The Old Faithful Inn is famous not only for its location but also for its unique architecture.  Designed by Robert Reamer, the Inn was opened to the public in 1903.  While not the oldest hotel in Yellowstone, it is undoubtedly the most well known.  With cloudy skies (but little new snow) dominating the weather lately, I decided to take a few photos of some of the details of the Old Faithful Inn dressed in winter white.  These images were made with a telephoto zoom lens so I could compose the scene as desired while having little room to maneuver.

I am running a special on print orders now through the end of April as well.  The special will be announced tomorrow, Sunday February 7th on the orders page, which can be found here:  www.travelsinbearcountry.com/ordering .

And finally, speaking of orders, I will be back in Europe for most of the month of March and part of April.  So any signed print orders that I receive after February 28 will be processed on April 2nd.  If the prints do not need to be signed, then they will be processed as normal, with about a two week turn around.

So according to several news sources, the first full moon is called a "wolf moon".  This name comes from native American lore where each full moon of the year has a name.  The "wolf moon" is named such due to the sounds of winter wolves howling under a full moon (source) .  So with clear skies, like any intrepid photographer, I headed up into the geyser basin after dark to photograph the landscape under the light of the "wolf moon".

Above is Old Faithful Geyser in full eruption lit by the full moon.  The image was roughly 6 seconds at f5.6 at ISO 1600.  Notice the lack of snow on the ground here.  While this is a thermal area, in a typical snow year, the ground here will not be bare.  Even with recent snow falls, the warmer ground in the geyser basins show a lot of bare ground.

This image above is of Grand Geyser.  As I made my way past Castle Geyser, I heard the sound of Grand before I ever saw it.  A three burst eruption gave me time to get over and record the eruption under the full moon.  In this image, Grand is the back and most of what can be seen is just steam.  The jetting water in the front is Vent Geyser.  This image was shot at 4 seconds with an f-stop of 4.5.  I also used ISO 1600 here.  There was a lot of steam, giving the image the look it has here.

Finally, this is Castle Geyser in the back and center of this image.  Again, the full moon provides backlighting through the three steam plumes.  This image was also shot at an exposure of 4 seconds, 4.5 f-stop, and ISO 1600.  Focusing for all the images I took under the full moon was done manually.  No adjustments were made to any of these images on the computer except some noise reduction.

Well, the two big topics in Yellowstone right now have been earthquakes and snow.  The NPS has reported over 1,000 earthquakes since January 17th.  This earthquake swarm is centered on the Madison Plateau almost half way between Old Faithful and the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, as the crow (or Raven, in Yellowstone) flies.  These have been felt in the Old Faithful area, at the least the bigger ones, which have been between 3.0 and 3.8.  The activity seems to have slowed or stopped as of today.  The NPS press release can be found here .  The other big topic has been a winter storm which dropped quite a bit of much needed snow over Yellowstone.  I haven't seen any official measurements, but the road from Flagg Ranch to Grant Village was closed today due to a reported 15 inches of fresh snow overnight.  I'm not sure why snow shuts down roads to oversnow vehicles in the winter, but this has happened a few times now in the last couple of winters.  The photos above and below were taken yesterday during the snowstorm.

Speaking of photos, there's a lot of negative press going on regarding the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and the winning photo that was disqualified.  I read on a photography forum where one person stated no photos today can be trusted for authenticity with photoshop and other tools being used today.  I've had my own credibility questioned as to my use of photoshop in my images.  I've stated it on my website and it still holds true that "photoshop work" on my images are limited to tweaks to contrast, white balance, and exposure.  Some shots are also cropped slightly.  I've never used HDR or other techniques and have no real desire to do so.  That doesn't mean it's wrong to do so, and to each photographer his or her own as they interpret their own work.  What I do think is important is honesty in photography.  The image of a wolf jumping over a gate at night is a nice photograph.  The wolf however, apparently wasn't a wild wolf as claimed by the photographer, at least according to the judges of the competition.  Information on this topic can be found here.  My images seen here are pretty much straight from the camera.  There are minor tweaks to contrast and exposure.  The dark sky seen below is natural.  The storm clouds were not illuminated by the sun as it peaked out and briefly light the trees and trail before me.  What you see here is what I saw, or at least what I saw through my camera. 

I finally made my first trip up to Mammoth Hot Springs and then out to Lamar Valley the for the past two days where I went off in search of wildlife images.  I did get to see a couple of wolves near the Yellowstone River Picnic Area, though they were too far away for photos.  There were plenty of coyotes as I had about 30 sightings in the two days, though the 30 sightings were probably of about 10 to 15 animals since I probably saw the same animals a few times.  No fox on this trip and bison were common but not as visible as they might be.  There were also elk in all the usual places.  This bull elk was lounging in the snow in an area that is popular with bull elk in the winter.  At one time, I saw 8 nice size bulls hanging out here

Bison, were common but didn't seem to be in as high numbers as I've seen in the past.  This bison was one of several that ran down towards the road to cross it.

And finally, I took this photo near sunset to illustrate the lack of snowpack.  This shot was taken near Blacktail Ponds.

Photographing in Yellowstone's winter can be a tricky venture.  My preferred time to photograph, whether it be in Yellowstone's geyser basins or in wildlife rich Lamar Valley, is on morning's where the thermometer dips well into the negatives, in farenheit.  Often, when the thermostat dips below minus 20 or colder, I look like I do in the image below. 

It may look cold, and it is... in that image, it was about minus 22 F (-29C), but with the right gear, it's possible to stay warm.  I typically layer with two pairs of insulated under garments, both top and bottom.  I then use a pair of liner socks, a pair of heavy socks, and a pair of snow boots.  I also wear a pair of moisture and wind resistant pants, a fleece vest, and a winter jacket.  For my neck and head, I'll wear a balaclava and then a knit hat and possibly the hood from my jacket.  For my hands, I have a pair of silk liner gloves, a pair of fleece fingerless gloves, and then a pair of insulated mitts.  The liner gloves and fingerless gloves allow me to operate my camera while still staying somewhat warm, and when I'm not shooting, the outer mitts keep my hands toasty warm. 

I've read alot about what to do and not to do with your camera in extreme cold conditions, but I've found my camera tends to deal with the cold just fine.  I always carry plenty of spare batteries and keep them inside my jacket.  Batteries don't last long in very cold temperatures.  However, aside from the batteries, my cameras usually hold up without problems.  It's not uncommon for the rear LCD to frost over to the point I can't see it, or it can get sluggish due to the cold, but I've never had any real problems.  I do try to not change lenses unless I absolutely have to, but I usually carry two cameras with zoom lenses attached, so there's no need to switch out lenses. 

All the images here were taken when the temperatures were below minus 20 F.  The above image is the black and white "companion" image of this week's Photo of the Week.  I really liked the symmetry of the two bison in this shot but ultimately, I preferred the turned head of the other shot seen here.  With a little preparation, it's possible to stay warm, safe, and still come away with some nice images during winter's cold.