fire and ice

After a late Xmas lunch I spied a lovely sunset, so arming myself with borrowed wellingtons, set off across the Surrey fields and over frozen streams and fences to get some better views, as the area is heavily wooded.
I'd previously treated myself to a cheapish Cokin ND graduated filter (ND2), after my last disastrous trip with the stuck-on PL filter, and inevitable over-dark images. This time I took no chances and was rewarded with a much more usable batch.
I found this snowman on the village green, with a ready made hole through the head (no, I didn't punch through, ninja style as was suggested on flickr!) Anyhow, it was an opportunity I couldn't resist,
the fire and ice concept!
There was so much going on texture wise I thought I'd stick to my old favorite 'Matmos Lake' just to help pull the image together. Though first I doubled up the sky a few times, to darken it with the Multiply mode, the base being brushed off beforehand.

Matmos Lake - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically and horizontally, changed to a red tone with the color sliders, blurred with the dark top pulled away from the image.
Matmos Lake - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically and horizontally, bottom 2/3rds removed with a soft brush.
Matmos Lake - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically and horizontally

A final brightening with Auto Brightening.
See the finished version on Flickr

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