Forget flowers. Long live leaves! (Show your leaf/foliage shots)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was a beautiful shot by @Photobygms (Thanks for that 👍) shown around here, which reminded me of my love for shooting leaves and foliage, but also of the fact that those captures regularly don't seem to be nearly as interesting to many other people, which leads to many of these ending up on the harddrive unedited, rather than online...

Don't get the title wrong - I have nothing against flowers. In fact I find them quite fascinating and beautiful, particularly when I get a chance to get really close... however this thread is intended as a place to show and discuss some of your favorite shots of leaves in all of their beautiful shapes and colors, the texture and detail and perhaps also their interaction with the elements. No matter if they're shot in their natural environment or in studio, unedited or heavily processed, in their regular colors or in infrared/ultraviolet... everything's welcome here!

Hope some of you share my fascination for that and will share many of your favorite captures!

Here are a couple of mine:

Here are some of mine

A fun thread! What I particularly like about themes is comparing everyone's styles and interests. I found the one similar to your bug-eaten leaf, plus a few other favorites of the past year. Thanks for the topic, simplejoy!

Two more, getting a little crazy now 😁

This one tickles my sense of whimsy and creativity!

Monochrome is a great idea! Gotta try some.

I love patterns, where else are they in abundance than in foliage. My wife's aunt in Oregon has a wonderful backyard garden; her foliage is as interesting as her flowers:

The above two are from a 2018 visit. Here are a couple from a couple of weeks ago:

Yep, patterns and textures, made for monochrome, abundant in foliage.

One of my favorites. I'm told it's a cornflower, but these are leaves, this one at Cumbres Pass in Southern Colorado:

Thanks for the thread, @simplejoy...

Thank you - love the light in the first one, nicely emphasized! And lovely colors and a beautiful variety of leaves in the other one - a great example for the theme as well.

Thank you - really glad you share the fascination for that. And I agree - love seeing how others view things in a different way and focus on other aspects. Thanks for participating!

Wow - truly awesome shots! Excellent use of light and great composition in all of them. Your bug-eaten leaf is way more effective than mine - looks fantastic on the black background! It's something I rarely do but should probably try more often...

Wanted to focus on the three-dimensionality with my attempt, but often find that quite hard, unless you get really close to leaves, where you naturally lose sight of the whole (which probably shouldn't come as a surprise at a 15:1 magnification 😅):

Thanks for your wonderful contributions - your fascination with leaves and patters clearly shows, particularly in the monochrome shots. Absolutely love them! 👍

Those cornflower leaves look so lively and dynamic, it's astonishing that this works in a photograph.

I love trying B&W edits when it comes to leaves as well, but I rarely get results quite there where I would want them to, which makes me think that I still lack a lot of feeling for the aspect of light only...

Did you call me @simplejoy 😂

This thread has some nice photos! great work everybody!!

Not sure which photos you did mean @simplejoy but I'll post a few

Hey there - thanks for stopping by! It was these two I was thinking of with really beautiful tones and transitions, but your other shots are great as well - thanks for showing those.

Marvellous leaf studies with excellent arrangement and colors - like those a lot, thanks!

Thank you for the kind comments.

Bear-of-little-brain here thinks you have a very good eye for light. And, for the patterns and textures...

A few more and also some in B/W (analog) like those beautiful ones @simplejoy has posted
Do still shoot film mostly B/W film but sometimes also in color:

Canon Eos 3 and the magic Drainpipe EF 80-200 f2.8L filim used Fuji Color Superia X-Tra 400:

Canon Eos 1N - EF 24-105 F4L IS USM and Iford Pan 100:

Canon Eos 3 - EF 24-105 F4L IS USM and Ilford HP5 plus 400

My leaf was still attached to the plant and my background was simply dark shadows behind sunlit leaf in early morning 😁 That is my favorite time of day and often produces photo ops I wouldn't consider otherwise. A similar situation from my first set is the group of tall thin leaves. I underexpose and then do additional tweaks in pp.