Cheating?

I still have a sneaky suspicion Photoshop is cheating slightly, but has become acceptable by widespread use. I wanted to learn how to use it to make arty pictures, rather than change "real" ones. I'll try to make it clear when I've used it on normal looking photos. I suppose in time it'll seem no worse than using different film or paper grades to change the effect in traditional printed photography, or some of the tricks in printing them.
These are my most recent projects, simpler than at first attempt, and huge fun. It's a good way to tackle the computer-phobia, like my friend who took up climbing to overcome a fear of heights!

These ones are simply combining two photos, in the one below I changed the colour and contrast first.

The final ones include text in various forms.