When I emerged from a conifer forest while hiking the Panorama Point Trail at Mount Rainier, I came upon the line of closely spaced fir trees. My immediate thought was that it looked like a painting by one of the Canadian Group of Seven landscape painters. It didn’t, really, but my imagination soared and I thought about how I could work with the picture back in the studio. I photographed it from a couple of angles, and liked this composition best. The original digital photograph is nice, but with this dramatic treatment that I gave it in the studio, I think it becomes operatic!

LOCATION: Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, USA