Leaves

Perhaps the most interesting in Autumn, leaves can be full of vibrant colors and endless patterns. Informally called "leaf peeping," I seek to travel around to capture the changing colors. Each individual leaf can tell a story of its life. Full of holes, mottled with color or speckled with patterns. There are a myriad of ways to portray their looks.

Fallen Red Deciduous Leaves
Russ Nature Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "Nature is stronger than all human priorities.” - Marty Rubin This is a sprawling abstraction of fallen red deciduous leaves towards the end of Autumn. Gently placed underneath a nearly bare tree by this point. The leaves were neatly placed in a perfect circle around the trees circumference. The middle of Autumn sports the best colors that nature can offer. A week before this photograph, the colors and layout would be all too different. A week after and the leaves would turn brown with decay. I would consider this a pretty early photo in my backlog, and one of my favorites still. The bright colors and repetitive patterns (in a good way) make this photo work. Some images are just begging to be printed large! © 2017 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
John Bryan State Park, Yellow Springs, Ohio © 2019 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Fallen Autumn Leaves Abstraction
Russ Nature Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "Everything in Nature called destruction must be creation - a change from beauty to beauty.” - John Muir Do you ever have a shot that you've envisioned for a long time? You simply yearn for the day to find it? This is one example for me, and of course I took the idea and ran with it the chance I found it. Taken near the end of autumn, I walked up to the little pond situated by the parking lot to see it covered in the colorful leaves. The tall standing trees that surround the pond blew their leaves off as they fell one by one. My "vision" came to life and I was ready to capture it on camera. Using a circular polarizer filter, I experimented with including reflections of the trees in various amounts. I have a handful of images with one showing no reflections at all: just simply a black abyss with which the leaves are floating on. This particular exposure is the one with the most reflections to create the story. That added detail for me implies that the leaves came from the trees seen in the reflections. That almost intimate connection dramatically improves the already abstract and pattern like image. On all of my photo ops, I keep a pocket notepad with some basic doodles of shots I have previsualized. I'd highly recommend the same for other creatives. If you have an idea that you wanna "sit on" for a while, go for it. I know my brain is always bouncing around with them. You never know when you stumble across the pre-vision in real life. © 2017 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Orange Deciduous Leaf Hanging By Web String
Creekside Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio Besides some minor post processing enhancements, this is what I truly saw. Creekside Reserve is a personal favorite location of mine a stones throw away from my house. This is truly where my photography took root. I got up early enough to try out a sunrise shoot but didn't land a good enough composition in time. To switch gears I started using macro and small telephotos to find other subjects. Taking a trek through the humid and dewy morning trails found me gawking at this small leaf. Dancing and spinning in the light peeking through the woods, I used a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement. Rendering it a static floating leaf, I used a shallow depth of field to blur the background and put all attention on the subject. I knew the results then and there were unreal. The glow on the sunlight revealing the viens and structure of this small but intricate plant. The mustard colored bokeh background being a nice complimentary color to the orange leaf. The way the leaf is curled as if almost in a slow dance, weaving it the air. Suspended in free fall. Something about this image puts me at ease. I took many images that day but this was perhaps the least expected. Naturally it was a moment in time that could never be replicated under these same conditions. © 2018 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Leaf in Decay
Creekside Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "The question is not what you look at but what you see." - Henry David Thoreau There are some moments where I'm hiking along the trail for miles, searching endlessly for something I never knew existed. This is a case study where I almost moved past it, but this leaf in particular felt different. If photographs are about telling a story, then I wanted to tell its story. Clearly it has been through quite a lot, chewed and munched on by caterpillars, swept up by the wind. Yet this leaf still held on. There is power in seeing a leaf like this. Don't give up when life pushes you around. Taken in a macro style, I knelt eye-to-eye with this leaf to feel the world on its level. The early morning sunlight hit the center spot just right where it illuminates the holes and pores. A wide aperture helped distance it from the background, blurring all that is behind. That glowing portion felt so strange to see and capture on camera, yet I was drawn to showing the brighter parts of this leaf. No flash was used either, this was all done with some patience and timing using natural light. I enjoyed that spot of the leaf so much that I metered and focused all on that highlight area. Even on our worst days, remember that this leaf has had it worse. © 2018 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Red Decaying Leaves Among Pond Backdrop
Carriage Hill Metropark, Dayton, Ohio "Nature is an unlimited and unconditional source of inspiration...” - Petur Krustev No desaturation or split color toning necessary! This evolving and decaying stem of leaves by the pond instantly caught my attention. From one leaf to the next, it was so strange to see this still surviving patch of leafy reds when the surrounding ones haven't fared so well. The image was taken on a moody and cloudy day as I dodged several small rain showers. I also had to use a fast shutter speed to combat the light breeze shifting this lone branch around. A medium sized pond as the background, the greys surrounding the red leaves make this an exercise in high contrast. The best part is that I didn't have to edit it to appear that way. Some of my favorite moments in nature are the quiet, less celebrated ones such as this. Not only capturing a specific moment in time but also displaying something that looks unnatural. The process as leaves rot away only to fall off their stem, one by one. © 2018 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Cluster of Backlit Leaves
Beaver Creek Wetland Nature Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio © 2018 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.

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Leaves