Ice Breaker

Ice Breaker
08 January 2014 -- 8/365
Barrington, Rhode Island

It was 8 degrees F this morning. That's -13 C. As you can see, the salt water in Bullocks Cove is frozen. It makes you wonder just how much you have to irritate your boss to be assigned ice breaker duty. That's what the freezing guy in the speedboat is doing out beyond the second dock. He's motoring up and down the the area between the docks - I'm sure one of you boaters can tell us what that area is called - breaking the ice. And freezing his butt off. Don't forget freezing his butt off. For the record, though, those are gulls circling over his head, not vultures. It's too cold for vultures, and they don't like frozen meat.

Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.

Here's the high res version in Smugmug: http://kannafoot.smugmug.com/Photo-Challenges/PAD2014/i-sgj6FBw/0/XL/2014%2001%2008_0058%20copy-XL.jpg

[Ken "Tasian"]

Nice shot...can't imagine having to break that ice in such a small boat.

[Jane Anderson]

I've been hearing about these types of boats on the news. It's good to put a picture in my mind of them.

[Ron Correia]

@cejaanderson Well, not quite. These are the ice breakers you've been hearing about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NSF_picture_of_Yamal.jpg
The guy in my photo was doing the job with a tiny motorboat! Fortunately, the ice in Bullocks Cove doesn't reach Antarctic proportions.