Autumn leaves are akin to stained glass - most beautiful when the light filters through pure colors. Remember when you've picked up a maple leaf and held it up to the sun, marveling at the vivid hues? That is what I wanted to capture in this photograph. I arranged the leaves on a sheet of clear acrylic, then set them up with the sun streaming through and the deep shade of the forest behind. Photographing them with a larger format camera ensured that all the detail of branching veins would shine through. What makes the photograph particularly interesting, however, is the jagged black line separating the areas of intense color. Artists refer to this dark area in a picture as "negative space," and it has the incredible power of enhancing the true subject of the composition - in this case, the exquisite leaf detail.

Lee Rentz