This is a photo taken of the trees across the street from my house. It was a very spontaneous photo shoot: I just looked outside and decided that I wanted to capture the golden streak of light shining only on the top of the trees. Usually this happens in strange summer-fall days, when the sky is a light gray and the sun is a pale yellow, but everything on the ground looks a bit dark. I was attracted to this contrast because I had been feeling very stressed and overwhelmed for weeks, and somehow that day I had reached a bit of clarity and calm, a little bit of my own golden sunshine. I liked how the yellow leaves made a curve that moved the eye of the observer to different areas of the photo. I tried to balance the dark and coolness of the trees in the foreground with the warmth of the trees. I also paid close attention to the Aperture and Shutter Speed to make sure the photo wasn’t under or overexposed.