It has been said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ and this picture of a 'Starry night in Yellowstone' National Park is no exception. Prior to my fall trip a few years ago, I prepared a list of landscape shots I wanted to get. Many of those shots required a certain time of day in order to have the direction of light correct for the subject. The shot I'm sharing today required setting up before dark, then waiting for the night sky and Castle Geyser to do their thing. It also required clear weather and a new moon. I had checked with the ranger desk at the Old Faithful visitor center to get information on estimated geyser activity times. Moon phase, sunset time, and weather information came from internet research. I scouted the location the day prior to the shot, and I arrived at the parking spot about 90 minutes before sunset. I looked for a focus target to set my 'infinity' focus point for the later night shot, then I turned off autofocus and taped down the focus ring on the camera – leaving nothing to chance for getting a nice sharp image in the dark. I took a couple of test shots to make sure I had the perfect composition. "What could possibly go wrong?" I thought. Some of the geysers are less predictable than others. Two hours passed. Then three… then four. It was getting quite chilly, and I even started to shiver. But then, the magic started happening. Water was gurgling in the geyser cone, even spilling out over the edge occasionally. We could feel heat from the steam. It was really dark. Suddenly, “what the heck is that light?” I asked my friends. It seemed that some crazy person had driven a car up the trail! To make things worse, the high-beam lights were on! This night had suddenly taken a terrible turn. I was beyond speechless! But, I started shooting anyway, even though I felt that my photo outing was ruined for that night. It turns out that 'shooting anyway' has become a rule I try to always follow. As you look at my photograph from that night, you may be wondering, “How did you get that shot with bright car headlights pointed right at you?” Had it not been for those bright headlights, this artwork could not have happened. Those bright headlights illuminated water and steam coming out of the geyser cone (like the exhaust from a jet engine!). I admit that I was irate on that night, and I didn’t even look at my shots on my computer before going to bed. I was pretty sure there was nothing good in them. But a good night’s sleep can do wonders. Maybe it came to me in a dream. I awoke smiling from ear to ear, because I had an idea. Recall that I took some practice shots near dusk to make sure I liked the composition and to set my focus point. Well, one of those practice shots is now the lower portion of the final picture. The brightly lit water and steam portion came from a shot made while the car lights were on, and lastly, the night sky portion came from a shot taken after the eruption was over and the car lights were gone. I merged three shots by processing them as separate layers in Photoshop, then using layer masks to remove (hide) the irritating portions of each layer.I hope you will remember to ‘take the shot anyway!’ That’s the story of a 'Starry Night in Yellowstone!’
