The original shot was fairly conventionally exposed, but I wanted to have both a "normal" photo, but also something for me to work with, to create this result.

I had in mind a drawing from St. Exupery's Le Petit Prince when I composed the shot.

With that in mind, and the daily chores of the lamp keeper at dawn and dusk, I deliberately over exposed the left side in post production, leaving just a bare outline of the mountain in the light so that it is not completely blown out, to signify the extinguishing of the light in the lamp post by the reliable and irresistable rythm of the sun and universe over the work of man - we can only react to nature.

So, the nearly blown out highlights on the left, and the under exposed lamp post and foreground, are both critical symbolic elements in the final composition.

I used a Pentax SMC 18/3.5 for this shot - a very nice lens, but shows its weaknesses in this shot - chromatic aberrations, especially along the lamp post, and mediocre contrast.

But, the distortion control is not too bad for a 30 year old (?) medium grade lens, as is sharpness, for an 18mm.