Bigleaf Maple &

...mouse click to enlarge... I exposed this 4x5 Provia 100F transparency through my 150mm Nikkor lens on November 2, 2006 along Illouette Creek, the largest upper tributary stream of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley. It was a cool intermittently rainy day that made travel in the area extremely precarious over slippery lichen covered granite boulders. After setting up the shot on a particularly difficult spot teetering over the creek, I waited a rather long time before light brightened a bit making the whole scene glow. The large tree with backlit fall changed yellow leaves is a bigleaf maple, acer macrophyllum, that is the only large maple species in western North America. Its up to 12 inch long palmately lobed leaves are the largest of any maple species. Mature trees are typically 30 to 70 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet in diameter. One often finds these maples along streams and shadowy talus slopes of the western Sierra Nevada at 2000 to 5600 foot altitudes. And in back of the maple are some Pacific dogwood with their peach to orange-hued autumn leaves. The image is available on my below home page gallery as a 24x30 inch Lightjet fine art print. Also one can read about my whole series of 2006 fall leaf road trips in a featured article on my website at this link: David Senesac http://www.davidsenesac.com