Black oak trees bordering Cook's Meadow in Yosemite National Park exhibit their golden fall colors on a crisp November morning.

A large dose of credit goes to my wife, Alison, for inspiring me to capture this image. As I was following a cooperative bobcat around Cook’s Meadow with my long lens, Alison wandered among the nearby oak trees featuring beautiful golden leaves. She took a quick grab shot on her iPhone of a composition similar to that of the above image and I was very intrigued when she showed it to me. A few minutes later the bobcat disappeared into the undergrowth for a nap, so I swapped out my 500mm lens for a wide angle zoom and set about reconstructing the iPhone image as I remembered it. After waiting a while for the skies to clear of the seemingly ever-present contrails, I fine-tuned the positioning of the camera to obtain a starburst effect from the sun, and I was able to create an image that conveyed the feeling of standing within this dazzling grove.

Stay tuned for a blog post featuring the aforementioned bobcat in the near future.