The Guardian

...mouse click to enlarge... During August of 2007, I exposed this 4x5 sheet of Provia 100F transparency film through my 150mm Nikkor lens,in the John Muir Wilderness. This Sierra juniper, juniperus occidentalis, sits on the sloping brink of a steep glaciated granite dome in the middle of the lower Bear Creek canyon overlooking the canyon for many miles hence I've named it "The Guardian". Such junipers often colonize sunny exposures of joint cracks between granite slabs where little else can grow. The dark black lichen coated granite location is subject to harsh sunshine, dryness, and brutal upcanyon winds, hence the advantage of such a stout form. This is actually two trees with a younger tree growing at left protected by the presence of its older parent. I'd actually first noticed this tree way back in 1986 so went out of my way off trail while returning from a backpacking trip into the creek's headwaters in order to see if twenty plus years later, my memory of its aesthetic worthiness waranted a photograph. Coincidently, the Moon was in the western sky, so I waited a bit then tripoded at a position pointed to by the upper limb. ...David Senesac Photography http://www.davidsenesac.com