Surprise in the Sky

Importing the Featured Image into Adobe Lightroom Classic revealed unexpected dirt on lens. Where did those specs come from? But zooming in close revealed something else: A flock of birds set against the clouds—and half-Moon. So I cropped to give you another peek at the amazing detail Leica Q2‘s 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens captures. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, 28mm; 9:24 a.m. PST, Dec. 26, 2021.

The close-crop won’t win awards for composition, but it’s not meant to. There’s a certain satisfaction to how the intended object, and story about it, becomes something more. Since crane also is a bird, surely there is a clever way to describe the happenstance (not that I can think one; perhaps you can).

To put the crane in context and to show how quickly the moment passed, I present a second shot taken seconds later. Vitals are the same. Location: Park Blvd at Meade, in San Diego’s University Heights district.

The mechanical crane sits over the construction of a planned, eight-story multi-unit residential complex built on the site of a former church that used to distribute free food most Fridays of the year. I really must write more about that in the future, using photos from before, during, after the demolition.

Sigh. My heart pines whenever walking by on a Friday afternoon and remembering what was: mainly families and aged individuals lining up to receive needed foodstuffs.