Not far from busy Yosemite Village, the heart of Yosemite’s service area for tourism is this broad silent meadow with a river running through it and old trees lining it edges. Shooting before breakfast, I was able to build this image out of the dappled angled sunlight warmly filtering through these old trees. What really caught my eye was how many ways the light speaks in this picture. I can put layers of light to work for me by moving back on to the edge of the meadow to make space for the foreground – my initial layer, which is filled with soft shadows and green and gold grass. These shadows draw eye back into to the second layer -- the beautifully backlit tree that provides the focal point of the image. This back lighting makes its leaves translucent and emphasizes a double diagonal of bare branches that frames the subject tree. The Yosemite controlled burn fires give add a third layer to the image, an area of smoky light. A careful eye will spot “God’s Rays” shining on the background to the right of the subject tree. It adds space and air and infinite depth this photograph. Taken together, these layers speak of the cycles of nature, of the light that brings life to all things, and of this very special place called Yosemite.