About the Image(s)

I was travelling in Mexico for the past couple weeks - upon exiting the Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Park (in Mexico City) I saw this view of the “Monumento de los Niños Heroes” (aka “Altar a la Patria.”)

It was a cold,rainy day with lots of clouds - and I was struck by the white columns with black adornments on their the crowns - all set against a dramatic sky.
Most of my time creating this image was spent removing all the distractions - in particular the horizontal black line running at a slight diagonal extending the full width of the photograph - it was most visible against the columns. Among the other distractions that what I wanted to remove were the people gathered around the monument, the fence that circled the base of the monument, and the modern buildings in the background.
For most of the distraction removal, I found the Remove tool worked better that generative fill AI. The only place I used the AI was in removing the fence, the steps, and the people on the bottom edge of the photograph.

After “cleaning up” the photograph, I had trouble thinking of what to do with it, and ultimately decided to create a pool at the base. For the pool, I used a photograph of a pond in a birdlife sanctuary. I changed some colors in the pond, and I used the posterize filter to lend a fantasy look to the sky.