Thank you everyone. Please excuse the typos and/or bad grammar, its late. lol.
Anything specific anyone wants to know feel free to ask. If I can answer I will. I say "if" because a lot of this just comes to me and I don't really think about it. But give it a try, be it a shooting or post work technique. As for the basics:
When shooting keep the angle of the sun in mind at all times. How the exposure comes out changes dramatically based off how light falls and reflects. Most of these I didn't need to worry about sun, it was overcast. Advantage of overcast is that it boosts color saturation due to less reflection. In cases where there is sun polarizers can help a ton. If you have an SLR get a circular polarizer. You lose a few stops of light, but it cuts WAY down on reflection and gives much richer colors. Even on overcast days it can help (the cascade shots).
Post work to these is basically all the same. I shoot with a Nikon D70 which is famous for its conservative metering and flat curve, really noticeable in low light. As such I do minor curve work in photoshop to bring more DR into the shot (other people load custom curves into their cameras).
Image sharpness is one of those things. Most of the leaves in these aren't very sharp compared to what I am use to (if I posted a 100% crop of an elk shot and a tree shot you'd be amazed at the difference). I have the same issue with wildflowers, and I haven't completely figured it out. Even minor camera shake at higher shutter speeds can affect a shot so make sure you aren't ever so slighty pulling to one side when you push shutter release. A lot of people do it and never notice it. Also, make sure to stop down. I will assume people know Depth Of Field and how aperture affects it, and if not please speak up. That said, lenses have a sweet spot. All are different. Some are sharpest at F8, some at F11, others at F16. Digital starts losing sharpness in the higher reaches. So try to stop down as much as you can and still hold the DOF you want.
Sharpening is a fun one. I haven't ever seen much need to sharpen my photos very much and had 2 basic ways I did it, neither good for fine detail, more of local contrast enhancement. But I will cover those 3 things tomorrow if people request it.. though I bet those even quasi serious about photog will laugh that I am just learning this stuff. But hey, maybe I am wrong. lol.