Winter is coming late to southern Maine this year. The ground is still bare here a few days before Christmas. We have had temperatures in the single digits at dawn this week…but the days warmed into the mid 30s. Not your grandfather’s December at all. (Though we still have time. They are predicting a few inches tonight into Friday. We shall see. Almost 40 degrees on Christmas??).

Anyway, I took a drive out to Emmons Preserve, figuring the cold would have at least created some ice sculpture and lace along the Batson River where it tumbles down over the ledges there. And it had. Except for the first shot, which had enough sun on it to light the moss within the shell of ice, I was shooting at ISO 800 along the late-afternoon shadowed rapids. Quality like this at high ISOs was simply not possible until this latest generation of super=zoom Point & Shoots.

Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 147mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/80th @ ISO 250. 2) 462mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 800. 3) 190mm equivalent, f4.5 @ 1/80th @ ISO 800.

Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.