[1] Adams took the picture while driving back from a trip to Canyon de Chelly, in Arizona, with his wife, Virginia, and two assistant photographers, Gerry Sharpe and Don Worth, in the Autumn of 1958.
His attention was suddenly caught by a grove of aspens, in New Mexico, in particular by their golden leaves.
He explained: “We were in the shadow of the mountains [north of Santa Fe], the light was cool and quiet and no wind was stirring.
It was very quiet.”[2][1] Adams considered taking a picture in color, but he decided to do it in black and white, his favourite medium, which allowed him to enhance the contrast between the forest shadows and the tree's leaves.
When I explain that it represented diffused lighting from the sky and also reflected light from distant clouds, some rejoin, “Then why does it look the way it does?” Such questions remind me that many viewers expect a photograph to be the literal simulation of reality; of course, many others are capable of response to an image without concern for the physical realities of the subject.