Jewel

Late in the day with dark overcast skies, I explored the ice formations along the lake shore and found this lump of ice shining brilliantly amongst the reeds around the end of a stalk. Seemed to sparkle like a jewel.

I zoomed in to 200mm because of its location and consequently had to focus stack four images for sharpness front to back and on the stalk. Again the auto-blend didn't work too well requiring me to hand mask and blend the layers.

Also blended in a darker exposure to get some detail in the highlights. Not sure whether that was a good idea?