YELLOW CLIVIA

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

GARDEN ITERATIONS

The first shot is a straight out of the camera image taken in the School of Botany's System Garden of the University of Melbourne. I then Photoshopped the image, taking it through several passes via a sepia filter so that the colour was almost completely neutralised. This is image 2.

I then used the saturation and colour balance commands to try to regain some of the colour, emphasising the orange and green. These are the third and fourth images, which have also been enhanced with some of the filters in the Photoshop art filter gallery. The last image shows the effect of more fine tuning of colour and an oil painting filter.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

RAINY PAVEMENT

We had quite a bit of rain in Melbourne today. The first photo is straight out of the camera, the remainder photoshopped.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

GERBERA VARIATIONS

The first image is as it came out of the camera. An orange gerbera macro shot. I then processed the image with Photoshop, using the find edges command, using colour look up tables and various distorting filters. I combined some images and for the last one I used the polar coordinates command.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,

and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

TREES & SKY

The first image was taken on a sunny Winter's day. A few months later the image was processed with several Photoshop filters to give the following two versions. I usually work through effects using multiple layers, sometimes as many as 20-30, before I arrive at the result I like. The last image with the almost 3D effect was achieved using a blend of blurred and sharpened layers.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

MELBOURNE CITY BATHS

City Baths, in Melbourne, Australia, is a historically and architecturally significant building. Located at 420 Swanston Street, it is an instantly recognisable Melbourne landmark.The Melbourne City Council opened the first Melbourne City Baths on 9 January 1860, which housed public baths. The objective was to stop people from bathing in the Yarra River, which by the 1850s had become quite polluted and the cause of an epidemic of typhoid fever which hit the city resulting in many deaths. However, people continued to swim and drink the water.

The Baths were leased to a private operator, but lack of maintenance resulted in such deterioration of the building that the Baths were closed in 1899. New baths designed by John James Clark were opened on 23 March 1904. Strict separation of men and women was maintained, right down to separate street entrances. Two classes of facilities were maintained, with second class baths in the basement and first class baths on the main floor. The popularity of the swimming pool increased with the introduction of mixed bathing in 1947.

The Baths now house a swimming pool, spa, sauna, squash courts and a gymnasium. To cater for all types of swimmers, the swimming pool is divided into four lanes: an aqua play lane, a medium lane, a fast lane and a slow lane (or 'aquatic education', when swimming lessons are given).

The first photo is as it came out of the camera. All the others are photoshopped from this original one.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

CLIVIA MINIATA

Clivia miniata (Natal lily, bush lily) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Clivia of the family Amaryllidaceae, native to damp woodland habitats in South Africa (Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces) as well as in Swaziland. It is also reportedly naturalized in Mexico.

It grows to a height of about 45 cm, and flowers are red, orange or yellow, with a faint, but very sweet perfume. It is sometimes known in cultivation as "Kaffir lily". However, this name is also confusingly applied to the genus Schizostylis, and in any case is best avoided as it is considered an offensive ethnic slur in South Africa.
With a minimum temperature of 10 °C, in temperate regions C. miniata is normally cultivated as a houseplant. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, along with the variety C. miniata var. citrina (shown here). It contains small amounts of lycorine, making it poisonous.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

FROM MY WINDOW

An overcast evening, with the clouds parting just at the right time to allow the setting sun to light this view from my window...

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

FROM MY WINDOW

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

IN THE CITY

The weekend was cold, wet and gray in Melbourne. Nevertheless, I had to go out into the City and despite weather, I managed to liven things up with a little Photoshop filtering.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,

and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

A CUP OF TEA?

These are tea cups and packets of tea in a shop window. The first three images are as shot, the fourth is altered in Photoshop.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,

and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

CYCLE OF SEASONS

The original photo in HDR is shown in the first image. I then manipulated this image in Photoshop, inverting the colours in the first instance and then selecting the leaf and taking it through some colour transformations, while duplicating and pasting.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

ORANGE TONES IN AUTUMN

A range of oranges and yellows during Melbourne's late Autumn. The mandarins are home-grown!

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

HEADSPACE

This is a piece of garden sculpture that has been taken through some transformations in Photoshop. Which is your favourite?

This post is part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme.