This enormous moss-covered redwood stump is in Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, in Guerneville, California. Now protected from logging, the park contains the only first-growth redwoods left in Sonoma County. Typically, new redwoods will grow in a ring around a stump; on the newer trees, no branches grow on the inside of the ring! Some of these giants are 15 feet [4.5m] in diameter, 350 feet [100m] tall, and over 1500 years old; they are the largest living organisms on the planet. Here, exposure for shadow detail allows the highlights to overexpose without losing the subtlety of the scene.

Kodachrome film, natural light