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Yellowstone’s thermal features are out of this world.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jeff vanuga

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK is home to ten thousand thermal features, five hundred of which are geysers. With only approximately one thousand geysers in the entire world, Yellowstone easily has the highest concentration around. The park’s geysers have fascinated visitors, especially artists and photographers, since the first explorers came to this area. The earliest images—etchings—of Yellowstone include many geysers.

Today, most people use cameras, but their goal is the same: to capture these crazy geological wonders for posterity. Dubois-based photographer Jeff Vanuga has been photographing geysers since he moved to the region in 1983. “I’m not a geology guy, but geysers make for beautiful subjects,” he says.

Vanuga also finds that shooting geysers allows him to experience Yellowstone without its usual crowds. “The best times of day to photograph geysers are predawn, evening, or at night,” he says. “If you want a quiet experience and to get the best photographs of geysers, go as early as possible or at night.” Vanuga has spent an entire night at Lone Star Geyser. “I wasn’t sleeping but shooting the whole time,” he says.

To best capture Yellowstone’s geysers, Vanuga has some tips. “You don’t want to be downwind of a geyser when it’s going off and photographing it,” he says. “Then it will just be a blob of white steam.” Vanuga also suggests being perpendicular from the wind and not having light directly behind you. “Anytime you get side light you get more depth and impact,” he says.

A favorite geyser of Vanuga’s to shoot is Castle Geyser, located in the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful. “Even if it’s not erupting, there are steam phases where it looks like it is erupting,” he says. “Some geysers, when they’re not going off, there’s nothing to see, but Castle is always a show.” Castle Geyser is a short stroll on a boardwalk from Old Faithful. To see more of Vanuga’s work, go to jeffvanuga.com.