That's how the light gets in

Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in

-- Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

Sometimes a lens test before the photoshoot inspires a shot that turns into the photo of the day -- especially if the shoot gets cancelled because of a trip to the doctor's office.

This was not the test shot. The test shot made with a manual focus 1970s Minolta 200mm prime lens was soft, so I reshot it with a modern AF Sony lens because I liked what I saw. Better framed, better planned, better executed. Maybe I should have posted the original shot. It had more... character. After all, "forget your perfect offering".

#afternoon #saturday #light #leaf #rock #february #crack #september #lyrics #feedbackplease

Irvine

ponzu

Published 6 years ago

vividcolourfabric I love how you used Cohen's lyrics to describe that photo. Also "You Want It Darker".

6yrs

ponzu Thank you. I was not sure how I felt about not posting the original, imperfect test shot that inspired me in the first place. It seemed to go against what Cohen would have told me to do. But I wanted to honor the process of thinking, experimenting and perfecting the shot I ended up going through, and, I believe, succeeding in the end.

What's funny, it took me so long to get the shot "right", including changing lenses, that the light moved off from where I originally caught it. The leaf was brilliantly lit through the center.

6yrs