Leaves

— As part of a photography class I am taking this year, students receive an assignment every week. Initially, the focus has been on composition. We have to use new photos only, the photos need to be shot on manual mode, and we are not allowed to crop the images at all. For some people, these three requirements can be daunting, especially if you are used to the automatic setting on your camera. I am glad I left that setting behind a very long time ago. Out of those requirements I mentioned above, not being able to crop is the hardest. On the other hand, I can certainly see the benefit of paying attention to what I am photographing. I have to compose the photo well and avoid distractions along the edges of the photo.

During the week, I experimented with various locations to get the theme we had been given: leaves. Since I live in Texas, there are still plenty of leaves around. It really feels like fall still. So, shooting around town and in our backyard, I was able to collect quite a number of choices to submit for this assignment. Out the 100+ photos I made on that topic, I ended up selecting five photos to consider submitting. From those five photos, it was interesting to note that three of them I made right here in our backyard. The photo above is what I submitted for the class assignment. I thought the simple composition was very strong. The single leaf resting on several leaves of the Cast Iron plant provided me with excellent color contrast. Furthermore, the leaf had a beautiful shape with light touching just the center of it. I did not have to edit the photo much at all.

The next two photos were also made in our backyard. The plant is a ground cover known as Mediterranean grass. I had to get my camera really low on the ground in order to capture the grass from below and make it seem taller. In reality, those leaves are not more than 3 inches high from the ground. You can click on the thumbnails to see the full images.

Finally, the last two photos were made on hikes near our house. The first is a Bristle Thistle. The symmetry in that plant is what got my attention. It pretty much lies flat with hardly any height from the ground. The leaves are very prickly. The last photo is your basic oak leaf. However, the fact that it displayed such a diversity of colors in one tiny branch is what got my attention. Also, since I was using my macro lens, the background created a beautiful blue bokeh.

Tomorrow I should receive the next week’s assignment. I’m looking forward to it. Also, I’m enjoying having to think outside the box for these assignments. They are proving to be a very good exercise.