The Peacock's Feathers

The Symbolic Nature of The Peacock

"She is a Peacock in everything but beauty." - Oscar Wilde

The peacock has long been revered as a symbolic creature. It's beauty and elegance only matched with it's perceived arrogance and power. The peacock has long been the focus of fables and found in Egyptian and Biblical folklore and it's symbolism documented in many sites like the meaning of symbols blog.

While it has only been recently that scientists have been able to confirm that the size of the feathers and the number of eyes on the feathers can actually determine the strength of the offspring, a fundamental part of natural selection and evolution, it has long been know to be a symbol of renewal and fertility as document in the Evolution 

Images of The Peacock and it's Feathers

You can't really get a bad shot of a peacock and it's feathers but it's not always that you apply a photoshop effect through the image to bring out a different perspective of the bird.

Even in black and white the peacock's feathers are captivating

I like how this image ended up, it's as if the peacock's feathers exploded shooting outwards from his back.

The peacock in all it's striking might.

The back of a peacock, with neon effects applied through photoshop elements, brings out some amazing detail.

Trip to Wine Country, Hunter Valley Resort

To be honest, I can't remember the last time I was in the country.

It was nice to have a little time out from Sydney and spent a couple of days out in the Hunter Valley. Time moves slower, the air smells fresher and the wine tastes nicer. After finding some old and weathered farm equipment I regret not taking my Sony NEX 5N to snap up some of the shots in higher quality but, was surprised at the quality of the photos from my mobile phone, HTC One. In the end was able to get some good photos of the country side and some rusty old farm equiment and touch them up nicely on Photoshop Elements.

All photos have been edited in Photoshop to adjust the light and saturation levels. Some of the photos have had some effects layered.

The following photos where taken with the HTC's panoramic feature and some of the colours and light levels adjusted. The HTC One's camera features are actually pretty impressive, for panoramic shots it has an auto level feature and a guide that shows you where you need to frame your next shot to continue with the next shot in the panorama.

Stumbled on this old farm equipment in the resort and managed to sneak away for a couple of shots during some team building. Am sure the team didn't miss me. For some reason there is just something pretty interesting about old rusted industrial equipment and I had to get a few photos. These first 3 photos have only had light and colour levels adjusted. Not bad for a phone camera.

Additionally to the the light and colour levels, the following shots have all had some Photoshop effects layered on to bring out some of the colours and detail.

Applying Effects with Photoshop

Photoshop, you either love it or hate it.

The purists will argue that Photoshop has no place in photography and others will dispute it will have a significant impact and has a role to play, the dark side of photojournalism will twist and distort images to generate a response from a reader through Photoshop. A perspective can be read < here > 
The reality is this is subject is as juxtaposed as any other image quality. Light vs Dark. Digital vs Film. Zoom vs Macro. Black/White vs Colour. And so on...

I like Photoshop. I like how it can be used to create contrasting effects and how it can give you some control over the image after it has been taken and allows you to impose certain treatments in order to get a photo to look the way you want it to or even reveal a certain perspective that is surprising and interesting.
But ... do agree, it's more difficult and requires more skill to create a natural image that is as compelling a perfectly positioned, timed and executed photo. In all cases a great photo natural or digitised has a profound effect on the viewer and that to me is as good a reason to explore all alternatives.

For example take this image, taken recently around the Haymarket UTS campus. I like the original basic image but also really like the different treatments you can apply, all within a couple of clicks and yet create some amazing (but template) variations to a photo.

Basic Photo no digital effects applied, it's the reality and the least complex.

Lomography effect applied, which applies a vignette and cross processing effect over the image to give it a retro pop effect.

The Orton effect, the blur effect which originally occurred from merging a blurred and focused image. Reminds me of 90's family portraits.

The sketch effect, basically bleaches an image while retaining the edges.

Glowing edges contrast, polarises the image while adding some neon edge colour and creates amazing unique images.