Two months ago I was in Japan for the height of Autumn. Being from the Caribbean, I knew nothing about the splendor of autumn colors until I experienced the beautiful yellow Ginko trees and the deep red Maple leaves [pictured here]. For me, it was a magical experience.
I hope you can delete this comment. If you can't, leave a replay to my comment, and I will render this comment less critical.
Autumn leaves are very beautiful, and I can sense some awe in this shot. However, I feel that the main point of interest in this shot is the flare from the sun, dead center in the field of view. I would rather have a strong emphasis on the leaves themselves. Often when a visitor to a scene which is, for us, new and unique, can lead to selection of shots which reflect less intimacy with the subject. Likewise, there is a vacation effect, where you just don't have time to explore a subject deeply enough. I have a lot of this kind of trouble when visiting the Southwest USA deserts, which I love so much, but have only spent about 2 years total there.
I find your criticism both honest and constructive, so no worries! I've only been taking photos for a few months, so I'm finding that most of my photos are rubbish in terms of composition.
I kind of chuckled at the "vacation effect" because that is 100% accurate. Here I am trying to take pictures of everything I see and there goes my wife with the tour guide rushing me to hurry up and rejoin the group bwahaha!
I like this and I agree with Gregory below where the sun appears to be the main attraction if you will. I love the leaves as autumn shots are typically awesome.
Yep, I can see how that came across in this photo. Funny thing is, I was trying to get a shot where the sun was my backlight on the colorful leaves, and that didn't work as expected. Then I got this flare pic and was like "oh, that's kind of cool".