Saturday, November 11, 2017

Leaf Outtakes


I mentioned not too long ago that I had embarked on a weeklong project to post "A Leaf A Day" to Facebook. That only meant seven leaf photos, so it wasn't any kind of huge undertaking, but it did require some attentiveness on my part as I was walking the dog every morning. Not surprisingly, I wound up with more leaf photos than I could use.

Here are a some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.

First of all, I did use the top photo -- it was my "finale," actually, the last shot of the series. But when I took it, I was doubtful about putting my hand in the photo. None of the other leaf pictures featured anything other than a leaf lying on a plain surface. Including my hand seemed inconsistent.


So I took some shots of just the sumac leaf (which, incidentally, I picked from a large, colorful sumac outside a church on Finchley Road). In the end, though, they seemed too plain. I liked the shot with my hand much better -- for one thing, it gave a sense of scale to the large leaf. So I went with it.


Here are some other perfectly good leaves that I just didn't have room for.




And finally, a leaf on an instantly recognizable background...


15 comments:

Joanne said...

I love all of them, especially the one on the perfectly recognizable background! Great photos, Steve!

Joanne said...

Yayyyyy, it posted!

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Bravo! I should take a leaf out of your book and photograph some leaves!

Sharon said...

Great leaf photos. You found some rather colorful leaves to photograph. I like all of these.

Ms. Moon said...

Nice! Our Bradford Pear is dropping its leaves, many of which are various pretty colors. I saw one yesterday that looked like the Virgin of Guadalupe but didn't have my phone on me.

Anonymous said...

All such beautiful leaves. Love the hand and recognizable background! Sometimes autumn makes me wish that trees were full of colorful leaves all year long. Rainbow forest everywhere always.

Catalyst said...

I can hear Olga saying "Oh, leaf me alone!"

jenny_o said...

I love the Olga background :)

Did you re-position the leaves to have such nice backgrounds or did you take the photos where the leaves lay? Today I went for the first walk I've had since hurting my back, and gathered leaves to take home to photograph as it was too close to dusk to take pictures. You've inspired me to do a leaf post also :)

Red said...

Cool post project!

Deb D said...

I know this is off-topic, but I have enjoyed your blog daily. And Olga! I have been keeping a journal since the mid-1980s and wonder if you could explain how you are transferring it to digital life. Organization? Photos? Additions from memory? I am toying with transferring mine from their old books to the computer but not quite sure how to start. Thanks for any insights! And thanks for blogging.

Vivian said...

That last photo is the one that melts my heart. What a good dog.

The Bug said...

These are great! I prefer the picture of the leaf on your hand, and of course the one on Olga :)

ellen abbott said...

no colorful leaves around here except for the tallow which will turn multi-color even if it's warm. the ginkgo is steadily losing it's leaves. they're kind of a yellowing lime green. it's just stayed so hot for so long. I've really enjoyed your pics though.

Elizabeth said...

Those are so beautiful. We have a few trees, here and there, with fall color, but not so much. I do miss them but not the winter that follows their falling

Steve Reed said...

Thanks for all the leaf feedback, everybody!

Ms Moon: I love Bradford pear leaves in the autumn! I used to see those in New Jersey and they always made for good photos.

Jenny-O: Sometimes I photographed them where I found them, and sometimes I moved them to a place with a more neutral background. Many of them were found on sidewalks, so photographing them there made sense!

Deb: Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I've just been typing my old journals out in Blogger. I created another blog (private, for now) and I scanned whatever artwork was included in the journals. It sounds laborious, but I've been doing a little each week for a couple of years and I'm almost finished now. There may be a faster way, scanning with text recognition or something, but I like this method -- and it allowed me to edit them, which was my main goal anyway.

Ellen: I remember ginkgo in New York turning bright, bright yellow. Weird that yours are still greenish! For some reason I don't see much ginkgo here in London.