composition upon composition of line, pattern, texture, and even new life. In less than a year’s time there is already new growth showing up– have a look at one of Art’s photos from this year.

Art Wolfe, Gavriel Jecan, Rich Reid and I recently taught a workshop in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. After that workshop, we decided to spend a day in Yellowstone photographing this forest. It didn’t take long to discover that there were hundreds of images that could be created here. The one that I am highlighting in this post, is a black and white conversion done in Adobe’s latest version of Lightroom. The highlights on the tree branches look like snow and give the image a depth that it did not possess in color. Like the title states, wildfires are definite necessity for photographers interested in going beyond the  iconic images that everyone captures.

The Hayden River Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wy © Jay Goodrich

Our photo this month was taken by Jay last summer while he was working on a project in Yellowstone National Park. The reason we decided to post it for the photo of the month this month is because Jay is there right now shooting more images for the project. Hopefully he will be willing to “leak” some of the new images when he returns. Anyway, this image was taken of the Hayden River at sunrise as a low level fog bank was beginning to clear. You never can predict what nature will do, so it is best to stay until the last possible moment if you find a good location and keep you mind open to anything. Taken with a Canon 1D Mark III, 16-35mm II lens, Gitzo Tripod, Kirk BH-1 ballhead, Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer, and a 3 stop hard-edged graduated neutral density filter. And per last month you can order discounted prints of our monthly images directly from our print site.

Grand Teton at Sunset, Jackson, WY © Jay Goodrich

Tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone. If I manage to find some WI-FI to steal, I will post some progress reports. If not you will just have to wait until next week!