reflection
The miraculous disappearance of the tourists
I have never seen so much empty space here.
Last Sunday afternoon, the heavens opened and the rain came down — much needed rain, actually. It came as quite a surprise to the hundreds of tourists in the vicinity of the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay. Five minutes before I took this photo, you could not have seen 10 feet in front of you, let alone all the way to end. Everyone is cowering behind those columns to the left, jammed together as tightly as pencils as in a box. I did feel rather smug with my showerproof jacket and umbrella. Walking along this east side of Circular Quay is usually immensely frustrating, trying to dodge and weave around strollers and families and tour groups; for once, though, I could walk at will!
Square Sky 27: Sky and surfer
Sky reflected in wet sand, Bondi Beach.
When the tide and wind and light are right, there’s a moment after a wave has rushed ashore when the sand is covered by a thin, reflective sheen of water. Such as in this photo at Bondi Beach.
Square Sky 24: Watery sunrise
Who knew the North Sea could look so mysterious?
“Watery” not online because it’s at sea, but because there’s a wavering, watercolour look to this photo. This is off the coast of Belgium, shot on a morning watch from the tall ship ‘Tenacious’ in 2006.
Square Sky 2: Billabong
Upside-down sky!
The sky reflected in the still waters of a billabong, Northern Territory.
Random Fridays: Autumn Leaves
Autumn leaves against a shiny office tower reflecting the sky and another building.
Most native Australian trees don’t lose their leaves when autumn comes, but the imports certainly do. This plane tree near Circular Quay in Sydney is displaying about as much autumnal colour as we get. With late afternoon sun shining through the leaves, they glow against the reflection of the pure blue sky seen in an office tower behind.
Random Fridays: Buttons
How cool are these buttons? I came across this shop that sells nothing but buttons, but not ordinary boring buttons! My first thought when I saw the window displays was that these were little cakes or chocolates. If you look at the feature image, you can see that the out-of-focus buttons in the foreground do look like chocolates.
Random Fridays: Sunset over infinity
Sunset over the infinity pool
If not infinity, then an infinity pool! This was taken at Wildmans Wilderness Lodge, Northern Territory.
Random Fridays: Ripples
Sunset on Katherine River, Nitmiluk National Park, Northern Territory, Australia.
This photo was taken 15 minutes after my supermoon photo — one way looking west, the other looking east. The wake of a passing small boat flung ripples through the smooth water, creating these wonderful reflections.
Poolside – 4
This photograph is my entry for week 4 of the One Four Challenge. The premise behind this intriguing new challenge, hosted by Robyn, is to process the same photo four different ways.
In the words of Monty Python, “And now for something completely different!” I call this one the Purple X-ray, and I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste. This look is the result of adjustment layer on top of adjustment layer in Photoshop: invert (swap light and dark); channel mixer and hue/saturation (to adjust amount of r, g, b to get the purple and grey look); shadows and highlights to get the strong white background to the trees; vibrance; levels to darken the pot, cushions and reflection.
I like how the leaves in the trees have an almost painted quality. The spiky plant looks to me like flames shooting upwards.
Here are all four processing variations, plus the original:
One Four Challenge – poolside
Got a favourite? Let me know!
Bonus
I had two other processes that, in the end, I decided not to include officially. It was a real toss-up for week 4 between the Purple X-ray and the Solarized version. The Andy Warhol take was just a bit of fun!
