maybe planning a yellowstone trip. need info.

[EandSphotography]

Hi everyone. I was thinking of planning a trip to yellowstone this summer. Perhaps in july. I'm looking for some suggestions on places to stay, tour companies focused on photography and any other info you can help me out with. I've just got started with the planning phase today so i dont have much info to go on yet. I live in knoxville,tn and so far i'm thinking i'll drive to nashville and fly into Bozeman,mt. That seems to be the closest large airport that near the park. It said like 90 miles to the north entrance.
I'll probably be traveling by myself so i was thinking of trying to find some sort of group tour so it wont be so lonely.
Does anyone have suggestions on places to stay? I'd be going for about 12 days in june or july so i'm thinking that it might be best to maybe change hotels at least once to get some different views.
Like i said, i've just started to plan this today and just looking at a map of yellowstone is pretty intimidating so any help would be great.


Thanks,
Erik

 

[pcacj]

The North entrance has some cottages we have stayed in but I cannot recall the name. Prices were $80 per night, back in 2001. Are you interested in backpacking? The scenes from the road were not so interesting to me.

 

[EandSphotography]

well, i've thought about maybe doing some backpacking, but not sure if i want to lug everything on a plane to get it there. I might jsut do some daypacks so i can just bring my small pack. I actually just found the Old faithful Inn and that looks really nice. Plus they have some other choices besides staying in the main Inn. Looks like some small cabins are around there also. I am still undecided about the june or july dates just because i know it will be crowded, but i dont want to wait until fall or winter cause i'd rather not have to deal with a chance of snow. i ordered the travel planner and hopefully that will help out with things to do and routes to take to make the most of the time there. I'm the type of person who likes to have everything planned out ahead of time so this might be a challenge to get it all set for a june trip.
Anybody else with any suggestions please let me hear them. I'm open to any ideas.

Thanks,
Erik

 

[skieur]

I have shot in Yellowstone and I did not find that a tour company was necessary. The things to see are from walkways and paths that lead off from the main roads. Tourists tend to spread out, so with the exception of around Old Faithful, they did not get in the way when I was there. You do however tend to be very close or far away from your subject so a wide angle macro zoom and a telephoto zoom that goes to 300mm or 400mm are very useful. You can end up closer than you want to be to some bears and further away than you want to be from Yellowstone Falls. If your camera is not weather-sealed, then you may need to be careful in geyser areas with all the moisture and other stuff in the air. I would also suggest a polarizer and realize that the water in the air around geysers can reduce apparent contrast and sharpness so you may want to tweak camera menus accordingly or solve it in post.

skieur