Canberra ACT to Yungaburra Queensland via Cairns, 7 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

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These images from a plane journey from Canberra to Cairns and then by road from  Cairns to Yungaburra in the Athertion Tablelands.

These are all infrared images.  Since my previous post was about processing IR images in Capture One and I also mentioned processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, I indicate how I processed each image.  PS is Photoshop, with modifications before and after in Lightroom, LR is Lightroom and C1 is Capture One.  Not that that really tells you much except that you can get a whole range of results from any method.

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10 mins from Canberra.  Not clear exactly where. (PS)

I have been producing colour infrared images on and off since the early 1980s, which of course was at that time on film (and printing Cibachrome).  I like the wild range of possibilities from the radical to the subtle.  There are many other approaches to infrared images and I do not expect mine to be to everyone’s taste.

However, I showed these images to a visiting friend on my large computer monitor and he exclaimed “These are paintings!” and compared this image and two later from the Cairns/ Atherton Road to images by Sydney Nolan from the Red Desert series.  Not something I had considered or was even aware of.

Make of these what you will.  I make no claims and have no expectations.  They are for me a creative challenge and a different world.

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Lake Dalrymple below (west of Mackay, Queensland). Lake Upstart National Park in far distance. (LR)

Everything looks so different from the air.

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Magnetic Island and Cape Cleveland. (LR)

Antivaxxers and Libertarians tell us you can’t believe any media, government or institution.  Isn’t it a terrible thing that no-one tells us about the nuclear accidents that boil the land and turn the seas red.

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Cape Pallarenda and Magnetic Island. (PS)

Day and night happen at the same time, as the sun turns into a moon.

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Palm Islands (Esk Island, Brisk Island, Eclipse Reef, Great Palm Island). (LR)

It looks real but is it really?

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Hinchinbrook Island (foreground) and Brook Islands. (LR)

The pastel shades of the released imagination.

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Gould Island. Garden reef in front. (PS)

If I’d taken video footage from the air I could have made a blue movie.

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Tull River. South Mission Beach in the distance. (LR)

The classic reddish colours of a Queensland autumn (though it’s actually winter).

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Innisfail and Johnstone River. (LR)

As autumn fades, so do the colours.

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Looking past Mulgrave River, Malbon Thompson Forest Reserve and Grey Peaks National Park to a distant view of Cape Grafton, Fitzroy Island and beyond. (LR)

We are getting closer to the tropics.  You know the camera never lies so this is realistic colour.

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Probably East Feluga/ Friday Pocket area. (LR)

And so is this.  It’s not that I am wearing rose tinted glasses, the whole world has suddenly changed.

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I think Maria Creek in the foreground; Barnard Island off the coast; Barrier Reef in the background. (PS)

The landscape is trying to turn into the Gambian flag.  Perhaps we’re about to be invaded.

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Just before landing at Cairns Airport. (PS)

Back to normal reality.

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View from Cairns/ Atherton Tableland Road. (C1)

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View from Cairns/ Atherton Tableland Road. (C1)

A desert landscape, maybe?

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Cathedral Fig Tree (C1)

Needing some respite, I stopped for a while at the ancient Forest of Fangorn, not far from the Misty Mountains.

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Cathedral Fig Tree (C1)

The weather was changing minute by minute.

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Cathedral Fig Tree (C1).

The trees had much to say.

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Cathedral Fig Tree (C1).

And dreams escaped to the sky.

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Our welcoming committee to the Atherton Tablelands (C1).

And then our dreams were gathered up and returned to us by the Guardians of The Ether.

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