Impressive Falls

This isn't a Wordless Wednesday. I felt that this photo needs some explanation.

A couple of weeks ago, DW and I went kayaking on the Ottawa River with a couple of our friends, who I will refer to as our Paddlefolk, going forward. We put in at the Rockcliffe Boat Launch, which is essentially below the residence of the U.S. ambassador, along the Sir George-Etienne Cartier Parkway.

Our goal was to paddle upstream, toward the Rideau Falls, and further, to the start of the Rideau Canal locks, just below Parliament Hill. We'd reach this point, rest, and then turn around.

There was some wind to contend with and because it was such a beautiful day, boats of all sizes were churning up the river, creating challenging waves. Not enough to worry us but enough to give my lower back a bit of grief by the time it was all said and done.

DW and I have paddled to the Rideau Falls before, and we both agreed that the river was much calmer then, as were the falls. But on this day, the falls were in full fury and were making an already challenging river all the more tricky. We were unable to get as close to the falls as we had been able to, a couple of years earlier.

One of our Paddlefolk was reluctant to get close to the churn of the water near the falls, and hung back, so we didn't stay very long. Being a bit cautious, myself, I totally understood.

I wanted to capture a photo of the western branch of the falls, as I hadn't captured many images of it when DW and I were here, in 2021. But every time I paddled as close as I could, the rush of water would push me back as soon as I took my hands off of my paddle and held up my camera.

It was my first outing with my newest smartphone, and I have to say that I'm not satisfied with the quality of image from my Samsung S24 than I was with my S10. Granted, I didn't go with the Ultra model, which has a fourth lens that offers great resolution, but I though the base model would be at least as good as my four-year-old phone, if not better.

With the water pushing me away from the falls, I had to move myself to a spot where the water was calmer, which was a stretch, considering the waves from boats in the main channel of the river.

I was so far from the falls that I had to use the 3x telephoto lens and use the digital zoom to 10x magnification. With this setting, and trying to steady my arm, I took the shot.

It wasn't sharp. I took a couple more shots, with similar results. Actually, the first shot was the best of the bunch.

The Paddlefolk regrouped and we resumed our paddle toward Parliament Hill. I'll have a YouTube video of this adventure in August.

Back home, I looked at the photo and was a bit disappointed. But knowing that I was pushing the magnification and was hand-holding my phone in rough water, I was surprised that the photo wasn't blurrier.

The photo reminded me of an Impressionist painting, so I decided to exaggerate the movement by applying a paint-stroke effect in post-processing, using PaintShop Pro. I increased the contrast, lowered the highlights, and gave a tad more saturation before I applied the paintbrush effect.

Here's the result.

The effect is subtle, just enough to make an unintentional blurry shot look intentional. It's gone from something that I almost deleted to something that I quite like.

Thoughts?

Happy Wednesday!