The Amable du Fond rises in Algonquin Provincial Park and flows northwards through the Eau Claire Gorge, through Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park and into the historic Mattawa River. The Mattawa, flowing through part of the 600-million-year-old Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben (rift valley) was once the highway into the continent's interior for the first explorers, Catholic priests and voyageurs. In fact, Samuel de Champlain canoed through the area exactly 400 years ago last week, hence our visit. It was not, however, a celebration, but rather a commemoration, as the diseases and economic disruption brought by the Europeans decimated the First Nations population and destroyed their traditional culture.
Here are a few photographs from our canoeing, hiking and camping last week. You will see from the filename of the first photograph, it's an HDR blend. So far, I've had mixed success with that. I tried HDR blends with the next two river/waterfall photos, but found that the middle highlights (Zones VI & VII for want of a better description) were rendered too bright and there was no apparent improvement in the full highlights or shadows. The DR was about 16 to 17 stops, yet properly exposed D800E NEFs actually look "better" (with more visually "correct" tonal ranges) with proper "taming" of highlights and shadows, than do the HDR blends. The highlights, in particular, though a full stop above pure white when captured, maintained detail with the application of an adjustment brush set to reduce highlights and add clarity.
C&C welcome.
