It really feels like the slow days of winter here right now.  It's been cloudy, warm (by Yellowstone standards), and very little snow has fallen.  Plus I've been sick for the last three weeks, which has slowed me down too.  But I'm finally feeling a bit better and I'm headed out to Lamar Valley for a couple of days and hopefully will come back with some nice wildlife shots.  The image above was made on a cold morning a few weeks ago.  The Firehole River is backlit and reflecting the colors of the rising sun.

The image above was made near sunset.  I never realized this area had a name until I photographed it and then looked it up in my "geyser reference book".  The above area is referred to as the Chain Lakes and is a series of hot springs that have been known to erupt to considerable size.  No eruptions on this day, but some nice late day backlighting and steam.

The third image illustrating the use of back light shows two pine tree saplings barely peaking through the snow.  These two saplings isolated against the empty vastness of the snow drew my attention as I skiied past, but the backlighting gave the image depth and character.