Robert Rich Way BridgeSquaw Island Bridge over Black Rock Canal

I sensed that my photo stream has gotten a bit too chilly lately and needed some color and warmth. Nope, not going back to archives, and not even posting a photo from a warmer day. In fact, it was bitterly cold and windy around 10 Fahrenheit, with a monster snow cloud hanging over downtown Buffalo, traffic on I-190 down to a crawl. Mine was one of three cars that passed through the Broderick Park on Squaw Island in about an hour, not the usual traffic the park gets at sunset.

I was curious about the mighty Niagara River how it was doing with the temperatures around 0°F for a few days. At this swift section the river was flowing with its regular speed with no ice, not even along the shore! Only an occasional "iceberg" that must have slipped over the ice boom on Lake Erie. On the other hand, the Black Rock Canal pictured here did not fail me and its fully frozen state put the winter signature on this photo.

Often, photographers go for, or say they go for, look of their photos that show what it felt like to be there. Full disclosure, not here. It really felt cold and unpleasant. However, I wanted a colorful warm photo that would warm up my photo stream and show winter as an attractive season. It was photographed at dusk. There was not much of a sunset looking west as clouds covered up the whole sky all the way to the horizon but still the sun managed to push some color towards the eastern sky, which is the direction you're looking in here. I felt like playing a little with the Nik Collection, now owned by Google, and used Analog Efex Pro & Color Efex Pro 4 on top of my normal processing in Capture NX2.

On a side note, this photo is handheld at 1/20 sec and ISO 6400! It's amazing what cameras can do these days. I am very happy with the level of noise, especially given the triple processing (saving as 16-bit TIFFs in between).

Have fun creating your visions!

Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85mm Nikkor Lens, Think Tank Speed Demon Waist Pack,  Petzl Zipka Plus 2 Headlamp (always in the bag just in case), Jackery Bar 5600mAh (usually o hand to keep the smart phone going, especially in winter), SanDisk Extreme 32GB SD Cards, Nikon Capture NX2

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