Looking at the world from behind the lens of a camera can be both view limiting and imagination expanding. Focusing on details that escape the casual glance, or focusing on compositional 'landmarks' that exclaim themselves within a sweeping vista.

I took this photo on the road down from Mt. Lemmon just north of Tucson. Mt Lemmon, a sky island, climbs from the desert-valley floor, to a summit of over 9000 feet. Called a sky island because of the extreme changes in ecosystem from Tucson-desert cactus, to alpine aspen and pine forest.

Just as I imagined my sentinel trees watching over our property and separating us from 'wilds' of Northern New York, I saw this pine as a sentinel of the Mt Lemmon sky island and had to take the shot.