Time for a few more photos

Probably because I can't take a decent photo to save my life, for a long time now I've played around using photo manipulation to construct new abstract, semi-abstract or surreal photos.

Here are a few I entered into our local camera club display night.  One of them at least you've seen before.

 There's a place near us called Brooklyn, where there is a long steel bridge which had to be replaced about 70 years ago.  The old line has been converted into a siding which is a good  place to put vintage trains from time to time.  Above is the photo as taken which is pretty boring, and below is "Midnight Express" rejigged from the same image.

In Sydney Harbour is an island which has been home to several different purposes.  It has been a shipyard which has handled both the old Queen Elizabeth and the old Queen Mary.  Before that it was a jail, and this is a jazzy workup of the Garrison Building.

The moon, a peacock named George, some seals, the country in upper South Australia, and a moonlight night all come together to form "Porpoise Party" five images altogether to make one!

This is also a compound image.  Believe it or not, the outer "blades" are made from a poor photo of the Aussie bush, and colours taken from a couple of garden flowers.  I loved the "Catherine Wheel" effect, so I called it "Wheeee!"

This is an architectural shot.  Somewhere in Sydney, approximately in Elizabeth Street near to the Museum of Sydney, there is a tall block of offices.  Because I had my camera with me, Security wouldn't let me take any interior shots, but my two companions were allowed to take as many photos as they wanted provided they used their smart phones.  So I was left outside and as it happened I got four prizewinning shots while I was waiting for my friends to reappear.  I had to reflect the shot, invert the colouring, and do a bit of this and that.  This is the result!

Using a similar technique, I manipulated two Eiffel Towers to give a grasshopper's head, or a devil's coal red eyes.  I haven't exhibited this yet, so it will be interesting to see if it gets a similar reception to "Working all night"

Recently I celebrated my 71st birthday, and my wife gave me aa wonderful book of landscapes.  There was one particular black and white shot of an aircraft vapour trail, and straight away I thought of Paris . . . and when I read the caption it WAS Paris.  So to conclude, here is my homage to the photographer of the black and white photo which I had remembered.  Taken from the bridge which connects the Ile de la Cite and the Ile St Louis, I call it "The sunset trails"