I wanted a shoreline photo today, so I headed to an area off Post Road in Warwick that has a series of mariners. A small path lead from the road down to a sandy strip along the water, so I decided to check it out. There were a few areas of interest, but what caught my attention was this driftwood log lying just below the high tide line. The weather-worn bleached bark provided the contrast I needed for a good b&w, and the line of distant docks provided a nice background. The cinder block with the rope tied around it did not escape my attention either. Given the number of years that Rhode Island was the New England Mafia capital, I don't really want to guess at the block's purpose.
Post processing started with a low contrast vignette filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, brightness, boost black, boost white, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
I hope it wasn't mafia-related! The log in smugmug looks like some sort of creature/skeleton face with many arms and grasping hands--hard to describe--but very interesting.
