P#38: A Near Abstract Shot of Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs

Seizing the Moment

Stephen Johnson: Two photographs from a trip I took really stand out -- one from looking down on the glacier and one from looking up toward it. Completely different photographs and at the same time they reach toward a level of simplicity and awe that I felt very positive about.

In this photograph of Mammoth Hot Springs from Yellowstone, the trees and the travertine are a place that I had photographed both with film and with my digital camera. I had made a lot of perfectly okay photographs of the area. (click the image for a larger version)

One day I had gone back to have lunch with my family, packed up all the cameras, and was driving away when I noticed these trees up on this little side trail sticking out of the travertine. I very nicely asked my wife Mary if she could occupy the kids for a little while longer. She generously said, "Yes."

I walked up this little side trail and I was completely taken by the small vertical components of the now-dead trees in this layered diagonal of the travertine that was slowing down from the springs above. It created simplicity of form and sensuality that struck me.

To Conclude

Sometimes scenery just grabs you -- and as a photographer it's your destiny to capture it. When Stephen Johnson was struck by the design at Mammoth Hot Springs he knew he had to shoot it, and he was rewarded with this beautiful photograph.