Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is a beautiful park in Big Sur just off Hwy 1. In late 2017 Santa Barbara had a huge fire and forced many to evacuate including myself. I decided to head to Carmel to get away from the terrible smoke in Santa Barbara. What was supposed to be a couple of days away turned out to be about 2 weeks!

One day I drove south from Carmel to Pfiffer Big Sur with my camera. I was a little tired of photographing the ocean in Carmel and the beautiful trees in this State Park would be a welcome change. I made this photograph when I saw how the light was illuminating these delicate leaves. They seemed to glow against the dark green and brown background.