Late in the afternoon, a smoldering forest fire two miles from my vantage point latched to the shafts of sunlight in Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

In the dead tree, a solitary magpie sits, surveying the area. I love how all these individual elements: the mountains, sunlit smoke, the dead tree, the bird, the rock - beautiful on their own - come together in this one exposure.

Canon EOS 5D, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5/5.6L IS @ 310mm, 1/100 sec @ f/5.6 ISO equiv 100, Calumet 8000 Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo G1276 Ballhead