Trail through golden aspens

Park City’s aspen groves peak for a narrow window in early October, and this trail happened to line up with the sun almost perfectly that morning, filtering it through the canopy into a burst of light between the trunks.

Getting the shot

A small aperture pulled the sun into a clean starburst through the leaves, and an HDR blend held detail in both the bright sky above and the shaded trail below — a scene like this has far more dynamic range than a single exposure can capture.