Some places make you work for color. Yellowstone is not one of those places. You point the camera at a hot spring and the Earth hands you a paint set. My job was mostly to not mess it up.
I shot everything in JPEG, straight color, because when the landscape is doing this much heavy lifting, the last thing it needs is me reinterpreting it in post. The Grand Prismatic Spring looks like a fantasy novel cover with zero help from me. The terraces at Mammoth look airbrushed by geology.
The trick with Yellowstone color is restraint, which is not my strong suit anywhere else. Let the saturation be what it is. Don’t chase it, don’t tame it.
If you ever go, bring a camera you trust and just walk. The park is the photographer. You’re the assistant.
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