White Camellia Sassanqua - Country Park

Went to Country Park in Greensboro on Monday afternoon and was very surprised to find a white Camellia sansanqua blooming.so early in October. There are fall blooming camellias and Jan & Feb (japonica) camellias.  Being from Ohio, the only camellias I saw there in gardens were in conservatories.  About 4 years ago I bought 2 of the japonica species: a pink and a red one but they will not bloom until Jan or later.  Some camellias are single petals and others have double petals.  If you look closely this one has faint pink edge.  I will be looking for more culivars to photograph. Taken with iPhone 5C,  HDR mode, Camera+ app.  Edited  with PSE 11.

Oak Leaves on Ground at Country Park

This should have been posted, Mon., October 12th.  The leaf color is starting to change in the triad.  It will be about 2 weeks until peak season here.  If weather is good I may take Jack to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Thurs. which is supposed to be peak because of higher elevation.   These are oak leaves and had a more subtle color.  These were on the ground.  I took "as is" and did not try to change nature's composition.  Taken with Camera+ app.   For image on left I used smart fix color and sharpening in PSE 11.  This could be used for texture with digital images.   I played around with increasing highlights and mid-tones, saturated film effect and then excessive sharpening which looiks like the leaves have frost in the image on the right if you can zoom in.