A self-described dreamer who aspires to live in Wyoming full-time, Larry Rogers spends anywhere from a couple of weeks to months in the Yellowstone-Grand Teton area each year. The Ohio photographer’s goal is to get perfect photographs that he sometimes plans years for — and even decades — before they can happen.
“I have a picture from Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton, and it's a picture that I visualized at least 20 years before I finally got it,” Rogers said. “You are going to laugh when I say this, but one day I told my friend, Eric, ‘We gotta go now (to Oxbow Bend). We can't go anywhere else.’
“I wanted a shot of Oxbow Bend with no wind and a crystal-clear sky. I wanted that good reflection of mountains in the water, and I got that shot.”
Rogers’ Wyoming photo safaris typically include a lot of pre-planning and mapping out ways to execute the perfect shot. This includes determining camera settings, which lenses to use and the framing of the photo itself.
Then, he must patiently wait for the circumstances to be just right so he can grab the photo he has envisioned.
“I typically do a shot list, which is in an Excel spreadsheet,” Rogers told Cowboy State Daily. “I make notes as I see images online and when I see a shot that I want to try to get, I'll put it in a shot list.”
People may think photographers get lucky when they get a perfect image. While that can happen, it’s rare, said Eric Curby, a friend and fellow photographer to travels to Wyoming with Rogers.
“Nobody can overthink like an engineer, or over plan,” he said. “We have a two-day drive to get out to Wyoming, so we've talked about all the shots we're gonna take ad nauseam on our way out there. We're talking the daylights out of every picture and then occasionally one of them turns out good.”
The men met while working as engineers and, now in their retirement, have taken the patience and skill set they developed in technical work to the more artistic world of photography.
They work as a team: Rogers setting the shots and Curby planning the trips. When Roger finally gets the perfect shot, he shares it with others on his Amazon and Etsy shops, Wild Places and Spaces.
All that planning is what led Rogers to get one of his most striking and interesting images: a composite of three images that create a unique and spectacular photo of Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park blasting off at night backdropped by the Milky Way.
The Nighttime Geyser
Rogers wanted to capture what a Yellowstone geyser would look like with a clear, starry night sky as a backdrop.
Before heading to Wyoming, he and Curby plotted ways to make the photo happen and had decided to bring high-powered flashlights to light up a geyser. The geyser was to be their final photo of this particular trip.
“On that day, we looked at the estimated eruption times of various geysers and we decided on Castle Geyser because it was estimated to go off between 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.,” Rogers said.
“When you do night photography, it is all about the moon, and you typically want to take a night shot with a new moon because you don't want any additional light in the sky that you're not anticipating,” Curby added.
While Rogers was busy envisioning what he wanted to capture, Curby was working out the details of driving them to the location. He also checked the weather.
“As I recall, I was dressed warmer than Larry because I'm the one going, ‘Hey, you know, it could be a little cold,’” Curby said.
Focused on getting the right equipment, Rogers didn’t heed the advice of his friend and forgot to bring a coat. Despite shivering in the cool night air, the engineer-turned-photographer braved the weather for his perfect shot.
THE PROGRESSION: This base photo at Castle Geyser was layered with two others to create the composite image. (Courtesy Larry Rogers) 
One of the three shots to make Larry Rogers' composit was this one of a car's headlights shining through Castle Geyser as it errupts at night. (Courtesy Larry Rogers) 
One of the composite shots taken at Castle Geyser capturing the Milky Way. (Courtesy Larry Rogers) 
Realizing his vision of capturing this image finally happened when Larry Rogers layered three images taked from the same spot. The result is this stunning shot of Castle Geyser in Yellowstone erupting at night, lit up from behind, with the Milky Way as a backdrop. (Courtesy Larry Rogers)
Perfectly Laid Out Plans
The men arrived at Castle Geyser at dusk and parked at the near-by gas station. They walked down the paved trail and claimed a section of the empty boardwalk to set up their chairs and tripods. Their priority was to set their shot while they still had daylight.
“I wanted to set up the composition shot so that I would have the geyser cone in the shot,” Larry said. “As to the night sky, I use software to visualize where the Milky Way is going to be at various times. The most important thing about getting out there with a bit of daylight is to set my infinity focus point.”
Rogers took a couple of photos to make sure he liked the framing and focus. Then as night fell, the men started experimenting with the flashlights they hoped would illuminate the steam from the geyser.
Disaster At The Photo Shoot
Two young women came by and watched the men curiously as they waved their flashlights around.
“They were younger folks who came by pretty much after dark and they were asking us what the heck we were doing,” Larry said. “I'll be honest with you at that point in time, I wasn't sure how I was going to get the steam coming out of the geyser to light up in the photograph later on.”
The geyser had begun to gurgle and they were taking practice shots of the steam. Unfortunately, all they were able to accomplish was to light up the ground and not the steam itself.
Just as the geyser was about to erupt, a car from a nearby gas station shined its brights on them, backlighting the geyser. The young folks got on their phone and started chattering away in Chinese. It took a few moments for Rogers to realize what was going on.
“She told us that it was her dad,” Rogers said. “He was looking for the girls and trying to get them to come to the car. They were apparently telling him no, that there's something really cool going on over here that they wanted to watch.”
Their dad refused to turn off his lights and kept insisting the girls get back to the car.
Meanwhile, the eruption started. Rogers had given up on their protective dad from turning off his brights. Frustrated that his shot was ruined, Rogers did the only thing he could do. He started taking photos.
“I do that right when I get into a tight spot,” he said. “It's like, I don't think this is gonna work, but I won't know for sure unless I take some shots even though they are blown out by the car lights.”
During the eruption, the girls laughed, enjoying the show.
Since it was a long eruption, they eventually left before it completely ended. The car pulled away and the headlights faded into the night.
Working quickly, Rogers and Curby were able to take the original photographs they had planned, but the flashlights were not working. Dispirited but not giving up, Rogers took his night shot of the Milky Way before they packed up for the long trip back to their vacation rental.
The Perfect Composite
The next morning, Rogers woke up and had an idea — not one perfect frame, but three from that night combined to realize his vision. He took three photos from his night shoot and layered them together unaltered into Photoshop.
By the time he sat down to breakfast, he knew he had a winner.
When he was setting up his camera, he had taken a shot at dusk just to frame the photo. That became the bottom of his composite. He then took the Milky Way photo for the top of the picture. Finally, the blown-out steam was the third image that featured the geyser itself.
“It took a few tries, but I think it turned out OK,” Rogers said “You get frustrated when a shot doesn’t work the way you planned. And then sometimes it still comes together.”
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
