January 2018 - Various

Lorikeet feeding on Flame Tree. (See December 2017 Gallery for more similar pix.)

Back yard shot, suburban Townsville, north Queensland, Nikon D750, 150-600mm Tamron Lens, Nikon Speedlight SB 900.

Local gods were angry about something!

Lightning composite. Boat Shed, Pilot Station, George Town, Tasmania.

"Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, WA - à la William Turner."

I have flash bulb memories of first being introduced to the work of William Turner, one of Britain’s best-loved artists, in my Grade 8 Art Appreciation class that have lingered all these years. (Thank you Mr. Barry Cullhane.)

This image is a poor first attempt at digitally emulating his trademark stormy seascapes, and their odd colouring, that left a lingering impression on me as a young fella.

Turns out that the treatment of his reds (intensifying these) and blues (often dulling these) were consistent with a form of colour blindness. He also had cataracts, and the last colours one sees before going blind are reds and yellows. His later work blasts you with these.

(Played with the original rather plain photo over a couple of hours using a variety of editing programs, digital paint brushes and filters. I could have gone a bit wilder, but I'm not as daring as the master. I enjoyed the 2014 film 'Mr. Turner'. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKlo2xWvuI )

Near Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, WA.

View from parking lot. Topaz Impressions VG render.

Told him one of the ladies in our party said his owner "had a nice ass." He cracked up.

Shot from August 2017 Gallery (go to Home Page to connect). Reworked and given Bokeh treatment via Alien Skin Exposure 3.

Hybrid House, Ingham, North Queensland. (Pastel treatment in Studio Artist 5 with Photoshop refinements.)

This is a lovely example of how our built environment and its living spaces reflect our social structures and cultural heritages.
Driving past this house in Ingham yesterday I was struck by the odd blend of ancient Italian and Old Queenslander architectural elements.
The ornate metal window hoods, popular from the 1890's to the 1930's, before they became less elaborate, help with our heat. And the wrought iron fancywork adds to the Australian flavour.
Then there are the flowery brick balcony railings, the parapets, and those wall towers. The Romans discovered that walled fortresses were more easily defended if towers were built into the defensive walls. These towers made it easy to give covering fire for the walls. A curious 2,000 year old legacy survives in this fascinating residential building, no doubt designed by one of the region's pioneering Italian identities but with the practicalities of tropical north Queensland and available materials in mind. It strikes me as an important part of Ingham's townscape. PS Turns out this was the old Ingham Italian Hospital. See ABC report on Net.

PS Turns out this was the old Italian Ingham Hospital. Search ABC Local Stories on web. Or try http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/03/22/2852898.htm (Original edited iPhone photo.)

"Peacock Roosting for the Night."

"Peacock Roosting for the Night."
Photographed at twilight this evening in suburban Townsville, this peacock was bedding down for the night in its usual spot high in a gum tree.

Meanwhile the pea hen . . .

. . . was tending two of her chicks on the lawn below. (Nikon D750, AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens at 190 and 105mm, and Nikon Speedlight SB900 flash unit fired for both.)

"Do Peacocks Dream of Flying to the Heavens?"

Philip K Dick asked, in the title of his probably best-known sci-fi short story (which spawned 'Blade Runner'), "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

That suggested the title for this image. But in this case, I think the answer is probably 'Ahh . . . Nope'.

And no, It's not admiring the wee constellation Pavo (the Peacock). While a southern hemisphere constellation, it is only visible June to August.

"Bouncing Raindrop."

Photographing raindrops and capitalising on the high speed of your flash can revel some beautiful physics.

"Scaly-breasted Mannikin - Hand Drawn Render."

These little birds are a delight to observe, especially when en masse, they attack the seeds of long grasses. Or hit the bird bath a dozen at a time.

Like so many other birds, they remind me of the simple joys of life. Not only do birds enrich the environment, they are good for our souls. They are our closest connection to a receding natural world.

(Suburban Townsville, Nikon D7100, Tamron 150-600mm lens at 600mm on DX body = 900mm, proprietary hand drawing brushes in Photoshop CS6, Topaz Enhance tweaks, CS6 high pass filter/soft light layer sharpening.)

"Motor Vessel at Mooring."

Photographed at the Pilot Station, George Town, Tasmania.
This craft struck me as ideal for exploring the rivers and estuaries of Tasmania. Or just anchoring in an inlet and lazing the day away.

Reworked using a soft pencil brush and adding a new sky.

"Angry Bird and Hatchling."

Mother ?mannikin was remonstrating baby bird over invading her space moments earlier.

I'd interpret bub's look as the usual "WTF?" response ya get from kids.

Title does not reflect movies I watch.

