From Real To Surreal

Part 4 - Veins of the Riverbed

From high above in my small plane, a tree-filled dry riverbed cracked its way across the earth below. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful greens and oranges, and the wonderfully twisting shape of the watercourse as it carved through the landscape.

As is often the case with aerial photography, the original image shown below was far from perfect. The wing strut, a small section of the wing, and even the base of the window had all crept into the frame. To make matters worse, the horizon was slightly skewed — although by this stage of the flight I was feeling decidedly motion sick, so perhaps that was inevitable.

Despite the challenges, the image captured something I loved: the organic flow of nature cutting through the dry earth like a living vein across the landscape.

A quick press of Lightroom’s ‘Auto Edit’ button, combined with a careful crop, and suddenly all the unwanted aeroplane accessories — the wing strut, the edge of the wing and the window base — disappeared from the frame.

Then I ran my auto curves action.

The image still felt far too muted. I could already see the potential in the rich oranges and greens of the landscape, but it was only after some Lightroom Classic edits that the beautiful golden yellow tones suddenly came to life throughout the scene.

I then spent some time experimenting with different crops, trying to emphasise the twisting shape of the dry riverbed and the beautiful flow of colour through the landscape.

The crop was working well, but the winding river of trees still needed darkening to give the image more depth and to better define the sweeping shape cutting through the earth.

I liked the bottom right so much I tried some crops form this area.

Now it was time for a further crop to simplify the image.

I really love the curved sweep of the tree-lined watercourse as it moves across the image, along with the smaller river quietly snaking its way out of the frame.

I think this may be my favourite aerial abstract or stylised image yet. While the composition itself is very simple, there is an enormous amount of detail revealed on closer inspection, and the colour palette really works for me.