Patterns and textures are my favorite subjects to photograph. While I can capture the grand scenes, like the panoramics I showed last week, I am much more drawn to those things that are not so obvious.  When you look past the grand scenes, you begin to see details, patterns, and textures that have a  beauty that often goes unnoticed.

Of the almost 3000 images we brought home from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, probably  2/3 of them were of patterns and textures.   Once while concentrating on a particularly intriguing pattern, another park visitor watched me for a while and then asked me, “What do you see?”  When I explained that I was seeing patterns he still seemed unsure of what that meant.

Often, we have to look closer, past the grand scenes, to see the details and patterns within those scenes.  There’s so often many more layers of beauty that are easily missed.

I’ve organized my Yellowstone pattern images in to different groups that I’ll share over the course of the next few weeks.  Today’s patterns are just some of those created by the trees of Yellowstone.  In 1988, fires ravaged 36% of the park and the effects on the forest are still extremely evident 28 years later and create some quite interesting patterns.  Lodepole Pines are the most common tree in the park and often the only kind you can see for miles.  The geyser basins and hot springs have their own very unique effects on the surrounding trees.  The images here are just a sampling of the many tree patterns to be seen in Yellowstone.

Make sure to click on to the images in the gallery so that you can see them larger and read the captions. 

 

Water patterns were some of my favorite captures in Yellowstone.  Watch for those next time.