On the edge of the oldest surviving cemetery in San Diego, I found a small cross and a few stones placed next to the massive roots of an ancient tree. When I first saw this scene, the sky was overcast, and my attempts at symbolization did not work very well. Within the hour, however, the sun broke through the clouds, and I returned to this small grave at the foot of the old tree. I noticed that the shadow of the cemetery’s wall now ran diagonally through the grave itself. I was able to repeat that diagonal line by finding a camera position that oriented the roots diagonally within my frame as well. I used my spot meter to expose for the highlights on the roots and the ground, which made everything in the shadows, get much darker. The resulting image uses light as both abstraction and symbolization. The incongruity in scale between tree and cross, the interplay of light and shadow, the glistening highlights on the roots themselves, all work to suggest the cyclical nature of life itself. (Some have suggested to me that this image might work “better” in black and white. I made the conversion, and found that when I removed the golden brown warmth of that sunlight, the image became quite bleak and severe. The photograph became a metaphor for death itself, rather than death as part of life.)