Photo of the Week: Backlit Frosted Pine

A "magical, golden tree"

“WINTER LIGHT IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK is almost always clean and blue cold,” writes pro photographer Tom Murphy. “If there is any warm light, it is very brief at sunrise and sunset. There would normally never be a reason to stop for this forlorn-looking lodgepole pine killed by the North Fork Fire of 1988. One morning before sunrise last year, I was watching steam from Calcite Springs drift through nearby trees.  The sun came up over the ridge and lit this little frosted tree along with the top of the snow drift. Then the sun brightened everything around it, and in less than one minute this magical, golden tree once again became a nondescript stick.” Murphy quickly captured the scene with a Nikon camera.