Located about five miles from the Stanford campus in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a Stanford University biological field station. Photographer Mary Fischer captured this Perfect Shot during a Stanford Continuing Studies nature photography workshop: “Walking down the trail, I turned a corner and saw the light filtering over a giant boulder with a stream running next to it. The moss with its greens and golds and the shadows of the leaves overhead created an abstract mélange of beauty. It gave me a feeling of another time and a connection to the earth with its layers of life.” Visitors can sign up for docent-led tours of Jasper Ridge at jrbp.stanford.edu/visit
Courtesy of Mary Ries Fischer / maryriesfischer.photo