Leaf on Water

I took this picture in 1998 while at Starved Rock State Park in IL.

This is my first posting.

Hugh, I like the idea of this picture, even if it's not the most original. There are a few things that I, personally, would have done different. I would have used a smaller aperture, so that the reflection of the trees in the water would have been a bit sharper and more defined. I don't know if I would like it more if they were completely sharp or slightly blurred, but I would have tried both possibilities.

Secondly, the stem of the leaf is not in the picture, and I think it should have been included.

The third point is that the picture looks a bit "messy" to me. That has two causes. The first one is that the picture is not completely sharp. I don't know if you used a tripod, but if not, please start using one. It's really worth the effort of carrying the extra weight (if the focus would have been perfect, maybe the point of the blurred reflections wouldn't have occured to me). The second cause is the group of dead needles and the small green leaf in the lower right corner. Some photographers don't want to create their own nature-scenes, but I would have picked up the leaf and put it in a piece of water where no other objects were in it. That way you would have only the leaf, the beautiful light edges around it and the reflections of the trees in the picture.

Good luck!!

The subjets of interest here are the red leaf and the beautifull reflection.

I like the needels, but I think a thin black frame would have tightened up the picture....

BS:

Sorry, I meant a good fat frame wouls tighten up things....

BS: