The forecast for last night and this morning was rather ugly. We were expecting about six inches of snow followed by a period of sleet, and then rain. It's the rain that makes it ugly. Shoveling six inches of snow is one thing. Shoveling six inches of compressed snow soaked with rain is back breaking. The change to rain occurred sometime before 4:00 AM, and by the time I went out to shovel the snow was compressed down to about 2 1/2 inches of slushy ice. Fun stuff.
For my photo, I decided to go out to Albion for a photo along the bike path (which, surprisingly, was plowed) or of the railroad tracks running alongside the mill complex. The P&W Railroad is running "Polar Express" excursions twice daily right now, so there was a slim chance that I'd catch one of the trains coming through. No such luck. What I spotted, though, was the surge of water flowing over the Albion Dam. With the snow coating the rocks and blanketing the ground, it looked like an excellent b&w setting, so that's what I decided to photograph. I'm glad I did. It's one of the more dramatic views of this dam, thanks to the wonderful contrast created by that blanket of snow.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, color sensitivity sliders, protect highlights, contrast, and boost black. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
