Update: The green pattern at the bottom of the image is caused by reflection from the sensor into the lens and from there back to the sensor.

Wandering in a Californian coastal redwood grove in the Russian River basin, my son Julian and I came upon the roots of a downed tree that from certain angles seemed to resemble the head and jaws of a dragon. With my 15mm Zeiss lens, I positioned the camera with the sun behind the “dragon”, and stopped down (to f/22) to create a starburst effect. The colorful magical talisman in front of the dragon is an unexpected (but pleasant) surprise, the result I believe of optical refraction from internal lens elements (and, if you are wondering, definitely not “Photoshopped”).

Exposure data: Nikon D810, Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 lens, eight exposures at f/22 and ISO 64, exposures from 0.3 seconds to 2 minutes, tripod mounted; exposures combined in ACR, Photoshop, and Nik HDR Efex Pro, and processed in Photoshop, Nik Color Efex, Viveza, and Topaz Adjust.