The rising sun strikes the left side of the aspen trunks leaving the right side in shadowed blue reflected skylight. (John Voss / Doonerak Photography)

This photograph is from a Fall trip to Colorado about 6 years ago- the peak foliage was later than expected that year and I drove all over SW Colorado looking for colorful aspen trees. This grove was in the Maroon Bells valley near Aspen. I woke up way before dawn (sleeping in my rental truck on a back road) and drove to the valley where there were photographers cheek and jowl at the lake’s edge to photograph the sunrise- maybe 100 people!  Everyone was very polite, but it was very strange and sort of ridiculous to be photographing with so many people who all left as soon as the sun rose. Unsatisfied, I drove back down the valley and tramped around the woods until I found this scene. I waited to fire the shutter for the minute the sun illuminated the trunks from the left with a golden cast while the right side of the trunks remain illuminated with the blue cast of the skylight. It is a subtle distinction, but I valued the few moments alone in the forest with this light more than the Maroon Bells sunrise with the crowds.