Herry leaf

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 105mm
Av mode
1/1250"
F13
ISO:400
LR & CS3
HH

Some of the early changing trees are already showing fall colors. That's a Great Blue Heron track, hence the stupid title. :)

Did a minor clean-up on the mud. Gave it a light vignette.

[Katherine Enns]

You seem to have a thang for mud! :D I love the combination of mud and leaf, and the ex-parte Heron, but the little discolored bit on the leaf bugs me a little but heck, its natural.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ken,
The contrast of the leaf and mud is pretty cool......but not sure the track as the dominant subject works that well for me:(........but perhaps a different light???......not sure so let's see what others chime in.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Ken,

Two things catch my eye...............for one it would have been cool if the track were more well defined, but not sure you could do much about that. The second, the light appears to be almost "on-axis" if I remember my Ansel terminology correctly. In other words, straight up or perpendicular to the subject. It tends to give very little shadow and hence less textures. Side lighting, if you had a flash, might have been an alternative to bring out the details in the track and the leaf. There is an interesting discussion of axis light in Ansel's Natural Light Photography Book 4.
Pardon, if you are already a student of this...............

Jay

[Connie Mier]

I like the concept, what strikes me is the size difference between bird's track and the leaf. The blemish on the leaf is distracting. I suppose for this, you could find another leaf and replace it.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Nice idea, I like the leaf color against the mud. For me the leaf is the main subject as presented, a "perfect" track would make me thinking about the main subject.

[Mike Fuhr]

I like the concept --- agree about the side lighting suggestion. I'd also like to see it without the vignette; my first impression was that the flash didn't quite illuminate the whole subject/frame.