A set about light that has been amplified.
The first five frames are light coming from above — the aurora over Reykjavík harbour was luck (Kp 4.5, calm wind, a four-minute walk from the hotel to the pier); the Biwa fireworks were patience (fewer than twenty shutters in an hour); the Tokyo and Osaka aerials were tickets (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 45th floor, Umeda Sky Garden roof — both shot from a column where I could brace the camera in the crowd).
The last three rise from below — two night shoots in April and May 2023, 200mm and a tripod in the pack, waiting quietly on a firefly-dense trail. The single firefly on a stem (frame six) was f/4, 5 s, ISO 6400; the cold glow on its abdomen was just bright enough to read. The last frame returns to Taipei: 101 and the night around it from the Neihu hills, as a close.
Natural light and artificial light end up with similar textures once you stretch the shutter: slightly softened, overfull with flow — light that looks too beautiful to be real.
