Witch Hazel Leaves Blowing in the Wind

Witch Hazel Leaves, Oct. 25, 2005
I posted this image before, but a differen version of it. I made this one today using Photoshop CS2, and included a process called "sharpening," which I had not done with the previous version of this image. I really like this shot not so much for how it looks here on the "page," but for how much fun it was to capture it. I was walking up a slippery, snowy trail to the top of Bald Knob when I saw these leaves dangling from their branch in front of me. The weight of the icy snow had pulled the branch down a bit, causing it to block the trail. I had to either walk around or duck. So instead I stopped to enjoy them.
These leaves were blowing pretty wildly in the wind. So I set up my tripod and put the camera on it and just watched and waited to see whether I could get a lucky shot. I also used a little skill. I opened up the aperature and sped up the shutter a bit to increase the odds of capturing a still moment. I also set up the framing when the leaves blew kind of steadily in the wind, and the next time they blew into that general position, I snapped the shutter a few times. I got a few shots that were pretty good, but this one seemed best. I love the way it shows the frost growing along the viens of the leaves.