All Hallows

Happy Halloween!

Cathedral of St. Helena

The Shadow of the Gallows on the Church

Sunset falling, throwing the image of a Gallows Frame on a church for sale in Uptown Butte, Montana.

Treehouse of Horror XXXVII

In the interest of Halloween being at the end of the week I'm going to try to post photos this week that aren't explicitly "Halloween", but are at least evocative of the mood. Let's see how that goes...

Cut a Canyon

I finally, this week, had the time to develop and scan the negatives of my medium format film shot with my Holga. I shot quite a bit with the Holga, but not as much as I thought, especially since I tried to be judicious with what I shot, since unlike with digital I am limited by 12 or 16 frames per roll. I was rather pleased with the results.

Tower Falls

It is unclear how many waterfalls there actually are in Yellowstone. Most counts put it over forty-five. However I was just watching a thing that said that waterfalls are still being discovered. This isn't out of the question since a large majority of the park is back country and Yellowstone is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Sentinels of a Deadly Plain

There are dead trees littering the majority of Yellowstone. Many are left from the massive fire, caused by a lightning strike, the National Park service allowed to burn to revitalize the ecosystem and to "allow nature to run it's course". It was astounding how many trees were left standing from this fire. However near the thermal features there are stands of dead trees that were killed when the drainage of the springs and geysers altered. These trees are examples of this.

Elk Bugle

In Yellowstone you expect to see a lot of elk and we weren't disappointed. The animals were almost in rut, so there was a little bit of bugling going on, but if we came a week or two later I imagine we would have heard a lot of bugling. This is the one shot I managed of a bugling elk. It's quite a ragged sound to come out of these majestic animals, yet impressively loud nonetheless.

Orange Spring Mound

The Mammoth Hot Springs area has amazing thermal features. Springs that have been running so long that the deposits have turned them into leviathans, such as the mound seen above. This is quite a feat, since earthquakes and other seismic shifts run the possibility of essentially killing springs and geysers when the earth shifts. And earthquakes are quite common in Yellowstone.

Natural Color and Design

One thing I couldn't help seeing while looking at the thermal features in Yellowstone were the patterns and color palette. I was amazed at the natural range of colors spewed from geysers, vents, and springs. I kept looking at them as abstract art in the same vein as those pieces you see where they give animals (monkeys, elephants, etc...) paints and then sell their "masterpieces". The huge exception is that this is a macrocosmic work of art created solely by natural forces, with some of these "canvases" acres in size.

Bison

Then there are these prehistoric looking beasts... At the beginning of the 1800s when explorers were pushing the western boundary of the United States there were estimated to be roughly 65 million of these shaggy leviathans roaming North America. During the course of the century the population was decimated. At the turn of the century it was estimated that only 1,000 bison remained. Legislature was passed in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho as well as within the federal lands of the National Park. In twentieth century the bison population has rebounded with over 150,000 continent wide and over 4,000 just within the park boundaries. Four thousand seems like a lot and it is, but in a park that is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined it seems low. The first time I saw bison I was not prepared for how large they are. They are largest land mammal in North America and stand close to seven feet tall. They are considered one of the most dangerous animals in the National Parks. While they aren't carnivores they will regularly charge (at speeds up to 35 miles an hour) and gore visitors...which is kind of like getting run down by a truck with horns...