These leaves were photographed last autumn when I visited my cousin in Vermont. I drove all across the state looking for fall color and then found this scene by a pond behind her property in rural Proctorsville. Something to be learned about not driving around hoping to see, but staying still and opening your eyes.
Some of the most interesting images to me in recent months have been two dimensional, flat tapestries. Yes, there is depth to this photo if you think about the leaves and the pond beyond, but with my changed eyesight, I am exploring the flat painterly world of abstract expressionism.
I saw much potential in this pond at dawn, studied the reflections in the water, the leaves, the juxtapostions as I moved slowly with my camera. I narrowed it down to two favorites:
The second choice seemed a bit too unbalanced, even though I was seeking some asymmetric tension. Once I decided on my favorite I cropped a wee bit from the bottom to draw more attention to the lines coursing through the image.
Color and luminosity were adjusted in Camera Raw to suit the original feeling, then a couple of PhotoShop adjustments. There is a darkish leaf in the center that is too smudgy and brown in the original. A selection mask allowed some delicate changes. Then to add drama I added an artistic filter layer, “Poster Edges”, fiddled with those settings, and dropped back the effect to about 30% opacity.
I like the final quite a bit:
