Flora & Fauna 5

Leaves Living & Dying

The soft light coming through the canopy washing all of these leaves with a pale luminosity which gives up texture, detail, structure and the overall architecture of the juxtaposition of all these various competitors of the available light here. The varying hues showing off the many and subtle variations of colours these leaves go through on their way from life to death. The forest floor beneath then soon to enable those that fall to start their next role as fertilizers for the next generations to come.

Big Green leaves living and dying

The soft light coming through the canopy washing all of these leaves with a pale luminosity which gives up texture, detail, structure and the overall architecture of the juxtaposition of all these various competitors of the available light here. The varying hues showing off the many and subtle variations of colours these leaves go through on their way from life to death. The forest floor beneath then soon to enable those that fall to start their next role as fertilizers for the next generations to come.

Cascading twigs and leaves

These lovely little leaves just pop out and hang anywhere, managing to do it looking as if there is an orderly system in place to which they’ve all agreed, so they all have their own separate areas and all of those leaves around them seem to honour that. I love the cascading look of the overall architecture they all create together. Form and function in action again - to their benefit and for all of our immense Joy The afternoon light coming pretty much top-down through the higher up canopy giving strong blow outs on the lighter colours but even so, the whole thing has a nice look to it.

Leaves after the rain.

There is nothing like a good downpour to energize the look and feel of leaves anywhere and nature generally. Colours come alive and delineate from their neighbours in ways you just don’t see in dry conditions. There is a sharpness to the detail and edge shapes of everything and the extra weight of the water causes drooping and hanging-downs to happen that somehow have a really beautiful look to the overall shape they all make together. The fresh sharp hues everywhere are what get my attention and bring a smile to my heart.

Shapely leaves in strong overcast light

If you rotate the circular polarizer on the front of your lens (the one you bought to put on there, on top of the UV filter, which itself is on top of the lens itself), you will see a lessening and/or increase in the visible reflections in your shot, which is the way the light bounces off surfaces in relation to where their shape puts their planes in relation to where your lens is, pointing at all those different planes (which are reflecting right back at you in varying strengths of high or low ‘bounce’) There can also a more visible texture on surfaces as a result of selecting more rather than less bounce, but not always - it depends on the angle your lens makes with the surfaces. I’ve allowed a certain amount of bounce on those leaves where it can become visible and we get a nice aliveness to the shot which has nothing to do with rain sheen but everything to do with the way the planes of the leaves themselves are reflecting strong reflections back into the lens at exactly the angle that will show that, once you rotate your circular polarizer to select just how much bounce you wish to show in the shot. There’yare! A mini fotog tutorial - for free ! Hope that encourages you to explore what a circular polarizer can do for wanted or unwanted reflections in your own photographic work. Let us see some of your results sometime and if you wish to show/sell them on this site we can certainly discuss that

Green and yellow leaves

The lovely juxtaposition of the two main colours here, against the darker background, caught my eye, from a longish way away, because it really stood out against the other trees and shrubs all around this happy little tree. The vibrant ‘starfish’ greens all getting on with breathing in and out, second by second, the yellow leaves also but with less intensity. The overall look of them delighting my heart, in the soft late afternoon light.

Long Russet leaves on shrub

The depth of hue of the central leaves at the front of this shot is a real ‘serious’ statement by this voracious and successful plant. The bird shit on these front leaves a testament to the use birds make of these leaves to hide within, sit on, feed off etc.,

Big horse chestnut leaf dying on the vine

The massively strong stems holding these leaves up and supporting them through all weather conditions readily carrying on bringing new leaves into being as these two, and others, start dying off - an endless production line of provision happening as we look. The soft afternoon light coming down from higher up in the canopy and showing off texture and detail, hues and shape as these two central leaves are soon to be on their way to the forest floor to start fertilizing the next generation.

Dark green leaves in shade

The degraded texture of these big green leaves showing them on the way to the dying yellow colour of those smaller leaves in the foreground now. The soft late afternoon light just making it into a bit of this shaded area and giving us a luminously gentle textural look at hues and shape. More green leaves already thrusting their way out of the mass of tangles keeping them from more access to the available light and they too, soon, will take the place of those that have died off and fallen to the forest floor.

Massed leaves and black berries in tree

The colour changes these sharp and gracefully sculptural leaves go through , from the vibrant young greens to the dull and muted brass hues, is extraordinarily beautiful. The almost shining young coppers and light ochres eventually turn into the final dull muted bronze of the mature leaves but getting them all in one setting and being able to see them clearly is a real gift, to say nothing of the energetic and full-fruit black berries here which the birds and insects love. A wonderful small tree on the edges of woodland

Big & smaller leaves on shrubs at edge of woodland

The many differing hues, shapes, textures, detail, structure and overall architecture in all these leaves happily trying to get to the most of the available light is a busy look at what the edges of woodland can be like in the soft light of the late afternoon, as this shaded area gets washed with a gentleness and a stillness, courtesy of the still air here now

Massed green and ochre leaves on shrub.

These busy leaves change from vibrant young greens to mature ochres and russet or muted copper everywhere on this voracious large shrub at the edge of woodland and in as much sunlight as it can keep other plants away from.

Green leaves in shade

The soft late afternoon light giving us a gentle wash of even light, with some selected soft highlights, over all these strong green leaves showing us texture and detail, shape and overall architecture, as this lovely graceful small branch curves downwards in the air against the dark background and leaves us feeling we’ve seen a beautiful pas de deux at the ballet or a stunning shape in a museum piece somewhere. Wonderful.

