@sil, the background is as I found it in New England. I kind of liked the graduation of tones from corner to corner.

@kadenajack,
This was hand-held with 25 ASA (ISO) Kodachrome. The depth of field was very shallow. I like the full frame image, but at this size some of the curly extremities of the leaf are out of focus to the point where I though my WS evaluators would find them distracting, so I simply cropped them out.

Thanks, all, for your comments.

Kodachrome 25. Well then heck I really enjoy the color and the crop of this oldie but goodie. Fitting for you huh King? LOL.

BTW congrats.

A lovely work of art...mostly nature's art, but, well, heck, I guess you get some credit, too, King.

er...I mean, Fat Bastard. Ha ha ha ha!!!

Glad to see you're back in the saddle again, FB!

George,
I agree that this is nature's work of art and that I should get little credit for it. The first (unfeatured) macro I submitted is, and I know you agree, more to my credit as a photographer, a better photograph and a *true* macro image, unlike this, which is barely a closeup. I wonder why this is featured. I really do.

Maybe I can glean just a little more peer respect if I told you that not only is this Kodachrome 64 and hand held, I was holding the clunky, heavy, old camera in one hand and holding the leaf (which had already fallen to the ground) in the other, looking for favorable light.

Okay, okay, King, I guess I gotta give it up for you. (I am, as usual, just having fun pretending I don't have respect for the artist behind this image, you do realize?)

For those who haven't seen it, check out King's stamp submission for at least what I consider a delightful work of art on more than one level:

http://www.weeklyshot.org/theme/macro/response/147/

Here, here for the FB! It is a beautiful leaf captured very well. :-)