As the sun rises on the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we stop to photograph the almost theatrical effect of dawn light and color on the snow caped peaks, as well the desert of sagebrush leading up to them. I organize this image into a series of horizontal bands making up separate five layers. The first layer is the foreground, which I build around a road entering the picture at the bottom of the frame, and then curling right, into the heart of the sage. The second band is a transitional layer of sage that joins the desert to range of dark hills in the middle of the image. These hills, my third layer, are in shadow. Part of that shadow connects them to the dramatic snow capped peaks, making up the fourth layer – the focal point and subject of this image. The fifth and final layer is the sky, which is filled with thin golden clouds that echo the pinkish orange color of the snow on the mountains.