Winter's Pulse
Yellowstone National Park
You see certain scenes from Yellowstone so often that they become iconic, and this is one of them. It's easy to feel like it's all been done before, but on this particular morning, the conditions were just right. The air was thick with freezing fog and steam rising from the thermal features, and it created this incredibly soft, quiet atmosphere. I was drawn to the simple curve of the river cutting through the fresh snow, its dark water a stark contrast to the white all around it. The frost clinging to the riverbanks looked like delicate crystals. It was the mood of it all, the deep silence and the ethereal light, that made me stop. I felt a square composition helped simplify the scene down to its essential elements: water, snow, and fog.