Winter Photography V; Dying Leaf Structure

Close-up of dying leaf (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-40mm f/2.8 lens @ 40mm and its close focusing point; 1/10th sec. @ f/11; ISO 200
I didn't want "pretty" for this particular image.  See narrative below for details.

As a continuation of the previous post, here is a close-up of another leaf that was picked from the ground 3 1/2 years ago, placed in a freezer between sheets of wax paper and forgotten.  You can see the previous post here.

Common Binder Clip

The set up for these images was similar in that the leaf was positioned in front of a window facing north in my kitchen.  Unlike the Japanese Red Maple leaves in the previous post which were laid on black velvet, the leaves in this post were held vertically in place by a large binder clip set on its base and placed square and plumb in front of the camera lens (to achieve a flat field so focus would adequately cover the entire surface of the leaf) to achieve a bit of translucency.  I would estimate the leaves were no more than 1.5 inches in front of the lens.  As I mentioned before, the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 lens has magnificent close-up focusing capabilities.  

For the above image, the width is the full frame, however, I cropped some of the white from the top to make the image square as all that white was distracting and wasted space.  That is a clue as to how close this lens focuses.  To get the "ugly" effect, I increased the "Clarity" in Lightroom quite a bit to bring out the details of slow decay through which leaves progress.  Also, I dropped the luminance (brightness) of the yellow color.  I didn't want "pretty" for this image.  I wanted show the dying process and grittiness of how leaves start to decay when they lose their chlorophyll and turn their natural colors.

But the same leaf can appear beautiful as well!  The images below are of the same leaf, but different composition and different Lightroom treatments and a bit of touch up.  For these, I wanted to say "yellow."

Yellow! (click to enlarge)
Mark II, 12-40mm f/2.8 lens @ 40mm; 1/5th sec. @ 13; ISO 200

Same leaf, different view of details (click to enlarge)
Mark II, 12-40mm f/2.8 lens @ 40mm; 1/80 sec. @ f/11; ISO 1250

There is nothing significant or extraordinary about these images.  Creating them was just an exercise on a cold winter day to get my photographic juices flowing.  Sometimes I feel as though I just have to photograph something—anything I can imagine—that will scratch that photographic itch I always seem to have.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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