(Photographed today, suburban Townsville, Nikon D750, Tamron 150-600mm lens at 420mm, Nikon Speedlight SB900 flash. )

"Whada you lookin' at!? "

Itchy reckons I was eyeing off Scratchy with just a little too much interest.
So Itchy hunkers down, ready to swoop, and I gets the "What are ya? Ya wanna go, do ya?" look.
Scratchy goes all demure.
(I think Scratchy likes me, or at least all the attention she is getting.)
I yells to Itchy - “Ya know who ya pickin’?”
Itchy’s head quickly moves up and back and I get a piercing look down the beak. As if to say:
“Nuh! Who am I pickin’?”
”You find out!“ I yells.
As I race back inside the house.

“Whada you lookin’ at?!” (Retro Illustration version.)

See caption for original photo.

"Exotic Seahorse."

This riotously coloured seahorse lives at Seahorse World and Southern Ocean Aquarium at Beauty Point in northern Tasmania.

Seahorses are bred here and exported all over the world for private and public aquariums.

"Marsh Harrier, Northern Tasmania - On Watercolour Wash."

Composite of a photo I took a few weeks ago and an image of a watercolour background using tweaks of Photoshop CC 2018 layer functions and tonal adjustments using ON1 Photo 10's Enhance.
(Great Forester River, Tasmania, Nikon D750, 28-300mm lens. 'Marsh Harrier' a.k.a. 'Swamp Harrier'.)

"Marsh Harrier, Northern Tasmania - On Watercolour Wash." Cropped.

Composite of a photo I took a few weeks ago and an image of a watercolour background using tweaks of Photoshop CC 2018 layer functions and tonal adjustments using ON1 Photo 10's Enhance.
(Great Forester River, Tasmania, Nikon D750, 28-300mm lens. 'Marsh Harrier' a.k.a. 'Swamp Harrier'.)

Last Mango in Townsville.

Waited and waited, oh sooo patiently, for the last one to drop . . .
. . . only to wake up this morning to this tragic scene.
Went back to bed and cried myself to sleep.

"Starfish Executing a Grand Jeté."

Caught this starfish practicing a majestic ballet leap at our local Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium in Townsville.

"Great Northern Hotel - Nudging 120 years."

One of the grand dames of Townsville architecture. Established in 1900, having survived some highly destructive cyclones and the ravages of time. It's heartening to see these old buildings maintained by their various custodians to a level of integrity that has allowed them to live for later generations to experience.
(Original photo from December 2002 given a vintage treatment using a variety of 3rd party brushes and adjustments in Photoshop CC 2018, ON1 10 Photo Enhance, and Nix Color Efex Pro 4.)

"Impressionist Butterfly Cod."

Playing with some old Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium shots of mine. Got to wondering what Vincent van Gogh would make of the highly improbable colours and unimaginable forms of our reef fish, had he encountered them.

(Tech stuff: Applied some third party abstract brushes and actions in Photoshop CC2018, after ON1 10 Photo Enhancement of originals, some local cloning, masking and sharpening in Photoshop, and final tweaking using an Alien Skin Exposure X3 filter to enhance the greens and yellows.)

"The Starry, Partly Cloudy, Tropical Night."

(Tech stuff: October 2017, Cardwell, tropical north Queensland. Applied some third party abstract brushes and actions in Photoshop CC 2018 along with some of my own Photoshop brushwork, cloning, layer masking and colouring of stars from my original photo to have a similar mix of yellow and white stars as seen in a work by a well-known Dutch painter from the late 19th century. It was titled "The Starry Night.")

"The Starry, Partly Cloudy, Tropical Night." Crop.

(Tech stuff: October 2017, Cardwell, tropical north Queensland. Applied some third party abstract brushes and actions in Photoshop CC 2018 along with some of my own Photoshop brushwork, cloning, layer masking and colouring of stars from my original photo to have a similar mix of yellow and white stars as seen in a work by a well-known Dutch painter from the late 19th century. It was titled "The Starry Night.")

"Man and His Dog."

Photographed early on a Spring morning last year, amidst rising mist, on the shores of Lake Tinaroo, north Queensland.
(Original photo detail was reduced and thereby softened by ON1 Photo 10 Enhance software which then handed it to Photoshop CC 2018 for some local sharpening of the dog and his man. Further edited in Alien Skin Exposure 3 with filtering that added a teal tone to the shadows and creamy highlights - a colour grading effect popular in modern cinema. Some vignetting and differential dodging and burning followed.)

"Man and His Dog." Cropped and vignetted.

Photographed early on a Spring morning last year, amidst rising mist, on the shores of Lake Tinaroo, north Queensland.
(Original photo detail was reduced and thereby softened by ON1 Photo 10 Enhance software which then handed it to Photoshop CC 2018 for some local sharpening of the dog and his man. Further edited in Alien Skin Exposure 3 with filtering that added a teal tone to the shadows and creamy highlights - a colour grading effect popular in modern cinema. Some vignetting and differential dodging and burning followed.)

