Online Magazine

Recent Posts

Tags

More Places to Go

Archives

Animals in Yellowstone

10th September 2023

Visiting Yellowstone

Yellowstone Wildlife

 

I’m a frequent visitor to Yellowstone National Park with its abundance of unique thermal features – geysers, mud pots, steam vents, hot springs.

Yellowstone also is home to amazing wildlife.

While I took many more pictures than presented here, below are some of the ones that I liked best from my last visit this year. There isn’t much text here, just the visuals.


A pair of sand hill cranes in the Lamar Valley

a prairie dog near the Old Faithful Geyser

a dusky grouse near the northeast entrance

a bison in the field at the Midway Geyser Basin

a mule deer foraging near Lewis Lake

a pair of mountain goats in the Baronette Mtns – they were about 1/2 mile away

a bison calf with Mom crossing the road in the Lamar Valley

a black bear near Slough Creek

Yellowstone as with most of our national parks is one of those places where you can find scenes and wildlife to photograph and experience everywhere you go. Hoping that you get to have the experience of visiting a national park.


   

Written by: Arnie Lee
 
 

   

Appreciating Scale

10th September 2022

We’re Mere Specks on Earth

I grew up in the New York metropolitan area and didn’t get to travel to the more remote areas of our country until later in life. To me, the skyscrapers of New York City were about the tallest or largest scenery to which I was accustomed. That changed after college when I visited my first national park – Yosemite. Since then, I’ve made been lucky enough to visit many more.

One thing that I encountered early on and continues to amaze me to this day is the extensive amount of our country’s tracts of land. Look as far as your eye can see and there’s plenty more beyond. From a distance, gaze at a geologic feature or land mass and you may not comprehend its size until you draw closer. In short, it’s the scale of these features that are astonishing.

As individuals, our size is insignificant compared to the earth’s magnificent landforms.

Below are a few photographs that try to illustrate scale.




A couple hiking at Death Valley’s Mesquite Dunes look miniscule.
You can barely see the dozens of visitors congregating around Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

Here’s a visitor enjoying the shade of Delicate Arch.
This is the same photograph at full size. You can see how the size of Delicate Arch towers over the visitor.

These craggy mountains in the northeast portion of Yellowstone National Park are home to mountain goat families.
We’ve enlarged the photo on the left so you can pick out the animal on the ledge high off of the surrounding terrain.


This young girl is having fun exploring the rocks in Monument Valley.

In the full size photo you can see her standing in front of a huge monument.


This young girl sits at the entrance to the Tunnel Tree in Yosemite.

My fisheye lens captures the entirety of the Tunnel Tree which rises 225 feet above the ground.


The scale of many of nature’s wonders is so humbling to me and affords me the chance to record them on film (so to speak).

Written by:
 
Arnie Lee
 
 

Picturesque Continental Divide

In Yellowstone when you’re driving the Grand Loop from West Thumb to Old Faithful, the road climbs a few hundred feet as it crosses the Continental Divide at Craig Pass.

There sits Isa Lake atop the summit that has a distinction of draining into two different oceans. While Isa is very small, it is a very picturesque site among the tall forested coniferous trees.

This article is the another in a series of articles that I’ve called About this photo to draw attention to a few of those memorable photos that may be hiding in a shoebox or on your hard drive.
 
 




 
This is one of my favorite photos from the outdoors. What stands out are the large great yellow pond-lilies floating on the lake surface.
 


 
By stepping back a bit you can see the larger part of the lake and the tall surrounding pine trees.
 


 
This photo was taken at a different time of the year in the pouring rain but presents a pleasant view.
 


 
 
I hope this is a reminder to get those favorite photos of yours off of your cellphone or computer for others to see.
 
 
Written by: Arnie Lee
 
 

Newer Posts »