Point a lens straight at the sun and the lens confesses. That's what's happening in this frame: those soft circles and ghostly rings below the starburst aren't in the sky at all. They're light bouncing between the glass elements inside the camera, tiny reflections multiplying like whispered secrets, an artifact photographers used to fight and now sometimes chase on purpose. I shot this lying on warm grass in the middle of the afternoon, sky so blue it looked dyed, and the flare bloomed the second I tilted a few degrees. One degree left and the sun is just a white hole. One degree right and it's gone. The sweet spot is a sliver, and inside it the whole picture changes — hexagons, halos, a second dimmer sun appearing like a shy understudy. There's a whole subculture of people who hunt flares deliberately, and I get it now. It's detail work at planetary scale. The clouds here are doing their part too, combed thin at the top like someone ran fingers through them, piling up soft at the bottom. Sun, glass, air, water. Four ordinary things. Put them at exactly the right angle and they make a small galaxy.
#lensflare #bluesky #sunlight #detailhunting
