Whiteface Mountain stands out from the rest of the High Peaks like a lone sentinel. At 4,867′ it commands an amazing 360-degree view of the surrounding Adirondack Park. To the south it looks down on the serene face of Lake Placid holding Moose and Buck Islands within its azure waters. The granitic face of the mountain has become a host for a world of colorful lichen that are slowly reducing the mighty peak to the level of the lower plains. To stand on the pinnacle of Whiteface is to stand often at the level of the floating clouds whose shadows touch the land with no trace at all of ever having been. I wandered along the broken rim noticing the weathered cracks in the great blocks of stone until I found a pair that I could use as leading lines to direct attention off the mountain, down the jagged slope and out into the space of the wider world. In order to bring the surface of the peak into play as a primary element, I set up the camera on its tripod about a foot above the rock and then tilted up until I had included the band of wafting cirrus, which gave the sky the visual weight of about one-quarter of the image and the rock about one-half. I positioned the cracks in the rock so that neither of them came from directly out of a corner of the frame; and I included the rock outcrop on the right to show the line of the top of the mountain. A focal length of 18mm gave me the angle of view that I wanted. An aperture of f/20 at a shutter speed of 1/25th second at ISO 100 gave me a medium overall exposure. Artistic work can be done even in the middle of the day when you have the right elements to work with.