When I go out on a photo-prowl, I look for the obvious photo-ops: birds, butterflies, dragonflies, landscapes with clouds, the play of the light on water or leaves…but I also look for little details along the trail that might make an interesting abstract. This pile of fallen leaves caught my eye mainly because of the color and the twisted shapes of the leaves, but when I zoomed out and framed it, I saw the pale weathered lines of the pine needles radiating from the corner. The pine needles make the image for me.

Canon SX40HS at 840mm equivalent field of view. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 400.

Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped from the left to eliminate distracting out of focus elements and to emphasize the radiating needles.