Anatomy of a red bud tree in autumn

Last week, Lee Ann suggested I do a photo shoot focusing on the leaves of one tree -- the one in my backyard. She was taken by how striking the leaves looked dangling side by side in order ... and pointed out the heart shape of the leaves.

I'd come close to doing an autumn shoot on just one tree before. It was a few years ago and involved a tree with red leaves in Garfield Park near the arts center that had piqued my interest. But I went on to shoot a few other trees that day before calling it a shoot.

But last Sunday, it was all about the one red bud trees, whose leaves turn yellow, by the way. As it turned out, I liked the closeups and/or cropped versions more than I did the broader view/perspective shots, so that's why you see a lot of closeups in this post. Also, the perspective shots tended to included possibly distracting neighbor property in the background (e.g., fencing, house, garage, etc.), so I'm sure that had something to do with my preference as well. Nevertheless, I did include some of those shots here, too.

One exception to the closeups is the photo leading off the post; there are a few others below, including one of just fallen leaves clustered on the lawn, which I immediately contrasted with a composition of a solitary full leaf -- a bit father away from the tree than the cluster -- and a smaller curled leaf. Finally, I provided a full-view shot of the tree at the very end of this post so you can appreciate what I had to work with ... and what I had to work around.

All of these shots were taken with my Canon 6D equipped with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. A full gallery of the red bud tree shoot can be found at my online site at SmugMug.com. As usual, to view a larger and sharper version of a photo, click on it. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog on a mobile device.