An army of green and russet leaves on shrub

The dark brown stems almost the bayonets on which these ‘flags’ of nature are hoisted for us to enjoy. The massed colours, all together, makes a stunning backdrop to anything really. It’s the cheeky curl in the leaves that gets our attention I think - the hues and texture on the underside also maybe. The stronger mid afternoon downward light throwing up some highlight reflections on some of their surfaces, adding to the vibrancy of them all.

Leaves changing colours

The greens change to those lovely deep russet colours as each leaf matures and changes. The graceful twists and curls of the shapes toward the tip of each leaf gives the light a chance to show the differences in reflectance, texture, detail, hue and overall structure in the gentle late afternoon light on these small shrubs-trees all along the edge of a field, used as a wind break.

Vibrant green and russet leaves

The mid afternoon sunlight is softened by my circular polarizer and I’ve allowed some reflections (bounce) to stay on some of the leaves so there is a nice vibrancy over the whole shot These green leaves are extraordinary, in that they start off life like many green leaves but change as they mature so they end up being these darker russet colours for the rest of their mature life. The kind of butterfly ‘upraised wings-shape’ is a definite trait of this particular small shrub/tree, giving the light many differing surfaces to bounce off and show us all manner of individual hues, textures, details and overall architecture of the whole mass of leaves thrusting ever upwards. Wonderful !

Dark russet Bramble leaves

The last of the overcast light at the end of the day washing a gentle patina over these beautiful hues of the bramble here - almost a if they’re being lit up from inside somehow. You can see the old fruit stems that were full of luscious fresh fruits all through summer, now dried up and ready to break off and fall away as winter takes hold. These leaves are really long lasting and hold their stunning ochre colours well into the coldest winter weather before giving up.

Pale russet leaves on tree

This extraordinary tree has about six or seven days a year when all these russet leaves come out and stay for a tantalisingly short time. Always tough to get any kind of really s=crisp focus on them because of the varying soft hues and smooth texture of the leaves en masse so I wanted to show the whole tree and celebrate what it does, so quickly, so soon over, just as summer starts ending and winter has not yet fully arrived. Even harder to show these leaves in strong sunlight so on this overcast day, it got as good as it gets. You can set your calendar by this tree !

Massed russet leaves on tree

This great tree on the edge of a bit of woodland that sticks out on a curve next to some open grassland gets lots of sunlight and these vibrant strong russet leaves show that in their profusion of energetic competition not to miss any of it ! The luscious darker leaves all around it are the more mature leaves of the rest of this extensive tree and the whole thing speaks of the energy and attack of having optimum growing conditions, good strong light each day, and the river is not far away so plenty of underground water makes sure the huge energy demands this tree makes are met and it can thrive. As a Shared planet, we can surely make sure that All Humans, irrespective of who or where they are located, are enabled to get the same kind of optimum living conditions so they too can thrive and become all they can, at their best, be. I guess that starts with me - so this is some of what I can do viz., to bring it to your attention. Then it also starts with you, and those you interact with. Let’s keep those Life-Affirming Choices in Prayer Together, going forward.

Fir tree at ground level

The fibrous small leaves of this ground dwelling fir tree are pale teal green tinged with silver ends which seem to sparkle in the sunlight. It has developed great big branches from the main tree which go out parallel to the ground and several of them have created this mass of very low level ground cover in the midst of which a very canny and successful bramble has grown up and pops its’ leaves out to get the needed sun quotient and the berries from this part of the bramble are full and weighty with wonderful tastes ! In the rain these branches have a great dark brown colour that scintillates in amongst the fabulous leaf cover and just takes our breath away !

Pale russet and black leaves

The soft late afternoon light gently washing these beautiful leaves with just enough top-down light to show up the wonderful texture and detail of their stunningly coloured surfaces. As they start their journey towards dying they start adding more and more dark splodges but the ribbed architecture of their surface holds up till very late in the dying process and gives us these lovely mini mountain range patterns on the tops of these stately leaves. Beautiful shapes & hues.

Single leaf in soft light

This last leaf on this stem arching in beautiful lines, like a dancer stretching almost. The late afternoon overall light highlighting the graceful curves and stretches this leaf makes as it approaches its’ dying time. The paler, almost pink hue of the underside of the leaf curled upwards and showing us its’ shape and colour at the front of the shot, is a lovely contrast to the heavier duty colours and shapes of the visible parts of the top of the leaf. Those heavy duty stems

Evergreen fir tree at ground level

These ‘Christmas-type’ leaves of this evergreen fir are also at ground level, like a previous shot, but these leaves are much looser and have a more pronounced overall fern-type shape along the branches and twigs that support them. As parts of the foliage starts dying off, lots of new strong green growth hurries up to take up the space. A vigorous plant that never seems to really die off, only keeps on the dying/growing cycle, month after month. The smell is a lovely and typical in the-back-of the-throat-fir-tree smell, a bit like sweet charcoal (if there is such a smell!)

Crab Apples in shade on tree

These small crab apples appearing all over this small tree in a shady part of open parkland seem to be adding to their number unendingly, almost as you watch. As the very soft light of the end of the day just reaches this outer part of this prolific tree it gives us a look at the subtle hues and some texture of these amazing little applelets. The dark greens of the mostly hidden lush green leaves make a nice textural contrast - but don’t make the mistake of ever eating these little things !