Welcome to Weekly Challenge #322 - Leaf Peeping

Thanks to Hattifnatt for the last challenge and for passing on the honor of choosing this week's challenge theme.

As the title suggests, this week let's look at leaves, in particular, leaves that are individually identifiable. They're miniature works of art, intricate and beautiful. Some of my favorite leaf pictures are shown below. Now let's see yours.

Spring Maple Leaves




Optimism




Fluid Dance




After the Fall




Upside Down




Hosta




Becoming Fossils




The fine print:

Every week, a new theme is picked and judged by the winner of the previous week.

The Challenge will run until midnight next Saturday, April 25, 2015, whichever time zone you are in.

Rules
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose one of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus an additional day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Photos from any Pentax camera (film, compact, DSLR, etc.) -- or a Samsung DSLR -- are allowed.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.
9. In case the winner of a challenge is unable to become the judge for the next challenge, they will PM the #2 winner for that person to be the judge.

Have fun!

[ramseybuckeye]

[rod_grant]

I'll play.

[mecrox]

Autumn Leaves in University Parks, Oxford


oxford-3-241114

[arnold]

Pentax KX with M50/1.4, Fuji expired 200asa

[Draig]

I don't know what plant this is, but I like it. Taken in Hakodate on my trip to Japan in September last Year. Also one of the last photos taken with my K20d before it finally died

Pentax K20d, 18-280mm Penax SMC @ 130mm, 1/160sec, f5.6 ISO 100.

[normhead]

I've got one....

[Clou]

Fresh from - yesterday.

Entfaltung - Frühling

Michael

[Tamia]

It's wonderful to see that there are so many others who enjoy photographing leaves! There's plenty of time for more entries. So come on and make my job even tougher than it already is.

[Cuthbert]

After long thought I decided to play, even if it looks like more a digital context:



I know, it's overexposed, but in AE mode the max shutter speed is 1/2000s, 1/4000s would have been more appropriate. And no, with film you can't check the pic out, throw it away and retake it.

[StephenHampshire]

This one was taken yesterday. I got up early to go to a local wood to see the bluebells- they are not quite in full bloom yet, but whilst I was there I took this. I like the juxtaposition of the old, dead leaf and the new. DA*300 / K3

[scomatic]

The leaf of flowers

[mohb]

[jacamar]

Sundew - taken over the side of a canoe on a northern lake.

[chmance]

This was among the first pictures I took last year after being a prodigal photographer for 25 years. I bought a used Pentax K10D, my first dSLR, a few weeks prior and headed out to the famed Deep Cove in North Vancouver to try my film-era skills in a digital universe.

Here was what I noticed right away upon getting to the cove: this holly leaf incongruously turning red in April when the rest of the leaves were still so green. For some reason the complete EXIF data did not get embedded in the file. All I remember was I used my 30-plus-year-old SMC Pentax M 135mm f/3.5 wide open.

[mtux]

I've shot leaves a lot!
but for this challenge, I thought to enter this photo!
Well, it's in fact an insect! but it looks so much like a real leaf, and it's called walking leaf.



There's also an insect called "walking stick" if anyone's curious!