Beech Tree Leaves Still Hanging on in Winter

One of the trees that retains a lot of their leaves in the winter time is the beech tree.. The image on the right I took a of some leaves with the dull sky as a background which the camera read as white. You can see the leaf vein patterns. In the fall when they first have color they are a medium yellow but now various shades of tan. I did increase the saturation a bit  in post processing to make the veins more prominant agains the sky.  Then I saw a stand of trees that looked interesting on a street I drive a lot. The roadway in the picture I did make straight.   Still it is a better picture with the gulch than just a straight shot of a stand of beech trees.  Of course it would have been nice if a person with a red jacket happened to be walking in the gulch with a black dog.  Well, you can't have everything.  iPhone 6, Camera +,  edit PSE 11.

Mushroom Macro - Neighborhood DD

One of my neighbors had some mushrooms in her yard.  I chose this small one and tried for a macro image.  The image on the left is actually as the camera saw in color with Camera+ app.  I did not notice the highlight on the top right area.  I increased the shadows, shaprened in PSE 11.  The right image I used hue and saturation to get a more vintage look and also sharpened more.  The highlight looks a little less evident than the image on the left.

Mushrooms on a Log + More Texture with PSE

On Sunday my family and I went for a walk in NE GSO on the Laurel Bluff Trail.  I saw these mushrooms and had to capture the image on the right.  It is unedited.  I liked the mushroom having layers and thought they looked more like flowers.  So, in PSE I increased the highlights and midtones and did some medium sharpening which resulted in the image on the left.   I like it better because it defines the lines in the mushroom and gives more texture to the log.  It is possible to sharpen more and increase the light and dark sliders to come up with a more graphic design effect. P.S. When you are on a trail with non-photographers, you do not have the time to "work the scene" and take a lot of images.