Steam. Landscape photograph by Ryan Shanley, finalist in the Shoot The Frame Landscape photography award, November 2020

Finalist Landscape · November 2020

Steam

While driving through Yellowstone National Park, I saw a lone bison eating grass along the S curve of a river. I pulled over and began to shoot beautiful verticals with the river fading off into the background. While I was looking around to see other interesting angles, white steam from the hot springs on the other side of the road caught my eye. The pale blue of the sky combined with the white steam, and yellowing grass looked beautiful together. The river curved on that side of the road as well and immediately pulled me over. I began to frame the layer of steam as horizontals until this vertical caught my eye. The layers and varying heights of the steam bring in soft texture to an already tactile foreground. This ended up being one of my favorite images from the trip.