Man and Dog Mockup 1.

Man and Dog Mockup 2.

“Encounter in the Poster Gallery.”

In this poster gallery a man encounters a photograph taken by me of him walking his dog which, in keeping with the whole image, is also seen from behind. The image hangs next to a picture by Stefan Draschan of a man viewing ‘La reproduction interdite’, a 1937 painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Would the person who took a photo from behind me of me taking this photo kindly send me a copy.

Technical stuff and credits: Right hand poster image by Stefan Draschan via FreeFeed (though some rights of reproduction apply). Blank gallery mockup purchased from Andrej Sevkovskij. Edited using smart object layers (to paste in my man and his dog image and viewer) and luminance blending (to place right hand poster behind rail) in Photoshop CC 2018.

"Brahminy Kite Under a Brooding Sky."

Long Swamp, Townsville Town Common Conservation Park.
I like the harmony of foreground and background tonalities in this image and resulting simplicity.
(A 150 to 600 mm Tamron zoom lens fully extended to 600 mm and attached to Nikon D7100 DX camera, with its 1.5 crop factor, gave the lens an effective focal length of 900mm, allowing this magnificent creature to be drawn in close enough for all to see. Some sharpening of the bird and branch via a high pass filter method in Photoshop CC 2018 that minimises artefacts)

"Magpie Goose about to find out what the inside of a jet engine looks like."

At least this is how I imagine such a scene might look like from the plane's perspective.

Composite of separate cloud shot and a Magpie Goose about to land on the Long Swamp on the Townsville Common.

Clues that this was not shot at high altitude are that the legs, here extended for landing, are tucked up in normal flight, and the wing and tail feathers are configured for landing.

Magpie Goose On Final Approach Over Long Swamp, Townsville Common.

"Green Sea Turtle."

Photographed in the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, this turtle was transposed to a watercolour background for a graphic effect.

"Green Sea Turtle." Wall Art.

Photographed in the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, this turtle was transposed to a watercolour background for a graphic effect.

"Green Sea Turtle." Poster Frame.

Photographed in the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, this turtle was transposed to a watercolour background for a graphic effect.

"Green Sea Turtle." Black Frame.

Photographed in the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, this turtle was transposed to a watercolour background for a graphic effect.

Vector Graphic Experiment 1.

Vector Graphic Experiment 2.

"In-Flight Meal: Shredded Goose on a Bed of Greens."

Snappy Tom's handlers at Billabong Sanctuary took him on a picnic to the Long Swamp at the Townsville Common Conservation Park recently.

"Sunday Afternoon at Lagoon Cove, Tamar River, George Town, Tasmania."

Dad, the girls, and new-found friends having fun in a shallow tidal reach of the Tamar in George Town, Tasmania.
(Tech stuff: Variation on a FB post on November 18 that blended elements from four other photographs, all taken of the same scene. I prefer the simpler, diagonal composition of this image. Once the composite photo was created, the main software used was my tweaking of Impression's van Gogh 2 preset in Topaz Studio. Overall transparency was reduced to 80% and further again using the masking tool to reveal a little more spot detail, especially around the figures. The final image was sharpened, and to add a little punch, it was adjusted for brightness and contrast.)

"Sunday Afternoon at Lagoon Cove, Tamar River, George Town, Tasmania." Foyer shot.

How it would hang in your workplace foyer, club, church etc. Asking price $50K (significantly lower for cash deal) and a commission for any fruitful leads.

“Harrier Against Evening Sky.”

A Marsh Harrier I photographed in northern Tasmania has been set against a different background drawn from my library of sky images.
I find the texture, form and tones of this striking bird very appealing. It was photographed from a stationary car window as it swooped by.
(Nikon D750, 28-300mm lens.)

"Super Moon Over Cleveland Bay, January 31st, 2018, Townsville."

With enlargement you may be able to discern the faint glow of Cape Cleveland Lighthouse in the distance. And also the running lights of yachts returning from the traditional Wednesday evening sail.

Not since Bob Hawke was elected PM of Australia in 1983 have we had the astronomical trifecta of a blue, super and blood-red moon.

"Lunar Eclipse, Townsville, January 31st, 2018 - Soon after start." (Nikon D750, Tamron 150-600mm at 600mm)

"Lunar Eclipse, Townsville, January 31st, 2018 - A few minutes before totality." (Nikon D750, Tamron 150-600mm at 600mm)

Lunar Eclipse, Townsville, January 31st, 2018.

Backyard, wide-field perspective. A few minutes before totality - when earthshine is the only significant illumination of the moon. 1 of 3.