Port Dalhousie

Port Dalhousie Lights

One day the friend we were visiting drove us around the area. She took us to the town of Port Dalhousie. The entrance to the town's marinas is marked by a small lighthouse and a beacon. You can see both of the lights in the photograph above.

The weather was threatening rain when we got started. You can see how cloudy it was from the sky in the photograph. It did clear out a little later on in the day though. The lighthouse had a great, "weathered" look to it with some of it's paint pealing off. All told, I counted seven lighthouses/beacons that we saw during the trip.

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Butterfly

Butterfly

This is the sort of photograph that I had envisioned getting at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory. They can be hard to nail down though as they are quite fast. Even the really large butterflies flitted around faster than you can track them with a camera. Still it is fun to try.

This photograph was taken with my 70-300mm VR lens and a 20mm Kenko macro extension tube. The combination gave me a comfortable stand-off focus range so that I wouldn't scare the butterflies away while still getting good magnification on them. Focus was attained by using manual focus and leaning back & forth until the subject was sharp. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

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Niagara Botantical Gardens

Perched on Light

After the Niagara White Water Walk, we spent an hour or two at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory which is located at the Niagara Botanical Gardens. The conservatory is North America's largest indoor butterfly garden. Basically, it is tropical arboretum with a netting to keep the butterflies safe and inside.

More after the jump.

This is the reason why I was practicing with my macro extension tubes a few weeks ago. I wanted to have some idea of which one to use and how it would affect my camera/lens before I got there. I mounted the middle sized tube with my 70-300mm lens which allowed me to stand a fairly safe distance away from the butterflies. I think that I got a few nice shots but none that I had really hoped to capture.

The shot above is a butterfly perched on the netter that surrounds the conservatory. I overexposed it so that the netting would be hidden by the hightlights, thus making it look like the butterfly was standing on just the sunlight itself. Generally it worked, but the picture isn't as sharp as I would have hoped it would be. The butterfly's eyes are crisp really. Still, it was a beautiful place to visit and different from the roiling waters of the falls and the gorge.

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Girl and Niagara Rapids

Overlooking the Rapids

I am not much of a people photographer. Taking a stranger's photograph still feels to be a bit invasive to me. However, when I saw this little girl clinging to the fence looking out in to the churning Niagara River's Class 6 rapids, I knew it was a photograph I had to take. The contrast of her small size against the roiling waters was very compelling to me. It was taken at the last observation platform on the Niagara White Water Walk while we were sitting down for a brief rest.

Sometimes a photograph smacks you in the head until you realize that it is there.

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Niagara White Water Walk

Class 6 Rapids

After we had finished the Maid of the Mist ride and eaten lunch, we took the People Mover bus to the Niagara White Water Walk. The White Water Walk is a set of boardwalks and observation decks that allow you to view and get close to the Class 6 Rapids that are downstream from the Maid of the Mist pool and the Falls proper. Class 6 Rapids are the the highest classification of rapids and is generally considered unnavigable. Below these rapids you would encounter the Niagara Whirlpool which makes any attempt to travel down this portion of the river even more dangerous.

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To get down to the boardwalk, you will ride in a small elevator that was built into the cliff in the 1930s. Then you walk through a small tunnel through the cliff and exit onto an observation deck. A boardwalk from this deck follows the river for a comfortable walking distance. There are a couple more observation decks along the boardwalk that get you very close to the river itself.

The power of the rapids is quite evident as you watch it rush past you. The constantly undulating surface seems vicious if one was to fall in to it. Rocks and boulders can be seen fighting for their position against the relentless surge of water. The faces of the gorge that that tower over you serve as stark reminders that even the very stone can not resist the water's constant scouring. However, along the shorelines are small flowers and a lush forest that proclaim that live goes on even in the face of such violent turbulence.

It is a place of beautiful extremes. Nature's fury and it's nurturing in such close proximity. We enjoyed our time here. Plus, the light was nice for once as well.

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The Maid of the Mist

Approaching the Falls

We rode the Maid of the Mist while in Niagara Falls. There are several boats that leave on a staggered schedule. They pass by the American and Bridal Veil Falls. The highlight of the ride is a close approach to the the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. This is why you are supplied with a raincoat. Once you are at the base of the falls you will get soaked. Not wet, but soaked from head to toe. The roar of the water crashing into the pool is quite loud as well. The force of the air being displaced by the water is strong enough to push you around if you aren't steadied. While you can "experience" Niagara's fury this way, you can't really see much of the falls themselves. They are hidden by the mist into an almost whiteout condition. Still you do feel the falls all around you.

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After reading that, you might be wondering how I kept my camera dry. I used an Optech Rainsleeve to protect my camera while on the Maid of the Mists boat. Actually, I used it whenever I was near the falls or was concerned about rain. The Rainsleeves are not very expensive and you get two in a pack. They are not intended for long-term, heavy duty use. However, they are very portable and easy to use. Perfect for stuffing into a corner of a camera bag for those times where you find yourself in a wet environment. While they are meant to be used on a tripod, I did not have any trouble adjusting them to hand held use. They definitely protected my camera from the worse that Niagara could throw at my camera save an actual trip over the falls. Even in that extreme case, I would be more worried about the fall than getting wet.

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Canadian Horseshoe Falls

The Horseshoe Falls

Here is a view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The photograph was taken from the top of the observation deck at the Maid of the Mist pavilion. You can see a couple of the Maid of the Mist boats below. From this observation deck you get a great view of both sets of falls.

Stay tuned for another photograph tomorrow.

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