On an early Spring morning, driving through Yosemite Valley, I was struck by the mood and beauty of the backlit trees. The twigs were shimmering in the sunlight, and a slight amount of steam was coming off the damp leaves left over from Fall.
It's tricky shooting straight into the sun, but the tree on the left was kind enough to shade my lens. As is true of many of my recent photos, multiple frames and multiple focus points were used to capture the panorama. The net result is an image file that is 9,400 very sharp pixels wide, and a print with a level of detail we don't often see.
As with most of my current photography, I used a Leica M9 with Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 Biogon lens to capture this image. I find that manual focus and exposure are still the best way to approach the type of landscape photography I do. I often take a quick shot and check the histogram to be sure I have the exposure set right, particularly with a tricky lighting situation such in this scene.