Weekend Selfie

For the past three weekends, DW and I have joined a couple of our friends and have headed out on various waterways in our kayaks.

We have upgraded from a couple's activity to a foursome.

We started the season on the South Nation River, paddling a stretch that we had intended to traverse on April 8, either in advance of the total solar eclipse or, if the weather gave us overcast skies, during the eclipse. The weather was perfect for kayaking, as long as no one tipped over.

We ended up not pulling out our kayaks in April and waited until mid-May to head out on the water.

One week later, we were back out; this time, on the Clyde River. We put in at a boat launch, in the small town (village?) of Lanark, about an hour west of Ottawa, and paddled upstream as far as we could go, past Kerr Lake, until we were stopped by a low set of rapids.

We turned back but when we reached the boat launch, we decided to paddle a little further downstream, where we knew that a dam in the town would mark the end of our trek. We were forced to stop about 100 metres away from the barriers that would warn us of the dam by a bridge that was too low for us to pass under.

It was just as well, because the current was picking up and we didn't feel we'd see much more, anyway.

So far, the Clyde River has been my favourite of our three paddles. Last weekend, we returned to Gananoque, where DW and I had paddled before around the 1,000 Islands. It was the first time our friends had kayaked on the St. Lawrence and it was a good experience for them.

On our Clyde River and 1,000 Islands kayaking treks, I mounted one of my 360-degree cameras on the deck of my kayak. I plan to make YouTube videos of each outing. But one of the great things about these cameras is that in addition to capturing video, they also take some impressive stills. And while I don't generally place the device in Photo mode, I still get good stills off of the video footage.

In reviewing the video clips, there were a couple of angles that I made into snapshots. One captures me as I get as close to the rapids as I could before having to turn around and ride the current.

It's a decent action shot, though the action isn't particularly intense.

One style of selfie that I like to capture almost every time I'm in my kayak is the tiny-planet selfie, where I extend the monopod as far as it will go (in this case, three metres), making it appear as though the shot was taken from a drone.

I have taken lots of shots using this effect but I never tire of them. For one, the surrounding is always different, as is the sky. And also, I just like the effect.

You?

Happy Friday!