Tag Archives: leaves

Look up!

Leave a reply

Japanese Maple Leaf
Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle

As I walk along a trail, it so easy for me to focus my vision looking forward. I frequently just stop and look all around, up, down, side to side, and backwards. When I am with others, it drives them crazy … there he goes again! All I can say is that I see and enjoy what surrounds me much more.

I created this image when I glanced up and saw backlit maple tree leaves fluttering in a gentle breeze. I stopped along the path and watched the branches and leaves waving back and forth, surrounded by rays of light flickering through the canopy trees above. Before I raised my camera, I had to move aside on the path to let several people whisk by not realizing what they were missing.

Now the work began, I looked and looked to find that perfect leaf. After several minutes, I again realized that nature is not perfect. I closed my eyes and re-opened them, looking for something that caught my eye. I found this one fluttering leaf, moved around to get a good background, then just waited for the breeze to position it just right.

Related Images:

“Leaf Witching”

Leave a reply

“Leaves in Shade”
Heatherwood Fall

We are now blessed with a little frost every morning. When the sun comes out, the leaves remaining in the shade retain their frost dusting. There is so much to see. How do I pick what to photograph?

I use a similar technique that some of our forefathers used to find underground water on their land called “water witching.” Their first step was to find a branch shaped like a “Y”. They held the “Y” branches very lightly with the leg of the “Y” facing horizontally in front of them. They would slowly walk across the land hoping that the leg of the “Y” would drop. When it did, there was water below and they selected the site to dig their wells. Now, imagine a camera with a telephoto lens serving as a “witching” tool. I hold my camera lightly with the telephoto pointing horizontally forward. When I feel the lens starting to drop down there is my pile of leaves that I am destined to photograph. “Leaf witching” works for me … or maybe, my arms just get tired.

Related Images:

200507_LongExp_WtrFall__Kotoji 200506_LongExp_WtrFall_1

Beauty of Moloka’i 5

Leave a reply

Color of Life

“The color of life —
Older under emerging,
as laughing lines play.”

One of the most insightful lessons I experienced during my retreat at Hui Ho’olani was an exercise of creativity.  Groups of three were formed.  We were told to create a “haiku-type” poem of what we were experiencing at the moment.  A little twist was injected; member #1 would write down the first line, #2 would write down the second line, then #3 would finish with the third line.  Each member would build on the other.  It totally amazed me what beautiful and creative poems were composed in a short time of less than 15 minutes.  It all goes to show that there is creative talent in each of us if we just let it flow freely out!

I tried a derivative of this process with a dear friend.  I sent her the above photograph.  She jotted down several short poems expressing her feelings.  The above 3 lines are hers.

Thank you, my dear friend!

Related Images:

Head On

Leave a reply

Colorado Blue Spruce Tip – New Growth

As I was walking around my yard, I was just looking for images to pop into my sight.  I have photographed new growth on evergreens more times than I can imagine.  However, I have never made an image on new growth taken from a head on perspective. A tip of new growth from a Colorado Blue Spruce just jumped out in front of my eyes. So I looked around more to try to get one that was the most symmetrical.  My mind started to think what I could do with this from an abstract point of view.  I plan to apply some creative alternatives in a future post.

Like my friend John Barclay (www.johnbarclayphotography.com) emphasizes.  Do not force a photograph, let the image come to you.  This one did …

Related Images:

Japanese Maple Buds

Leave a reply

150418_Japanese Maple Leaf Buds by Karl G. Graf. Canon 5D MkIII, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro @ f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO 400

Out in our “Back 40” we have several bunches of bright yellow daffodils.  Ah ha … great background opportunity.  Now I just needed to find something to put in front.  A few emerging Japanese Maple leaf buds caught my eye.  So I put them together.  The challenge was to get an interesting composition while the branch was moving in the wind.  A relative open f-stop and a moderate shutter speed gave me the best balance.

Related Images:

Spring Clean-up Time

Leave a reply

150330_Spring Cleanup by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 110mm, f/11, 1/210 sec, ISO 400

Spring is officially here and I have a lot of Spring clean-up to do.  Our compost bins are full from last fall.  They also need a little rebuilding.  This will be another Spring project.  It was a bright cool day when I took this image.  Today is overcast, breezy and cold … so I felt that a B&W version would fit my mood.

Related Images:

Fan

Leave a reply

150208_Palm Fron by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 110mm, f/8.0, 1/120 sec, ISO 400

Walking through parts of Henry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando was almost like walking through a tropical rain forest.  Light filtering through the various palms provide multiple opportunities to capture interesting backlight images.  Huge palm leaves were like huge fans waving in the gentle afternoon breeze.  I love wandering along garden paths looking up, down, and everywhere.  It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Related Images:

Lonesome Leaf

Leave a reply

150121_Ice Crystals & Leaf by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 88mm, f/11, 1/160 sec, ISO 400

Ice crystals covered a little runoff stream in Peace Valley Park, I saw this one leaf fall on the ice.  It looked out of place, hoping for a breeze to blow it off into a warmer bed of fellow leaves.

I started out processing this image in B&W.  I could not make the leaf pop out like I wanted, so I added subdued selective color.

Related Images: