Amongst the Leaves...

No, not in the woods but right outside my flat...I'd been out twice before to get ultrawideangle shots, with the pub on the river being a key feature. At 9 ish, the light was on the pub and it looked glorious, my polariser and vertical format gave a fabulously rich reflection.

At lunchtime, out again and the sun was behind the pub, putting it in shadow but lighting up the foliage a lot better. A horizontal format helped with composition, too.

I then ran a little contest on Facebook to see how many preferred the first, or second. The first had it, by quite a margin.

At about 3.30, the leaves were so well lit up, it was like a golden treasure chest - and so I took a few more, this time with the even wider 14mm superwide angle on the FX D700. I posted two up on Facebook and immediately I had those who'd 'voted' for the first one, now saying "this one", the one I've chosen to put up, though technically it came second...

It is all about the controlled flare, here, inevitable with a corrected lens with 114 degree angle of view and whose front element resembles a gold-fish bowl. It also required a lot of overexposure from the meter, as the light was so strong and direct. This flare accentuates the impression and sense of extreme brightness and helps create a pathway through the picture. I have not (needed) to make this look stronger, any more than the usual lightening of shadows etc in Photoshop.

In the end, this image required very little work, compared with the one that theoretically came last. Never mind, it's all good practise and it's not as if I had very far to go to get them, either. Plus I'm really pleased to have forced myself into getting some good shots of the tree outside my window, at its best.