+:::^{Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park}

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Ever been on a hike that made you feel like a kid again?

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. Grand Prismatic Spring (from the back side on a tall hill)

The name comes from the effect this crystal clear water has on the sky. It is a prism. Why? It reflects the sky and the whole rainbow of colors in a amazing way.

This was my first time seeing this spring. I had a keen idea of what I wanted...and I managed to do my research and found out about a hike that allows you to see this amazing feature from high above the park.

This is the most thermally active area in the world.

Trying to find the perfect composistion of this gigantic spring was hard. Take a look for yourself, can you see the tiny people?

Watching and enjoying this scene with my girlfriend was so awesome. She was so happy to see me so excited and awe-inspired.
The steam floating up, the colors of the spring, the feeling that a bear could come out of the woods and kill us both. Ah, I will never forget it.

The hike continued on, to Fairy Falls. Fairy Falls was not worth the remaining 4-5 miles. I would have been happy waiting for the sun to go down watching nature all around me...and breathing in the fresh air...with nothing else better to do.

This place took something from me.

My heart. I want to go back to nature and find it again.

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Taken with:

Nikon D70
B&W Polarizing Filter.

Post Process:

Single RAW (the RAW file was perfect, slightly under-exposed...composistion was dead on...F/STOP was perfect for the depth I needed)

Photoshop CS.

Curves, channel adjustments, levels, added a color warming filter for the ground.

All VERY slight edits. +3 or -3 at the most.

Very minor crop to get rid of sky and some small dead trees that were on the edges (my viewfinder must be off by about .3cm or so)

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<sub>This is what I came to see. We spent most of our time around this portion of the park. It was so huge, so colorful, so amazing. Nothing like it in the world. Only 3 thermally active places exist in the world. New Zeland and I believe Iceland. Yellowstone is the largest and most diverse.

quality and light are everything...
but the inspirations are the reasons why all else succeeds.</sub>