One morning when fall was just beginning in earnest in Alaska, I stayed up all night and left my house before the sun rose. My destination: Thunderbird falls. I arrived at a perfect time, the time shortly after sunrise when the light is coming in at just the right shallow angle and it make everything it strikes take on more depth and a golden glow. I happened across this scene at the perfect time, as the sun was pouring in between a split between two objects it struck upon this tree so poetically, I was reminded of a Tolkien passage in The Hobbit: "... when the thrush knocks and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole."
Nikon D50
I like how dark it gets on the bottom, but how you can still see a couple of leaves in the black.
Maybe that's just my monitor though... :)