This image started as a photo of a trickle of water running over some leaves and rocks at the side of a waterfall. It was taken on a 5mp compact at a time when my main cameras were 35 mm film SLRs. The photo was taken on a bizarrely rainy holiday in late Summer on the Greek Island of Evia (see blog post ‘Harder Work’ Aug 3 2013). I tried sharpening up the image but the quality was not good enough to produce anything that had impact. So in a whimsical moment I decided to play a bit in photoshop, though not as much as some might think. I did not use any of the ‘artistic’ options, no twirling, swirling or solarising. Even the colours emerged from a modest level of increasing the saturation. Most of the work was around experimenting with  brightness, contrast, layers & blending changes. And what emerged was this abstract/impressionist image. All the elements of the original photo are there, the rocks and water and leaves, yet melded to this mosaic of shapes and colours. At the very least it teaches us that occasionally even humble photos hold surprising potential to create an image; sometimes the beauty of Gaia, our planet, lays it all out for us and all we need is the eye and the composure to record it, sometimes artists have to work harder at finding the image. I like it, a lot.