A Gift for New Year's Day : Stillness

I watched the video for Beyond Layers : Day 68.  It's a perfectly good lesson about some "Sweet Adjustments" on a still of black-eyed susans.  I'm just not in the mood for summer flowers ...

I went Cross Country skiing this past weekend.  We have a wonderful park here in town along Lake Winnebago.  I took this photo during the last snowfall on Saturday.  There are old oak trees along the shore line.  This is looking out over the water which has begun to freeze and is covered with snow.  The image actually came out pretty black and white : A perfect pallet in need of a texture. So I added a texture by Bonnie Zieman (of Pixel Dust Photo Art) to make it look more like sunset with the light reflecting ...

There were only a few other people out enjoying the day, so I had plenty of opportunity for Stillness.  I love this quote by Morgan Freeman : I love the idea of that Stillness becoming a glow and having its own energy; its own Light. 

Here's the original photo straight outta my camera.

Here's the Photo Processing step by step :
Layer 1 : Background Image
Layer 2 : Add Bonnie Zieman's Texture Soft Horizon ; Multiply blend mode - 100% opacity
Layer 3 : Copy Layer 2 ; Soft Light Blend Mode - 100% opacity
Layer 4 : Add Text - Caflisch Script Pro ; Normal blend mode - 78% opacity