Pink Autumn: Transience of the leaves by Marjolijn van den Berg

About "Pink Autumn: Transience of the leaves"

by Marjolijn van den Berg

About the artwork

"Pink Autumn: Transience of the leaves" is a macro photo of two beautiful leaves of the Bougainvillea plant. This plant comes in different varieties, with different coloured leaves. As you can see here, there are also Bougainvillea leaves with a beautiful pink colour.
Because these leaves have already been dried by the Spanish sun, they are very fragile and vulnerable. This makes it easy to see the vein structure. This vein structure contrasts beautifully with the pastel-coloured, almost transparent leaves.
The surface on which the leaves lie is reflective, so you can see two sides in one image. With the pink leaves on the left, for instance, you can see the seeds in the mirror image.
When photographing these leaves, I chose a shallow depth of field in terms of my camera's settings. As a result, the focus is on the front of the leaves. The further forward or back you look, the blurrier the leaves become. This gives a calmness to the photo. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see this clearly.
Because the leaves are not just lying flat or suspended, but are dynamically slanted in the picture, it looks as if the leaves are moving. I really like this dynamic in this "still life". It makes the picture more exciting and moving.
This picture with pastel colours could hang beautifully as an eye-catcher in the bedroom, dining room or simply in the living room, for example.
© Marjolijn van den Berg