From Real to Surreal

Part 3 - Bifurcating Waterways in Purple

I was genuinely surprised when I applied my Auto Curves action to one of the aerial shots and suddenly these beautiful purples began to emerge across the landscape. I am still not entirely sure why the colour shift happened so dramatically, but I loved it immediately — and as someone who has always loved purple, I decided to embrace it completely and build the image around that unexpected palette.

What followed became this abstract aerial interpretation of the Kimberley landscape.

Well, let’s start at the beginning with the original photograph below on the left — complete with the unavoidable wing strut from the aircraft.

Despite the distractions in the frame, the main feature of the image was immediately obvious: the beautiful bifurcations of the almost dried-up river beds as they spread and branched across the landscape.

The first and most satisfying step was simply cropping away the pesky wing struts and simplifying the composition so the flowing waterways could become the true focus of the image.

Once the wonderful purples began to emerge, I increased the saturation and luminance of the magentas and violets while darkening the tree-lined watercourse so it became a strong graphic line carving its way through the landscape.

I also enriched the oranges and earth tones to balance the cooler purples and gradually shaped the colours so the image almost formed a natural gradient, moving from warm ochres into deep blues as the eye travelled upward through the frame.

Once I was happy with the colour and tonal balance, I began experimenting with different crops — including a much simpler composition that excluded the major watercourse entirely.

My daughter especially loves this version and wants to hang it in her bedroom. She is particularly drawn to the way the trees create an organic textured pattern across the image, and dusty purples have always been one of her favourite colours.

What I loved most was discovering how unexpectedly beautiful this colour palette could become within a landscape that would traditionally be associated with ochre reds, greens and earth tones.

Colours are everywhere. We only have to look for them.

My favourite is the top left, what is yours?