Yellow leaves fallen onto cliff ledges
On October 31st, after photographing worms and a crawfish, I walked over to the south side of Great Hills Park, where the first thing to catch my attention was the cliff on the far side of the creek. The heavy rain overnight had brought down lots of yellowing leaves, some of which ended up caught on two parallel ledges fairly high up, and which harmonized nicely with the patches of green lichen already on the limestone face of the cliff.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
That’s an interesting mixture of texture, color, and shadow.
Jim in IA
November 20, 2013 at 7:07 AM
Those are as much the elements of nature photography as hydrogen, helium, and lithium are of chemistry.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2013 at 7:31 AM
If I were to title this one, I think I’d choose “Autumn, Composing”. The horizontal lines, combined with the vertical branch, remind me of a staff and clef. Lovely photo. (Interesting, too, that a staff often is helpful while climbing cliffs!)
shoreacres
November 20, 2013 at 7:11 AM
I like your picture title, as I do the sound of “staff and clef.”
Did you know that stave is a back-formation from staves, the historical plural of staff? The cliff is a back-formation of the creek, so to speak.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2013 at 7:48 AM
The element that draws me in is the root spreading down the step. Also the lichen growing there too. But the root is what draws my eye in.
M. Firpi
November 20, 2013 at 7:28 AM
I can see where that branching structure would draw your eye, as it did mine. Please see the follow-up post for a clarification about that structure.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2013 at 9:36 AM
I like the abstract quality of the capture.
lensandpensbysally
November 20, 2013 at 8:10 AM
I appreciate that, Sally, coming as it does from someone who works a lot with abstractions.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2013 at 9:36 AM
This is a nice intimate landscape, Steve. It has a nice balance between neutral and softly saturated color with pleasing textures.
Steve Gingold
November 21, 2013 at 9:11 AM
Thanks, Steve, for recognizing this intimate landscape as effective in its mix of textures and color saturation.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 9:26 AM
This is made ever so much more interesting by that vertical root crawling down the side and breaking through all the horizontals, Steve.
lesliepaints
November 26, 2013 at 12:07 AM
Agreed: those verticals made the whole composition more interesting. You’re not the only person who took them for roots, but if you check the follow-up post you’ll see what they actually were. Ah… I see you’ve already found that out.
Steve Schwartzman
November 26, 2013 at 12:14 AM
[…] Until yesterday I hadn’t taken any nature pictures since December 18th. Yesterday morning, though, I read a post at Pairodox about the frigid weather that has descended on large parts of the country, and how the author braved the cold to take pictures of ice. Central Texas isn’t Pennsylvania, but even here the temperature had been below freezing for much of the last two days, so I felt inspired to see if I could also find some ice to photograph. I drove the half mile downhill to Great Hills Park and walked through the woods to the cliff that you saw in a post last November. […]
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January 8, 2014 at 6:06 AM