Simplicity in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

Some images really excite me, some I don’t care much for, and some I am ho-hum about. Just because you swing for the fences with each pitch, it doesn’t mean you’re going to hit nothing but home runs. There will be a lot of strikes, a few foul balls, and a fair amount of singles, doubles, and triples. And some times you’ll get hit by the ball and end up taking a base.

"Winter Storm" - Yellowstone National Park

Okay, I’ve pretty much exhausted my baseball metaphors. I guess my point is that even though I don’t think the image above, taken in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, is anything particularly exciting, I like it nonetheless. Home runs are great, but the base hits usually contribute more to winning the game. This image helps tell the story of Yellowstone in winter, and is an important part of my Yellowstone portfolio. “Base hit” images are part and parcel of being a pro nature photographer, and usually are the ones that make more money than the home runs.

I was attracted to the gloomy storm clouds hovering over the brightly-lit snow-covered hills. I used a polarizer filter to darken the blue sky, and enhance contrast in the scene. The distant grove of trees becomes in important focal point that helps ground the image in reality, and provide a sense of scale and perspective.

Technical details: Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens (@40mm), polarizer filter, ISO 100, f/9, 1/500 second.

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About Ian Plant (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.