This picture was taken in the early morning along the Merced River, just inside the main entrance on the west side of Yosemite National Park. As the sun rose, it fell first on this bare tree that was growing a few feet in front of the main forest area. The forest behind stayed dark for another few minutes, making the single tree jump out of the scene.

I used a long exposure to smooth the very active Spring rapids in the river. I experimented with various shutter speeds, and three seconds smoothed the rapids sufficiently so that they did not detract from the main subject of the picture.