Within a matter of only a few minutes, the light show that nature had put on for us in the previous image had changed in color, form and intensity. I made this follow-up image about eight minutes later, just as dawn was about to become day, by changing both my vantage point and the focal length of my lens. I am still photographing light here as my subject matter, but as I moved my camera position, I noticed that I could create a rhythmically repeating relationship between clouds, mountains, trees and leaves that would tie these natural elements more closely together as both form and content. The clouds, including the intensely colored orange mass, seem to flow into the saddle just to the left of Half Dome. The tree line below the saddle echoes that same flow. I moved the camera in order to pull a branch of Oak leaves down from the upper right towards the ball of fire in that saddle. Using a 24mm wideangle lens, I am composing this landscape as a series of “pointers,” leading to Half Dome from both left and the right, as well from as above. There is a sense of depth here from layer to layer – beginning with the leaves, then the trees, then the mountains, and finally those marvelous clouds. Everything leads the eye to the “cauldron of fire” swirling in the saddle of Half Dome. That’s where all the energy in this image comes from. This landscape is about that energy, as expressed by its light, color and form.