The first fifty to go were easy to eliminate.  The best one was obvious and can be seen above.  It has a spiral quality and the red color with the swirling blue sky is a great blend.  However then the editing became difficult.  Who gets to be in the top ten and why?  I actually enjoy the editing process when there is no pressure but my own sensibilities.  I learn so much about what makes a good composition. There is a reason I take a hundred photos.  I love them all.  But when I get them back home I can't imagine why I took some of them.  Boring. 

   So many leaves and they all call to me.  Pick me.  Pick me.  I am the most beautiful.  Look at me.  What makes me love this picture?  It is the dark branches in the background like fine lines behind the red.  A winner.

I stopped at three different locations to gather my leaf photos.  A park, a school yard and an apartment complex.  I'm sure people wondered what I was doing gazing up into the windows but I was looking at the sky and rejoicing in the colors.  Once a lady got out of her car and asked me why I was taking photos of her.  I had to explain that I was taking pictures of the trees.  She seemed oddly put out by that answer.  

   Oh I like this brown one.  It glows with the late afternoon light on the rough wooden planks.  Something different that wasn't flaming but still very fall and very leafy.

  Speaking of flaming.  This one looked like it was going to burn.

  One red leaf among the brown and dying.  A fresh corpse against the grey cold concrete.  A quick snap at the time of something just hanging there on the ground and it made the top ten.

  Cropped and enhanced.  I had so many of these "light filtering thru the leaves" photos.  I liked the stems in this one and when it was finally cropped it seemed just right.  I don't have a great camera but when I put the photos thru my Picnik site all kinds of help is available.

  Okay, okay, I know there are eleven photos here.  I am not publishing a magazine and I only have to please myself.  Editing is a very personal process.  Some of the best photos are on the cutting room floor and there are about thirty photos that I will keep in my library just because.