By Scott Shephard

I talked about the direction and quality of light yesterday and today I offer a somewhat extreme example of the same subjects (more or less) photographed in different light. This photo, which you might think is something I took in the fall, is actually a Japanese maple leaf photographed from the underside and lit by the subdued sunlight coming from the other side. It was as if the leaves were on fire and I took several photos trying to get only a couple of leaves focused.

But as I left this little grove in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, I turned and took one shot of what these leaves looked like from the other side. You wouldn't even think they are leaves on the same tree

Such is the nature of the quality and direction of light in a photo.

Canon 5dIII 1/45s f/4.5 ISO400 102mm