An American Bison in Yellowstone National Park with majestic mountains in the background

The American Bison, or the Buffalo as many of us grew up calling them, is probably the most iconic mammal in North America. At one time millions of them roamed North America and then were hunted nearly to extinction. One of the largest herds of American Bison can be found in Yellowstone National Park, and they truly are a magnificent animal in a magnificent park.

According to the Department of Interior website, 15 Facts About Our National Mammal, Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times, this makes them special in that they are pure descendants of early bison and are free of cattle genes.  What I think makes the Yellowstone bison so special is that they are roaming herds of wild beasts living in an expanse of stunning wilderness that we can actually visit.

We saw a lot of bison on our trip to Yellowstone earlier this year, but of all the images I made of bison, this is the one that had the biggest impact on me.  The lone bison in an expansive landscape.

Looking through the 3rd order fresnel lens at the Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport, WA

It’s no secret that I love visiting the Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport, WA.  I have blogged about it multiple times, the most recent being here.  What I haven’t talked a lot about is the actual fresnel lens that is at the heart of every lighthouse.

The fresnel lens in and of itself is not necessarily a work of art, modern ones are typically made out of a single sheet of plastic, but the hand made lenses that used to be the workhorse of all lighthouses are something special, they are hand crafted, one of a kind and are truly works of art.

I have made a number of images of fresnel lenses from various lighthouses over the years, but when I visited the Grays Harbor light recently I really wanted to do something a little different and decided to concentrate on the bulb in the lens as well as the landscape beyond, the result of that is the image above.

While not truly unique, one of the effects of looking through a fresnel lens with a camera is the the world becomes upside down, this image was no different.  If you take some time to really look at this image, you will notice that the lightbulb is actually upside down and the background landscape is normal.  This wasn’t the case when it came out of camera, I had to flip the image as I felt it better to have the landscape right and let the bulb be upside down, which is hardly noticeable anyway.  :-)

I hope you enjoy the image, and as always, please click on the image to see a version that will scale to the size of your monitor or mobile device.