I went to Northbridge and Uxbridge today to photograph sections of the 36th annual Blackstone River Watershed Association's Canoe and Kayak Race. There were several spots along the Blackstone River that required the racers to portage - that is, to carry their canoes or kayaks around a major obstacle. This spot next to the Riverdale Mill is one such location, and you can see the obstacle in the background. What struck me were the similarities between a portage in kayak racing and a pit stop in auto racing. Much ground can be gained or lost in the time you spend on the portage. Today's shot shows two of the contestants racing to get back into the river after portaging around the dam in the background.
Processing was about as minimal as I can possibly get, shooting in RAW mode. I ran this through a simple pop filter in Topaz Adjust and then left the rest of it untouched. I like the contrast and color tones straight out of the camera. That's extremely rare given that, when shooting RAW, the camera does not do any processing at all.
