I went to the Wickford Festival of Lights this afternoon. It's an annual event that brings Santa to Wickford by boat, escorted by sea kayaking elves. Hay rides with Santa are popular with the kids, and this year they had an ice sculptor carving some large blocks of ice in a small park near the village center. While I was planning to post a hay ride photo, I just couldn't resist this image of the sculptor putting his whole body into the carving. The spray of ice flakes pretty much sealed the deal.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, protect highlights, boost black, and boost white. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
