I use five layers to give depth perspective and scale to this sweeping vista of one of Yosemite’s most famous sights. By shooting from Stoneman Meadow in the early evening, I am able to contrast the heavily shadowed layers of trees to brightly illuminated layers. A large tree hangs into my frame at left and provides a strong foreground layer. It pulls the eye of the viewer into the image and partially frames the Half Dome, its branches acting as a pointing device. The silhouetted forest on the other side of the meadow offers a second layer – adding a bottom edge to the frame I started earlier with the tree. The hawk, so small in the evening sky, has a layer all to itself. It flies between and above both the forest and the monolith, adding scale and a focal point to the entire scene. It is the also the soaring hawk that gives this picture its freshness and energy. Half Dome itself, made famous in the Yosemite photographs of Ansel Adams and others, is the fourth layer – the most vividly colored and the largest subject in terms of scale. It gives the image its identity and sense of place. The fifth and final layer is the cloud-streaked sky, which creates a delicate, wispy, yet vividly colored background for everything else in the image