Fallen Maple Leaves in My Neighbor's Yard 10-24-2015

Leaves are falling from the trees. Sometimes it is just nice to take a picture of the fallen leaves.  I was walking in my neighborhood.  This maple had yellow, orange and various shades of red leaves on the grass. I tried to find a patch that had the leaves mostly facing forward. The left images is without editing and had a blue tone because late afternoon in the shade.  So, I had to decrease that in PSE 11.  I also wanted to give the leaves of this image more "pizzaz" which would make them appear brighter and more satrated with post processing.

Halloween Ghoul - Neighbor's Yard (Randy T)

Halloween is coming.   My next door neighbor really enjoys this holiday and keeps making new things to put in his yard which makes it fun for the children and adults for "Trick or Treat" night.  Last evening before it got dark I tried taking a picture of his ghoul. I purposely made a dark exposure to go with the mood.  What you don't see in this image is all the electrical cords I cloned out in order to see his white clothing which would have also been too blown out. Some of the background is distracting and does not go with the graveyard venue.  He has put up a Pillsbury Doughboy blow up which does not go with the grave yard scene and other scary props. Edited in PSE 11.

Ornamental Grasss "Poof" of the Fronds & Altered Image - Neighbor's Yard

This fall I have been trying to capture pictures of different grasses  Not an easy task when they seem to be blowing in the wind. This grass poofs out as it matures. This one was in my neighbor's yard.  I tried to capture some of the fronds as part of framing the single focus.  Too bad a cloudy day as it would have looked better with a Carolina blue sky.   Then, I decided to go with the altered art mode and do an invert filter of that image.. I did sharpen it to the max to get more texture.  Camera+  Edited in PSE 11

Mystery Blossom from Neighbor's Yard

This image should have been posted Sat. Sept. 12th
I took this image at my hair dresser's in her border area in front of her house.  I have admired this blossom for years and can't wait till August when these plants start blooming. I need to get some seeds to try to plant some in my yard.  She does not know the name nor how it got there as she said she did not plant it.  I love the coral color.  It is some type of low growing hibiscus if you look at the stamen.   Camera+ HDR, edited in PSE 11. Taken as  horizontal 3 x 5 but cropped to square. I got a little too close to the top border. Unfortunately these flowers do not make good cut flowers to put in water, and on the stem bloom less than 24 hours.  They close up early in the evening.  

Dark Burgandy Hollyhock Blossom and Top Buds Closeup - TN

The right image is a double petaled dark burgandy Hollyhock which my neighbor planted from seed.  Hope to catch more blooms in the future.   Taken with iPhone 6  HDR mode, Camera+ app.  No post editing.
The left image is the top of the same plant but the top buds.  Used macro mode in Camera Plus which gave a lot of texture.  I did some minor post processing in Photoshop Express App.