Shots from the past few days

I've been out and about, walking around, with the lack of a crippled leg. I've been carrying my camera, and exploring nature reserves around my local area with a keen eye. I'm focusing on colour, tonal range, and detail when I look at a scene. I haven't been paying too much attention to composition.

I took this shot looking down into a dried creek bed, from the base of a collapsed tree. The sun was throwing nice light at the grass, and I used a little flash to illuminate the underside of the tree. I wish there was a little bit more depth in the shot, showing off the sloping ground. Nonetheless, I feel like this works.

This next shot is straight from the camera.

I'm tending to underexpose, because I'm enjoying the theatrics of the brighter light giving distinct, sharp highlights. I like the shadows of the trees from out of frame casting an ominous presence on the illuminated, yet collapsed tree.

In the next shot, I was going for a Rembrandt style of image - dark, textural, with spots of colour.

I love how the tree trunk turned out, and the fact that I was able to capture some orange in and among the green of the undergrowth.

I have been shooting at 100ISO, with fast shutter speeds, again, leading to this underexposed and atmospheric look - something that I hope to translate into throwing a portrait in the foreground of such an image.

This final image is probably the weakest of the bunch, using sunlight that managed to creep through other trees to paint a sliver of light on the ground and trunk.

Comment and critique welcome. :)