For a while, it felt like the Lords of Cosmic Jest were getting quite a laugh out of my attempts at finding a photo, today. When I set out at lunchtime, my plan was to visit Warren for a photo of an interesting spot near the public parking area. Driving down Route 114 in Barrington, though, I noticed that the Barrington River was as smooth as glass. That's unusual since the river is tidal and it's also a bit of a wind funnel, so it's normally very rough and choppy. So I abandoned the Warren idea and pulled into the Park and Ride lot near the White Church. That's when the wind picked up, and my smooth as glass water was suddenly all ripples. The bridge I wanted as the background was not as scenic as expected, so I went to Plan C. The Walker Farm site along the river normally has potential. It's the other side of that bridge, and there were interesting reflections from the pilings when I drove by. Not anymore. When the wind picked up, the reflections disappeared. No problem, I thought, since there was a nice break in the clouds and there were interesting sunlight refractions off some broken ice in a small salt pond along the entrance. Naturally, as I lined up a shot, clouds obscured the sun and the refractions disappeared. I was ready to pack it in and come up with an indoor shot for tonight when the wind suddenly calmed again. The shot before you is the result. The river was suddenly smooth again and there were very interesting reflections in the water.
Post processing started with a brilliant cold filter in Topaz Adjust. I then adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, protect highlights, adaptive saturation, and color regions. I added a levels adjustment in PSE, and then, on a whim, decided to try a monochrome effect. I added a cream to light pink gradient map in color blend mode to produce the effect you see in today's photo. A final levels adjustment fine tuned the contrast.
