Yellowstone National Park is Earth’s largest active geyser field, and I was most mindful of this fact when trying to find a location that encapsulated the park’s identity and character. I recognized that I also needed depth. The riddle was that this required good light, and if the trees were also to be full of snow, I was asking for a demanding climatic combination. Without fresh snow, there was no picture here. Luckily, on my last day in Yellowstone, the weather gods were favorable; I just needed some bison to give context and interest.

I am fairly fastidious about the seasons in which I visit American national parks, and none more so than Yellowstone, where I will only go in the depth of winter. In doing so, I recognize that I will see no bears because they will be hibernating. It is also entirely possible that the weather could be dreadful and impossible to work in. The good news is that traffic is light.

I would never go to Yellowstone in the spring or summer; it is simply a scrum, and the idea of sitting in traffic to get from point A to point B would fill me with a sense of not being original or creative. It is a bit like the Masai Mara during the migration—the noise of camera motor drives can be deafening.

That can be an issue in America. The country has the most visually intoxicating scenery in the world, but it also has the most mobile domestic population, as well as 80 million tourists who visit the country every year.