lecia

dawn 42423

The sun rose while I slept. I had not yet risen

When I heard an early oriole above the roof of my house.

Suddenly it was like the Royal Park at dawn,

With birds calling from the branches of the ten-thousand-year trees.

I thought of my time as a Court Official

When I was meticulous with my pencil in the Audience Hall.

At the height of Spring, in occasional moments of leisure,

I would look at the grass and growing things,

And at dawn and at dusk I would hear this sound.

Where do I hear it now?

In the lonely solitude of the City of Hsün Yang.

The bird’s song is certainly the same,

The change is in the emotions of the man.

If I could only stop thinking that I am at the ends of the earth,

I wonder, would it be so different from the Palace after all? ~Po Chü-I *

*cited: Trans: F Ayscough & A Lowell, Project Gutenberg eBook of Fir-Flower Tablets: Po Chü-I, “Hearing the Early Oriole” (written in exile).

lens-artists: exposure

Leica D-Lux 7 … f/2.8 1/80 s 26.3 mm 3200 ISO -1.3 ev

This image was created by using natural light with an exposure value set at -1.3.

FujifilmX-T4 … f/4 1/1000 s 120 mm 640 ISO -2 ev

The highlights (leaves and light on middle figure) were adjusted in black and white post editing

FujifilmX-T4 … f/4 1/1000 s 33 mm 640 ISO 1.3 ev

This image (initial exploration of long exposure with a Fujifilm) was edited for shadow and highlights during post editing

FujifilmX-T4 … f/4 1/1000 s 59 mm 640 ISO -2 ev

This image was created with Fujifilm’s film simulation retro gold with lights and shadow adjusted during post editing.

I work with RAW images, the camera is set at Aperture Mode, and generally edit images in Capture One, Photoshop, Nix Software, and Snapseed.

As my computer isn’t reading my external disks, the RAW files of the last three images were edited in iPad’s Lightroom, Photoshop, and Snapseed.

Thank you Sofia (Photographias) for this week’s lens-artist’s challenge: exposure.

lens-artists challenge: it’s all about the light

Travels and Trifles wrote, “This week the Lens-Artists team invites you to join us in exploring the magic of light. Sometimes we plan ahead and rise in the early morning hours to capture the sunrise, only to find it obscured by clouds. Other times we await the sunset only to find it less than spectacular. And sometimes, every now and then, we just get lucky and a boring scene becomes magical.”

What could be more boring than a global industrial grid bike rack or

Sony RX1003 …f /3.5 . 1/250s . 25.7mm . 80 ISO

the concrete foundation of an underpass.

Leica d-Lux7 … f/2.8 . 1/1300 . 34mm . 100 ISO

Then there is the magical moment of a playground in the early morning hours.

Leica D-Lux 7 … f/2.8 . 1/1600s . 34mm . 100 ISO