I used spot metering to expose on a sliver of El Capitan’s sheer granite face, as the morning sun illuminated it. I set my telephoto zoom lens at its longest distance (420mm) and shot the image from off to one side, at a great distance away. I framed the vertical sliver within a horizontal frame, which creates tension and further abstracts the image. Finally, I screened the face of El Capitan with a foreground layer of pine branches, which helps give the great cliff its sense of place by implying a forest setting.