After a frosty start, today was the warmest it’s been in a while, partly sunny with highs above 60 degrees F (about 16 degrees C). As the sun was starting to set, I decided to be a little creative and see if I could highlight a single leaf with the colorful sky in the background. I found a suitable tree without too much problem, but finding a leaf at the right height with an unobstructed background was a little tricky. I happened to have my 100mm macro lens on the camera and decided to go with that. I knew that I would need to use a little flash on the leaf to keep it from getting lost in the shadows. I used settings of ISO 100, F32, and 8/10 sec to get the effect and tweaked the image slightly in Photoshop Elements, though I chose not to crop at all. Here’s a couple of shots of my experiment. (In case you are curious, the leaf is still attached to the tree, even though it looks like I am merely holding it in from of the lens.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I like the background colors. You might have gotten some beautiful sunset shots as well.
There were so many telephone poles and wires in the way that I didn’t manage to get good sunset shots this time. I think I need to scout a better location for sunset shots. This was a little spur of the moment shooting, rather than something planned in advance.
Neat idea. My favorite is the second one with all the yellow.