"One last wish"

Fall is definitely in full swing, and I hope you're out there enjoying it all. The season I most associate with, I've been out trying to capture as much of it as possible.

The idea for this came to me while looking out into my backyard. Most of the trees were just now starting to turn, but one had already become pretty barren, with just a few leaves left waiting for the wind to carry them away. The idea came to me in a flash and I grabbed my D80, trusty 50, and sb600 and ran outside.

A little bit of setup was required on the branch, so I picked one of the leaves, and plucked the others off. There was a wonderful amount of sun shining through and just enough clouds in the sky to give the image contrast. I definitely wanted the sky well exposed, so I exposed for the sky, then brought down the exposure by a stop. I then exposed the leaf using my sb600 handheld to left at 1/4th. Took a few, but really, the first was the keeper. I probably could have easily taken it and popped it online after the raw conversion, but part of the fun of digital is post processing.

I've seen people complain about getting flak about film enthusiast that say it isn't a real photograph unless you can get the image from the camera itself. There is a certain joy to being able to capture an image right the first time, but fact of the matter is even film photographers post processed images in their dark rooms to add certain effects. Secondly, we're in a new age and era here. There's no need to cling to the old "uphill both ways" mentality. Photography is a form of art, and with any work of art, it's all about the end result. An individual should feel free to use the tools at their disposal to achieve their artistic vision. If that tool is the lens alone, so be it. But for some, it's filters, darkrooms and Photoshop.