I have admittedly mixed feelings about this image. 

In the strict sense—the perspective of the scene at the moment of capture—conveys the mystery and wonder of sunrise at Yellowstone, surrounded by waves of fog and mist arising from the Earth’s geothermal crevices. It’s a gentle and quiet scene and can evoke peacefulness, which is what I felt when I first captured it. Yet when viewing at other times, my mind at first “sees” threatening smoke from a nearby, invisible wildfire. Maybe this is an effect from living for so long in Colorado, where the threat of wildfire is quite real?

It’s been interesting to watch my mind as it reacts to the images Anne and I have taken over the decades, observing the thought and feeling and relating it to what I’d been previously thinking about. By this measure, our thoughts can’t even be trusted to be “objective” as they too shift with changing circumstances. 

Maybe this is why being open to other perspectives is so key to understanding and feeling empathetic with not just ourselves but each other in this crazy, unpredictable world of ours.

Find this and more from Yellowstone National Park.