Niagara Falls

Two weeks before I arrived in Niagara Falls the landscape was covered in snow and they were being buffeted by storms so it was a pleasant surprise to have nothing but blue skies and gorgeous sunshine…I even got a suntan, lol!
I started off shooting the rapids on the American side of the Niagara River as it makes its way down and around Goat Island. My original plan was to get across the border first and checked into my hotel and then come back out for photography but I couldn’t resist the view and the low spring sun which was hung over the river. As it turned out it was a good move because checking into my hotel proved longer than I anticipated as it seems the Canadians love the Brits! As soon as I started to speak I was told how much my accent was loved and then bombarded with questions about where I was from, why I was visiting and what could they do to make my stay more enjoyable. It continued like this pretty much everywhere I went and in the end I had to resort to trying not to speak too much or I’d never get any work done!
My hotel was situated right between the Falls and Tim Horton’s, which is Canada’s equivalent of Costa Coffee, and really good coffee it is too! They don’t do my favourite latte’s tho so I had to make do with French vanilla capps. I know, it’s a hard life, eh?
You can walk between both the Bridal Falls and the Horseshoe Falls via the Rainbow Bridge, which is the Border Crossing between America and Canada, and there are plenty of great vantage points that bring you up close and personal with both falls. I managed a couple of early morning sunrises from the Canadian side, and then crossed the bridge for some alternative views from the American side.
I also rode what I was told is the worlds largest Ferris wheel, although I havent had chance to confirm this yet. There are good views from the top but the glass was too smudged for photographs. Anyway, adjacent to the Ferris wheel is a specialty fudge and ice cream parlour where they sell cheesecake ice cream thingys. Okay, that’s not the official name but what they do is put your selected cheesecake on a stick (mine was a toffee cheesecake) rather like a lolly, then dip it into melted chocolate and then allow the chocolate to harden so you end up with a chocolate covered cheesecake ice cream thingy. Hmm…maybe ‘thingy’ is the right name after all ;) Anyway, suffice to say they are yummy!
I knew that the colossal amount of water plunging over the Horseshoe Falls creates an enormous amount of mist and spray making a full image of the falls virtually impossible as it obscures such a large area. So I decided instead to use the spray to diffuse the early morning sun, which would normally be so bright it would burn out other area’s of the image, so getting up as close to the falls as possible I was able to frame the sun on the left handside of the image right above the falls and have it peering through the spray. Frequent lens cleaning w

as needed as both myself and the gear got covered in spray but it was well worth it as I got the image I wanted…and several others too, lol! As I’m back to weddings and wedding shows next week I took a trip out to Lake Ontario and photographed the smallest working chapel in the world just to feel at home.