Agaves are commonly mistaken to be cacti due to their appearance – spiny thick succulent leaves etc. However, Agaves are not related to cacti or Aloe, with whom they share a passing resemblance. The agave plants are monocarpic, which means that they flower only once in their lifetimes after which they die. As the flowering cycle could be decades, some species of Agave are also known as century plants.
Agave bovicornuta
The photograph above is that of Agave bovicornuta from the New York Botanical gardens taken with an iPhone 4S and post-processed in Adobe Light 5.0.
My recent travels in the US took me to Boston and past this imposing church. The first church of Christ in Boston is the mother church of the Christian Science Movement and was built at the end of the 19th century.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston
This HDR image above is a composite of 3 bracketed shots processed in Photomatix Pro and Adobe Lightroom 5.0. Please view a larger image by clicking on the photograph above. Any comments/criticisms/observations welcome as always.
Cities often look very different in the night. The effects of artificial lighting and spot lights often bring out features not usually appreciated during daytime. The following two pictures are of the Plaza de la Constitucion (Constitution Square) and Palau de la Generalitat.
Palau de la Generalitat is the seat of the government of Catalunya, and is one of very few medieval buildings of its kind still serving the purpose for which it was built.
Palau de la Generalitat de CatalunyaPlaza de la Constitucion
Both pictures were taken using a high ISO as a long exposure was not practical given the number of people in the scene. The images were later processed using NIK software plugins Dfine and Viveza to cut ISO noise and enhance colour.
I have processed the following picture in both colour and black-and-white. I believe both iterations of the same picture are equally good and offer a different view of the same scene. The picture is of the building that houses the remains of the Roman columns of the Temple of Augustus. The building that surrounds the columns is a regular block of flats, which in itself is very surprising!
Block of flats with balconies. Temple of Augustus, BarcelonaBlack-and-white treatment of the picture above. Processed with Silver Efex Pro.
These pictures are from my iPhone, processed in NIK Software (Color Efex Pro, and Silver Efex Pro).
I experimented with pictures I took of the M25/A30 Runnymead bridge over the Thames using black-and-white conversion. The first two pictures are roughly from the same viewpoint and one of these is an exact copy of the earlier post.
A BW conversion from my earlier post of the Runnymead BridgeThe spans of the bridge distribute load and prevent vibrations from damaging the older Edwin Lutyens built A30 bypass bridgeThe size of the arches are clearly evident in this image (my wife and son at the very top over the river)
Few places in the UK now seem free of people littering the place with graffiti and other detritus of modern living. The base of the bridge was littered with broken beer bottles and other unsavoury items, that destroyed an otherwise interesting scene of nature and modernity co-existing at this place. The Thames itself was tranquil and sedately flowed towards London en route to the sea towards the right of the pictures.
Juridicious 