A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a break from my springtime frog photography and spend a day doing landscapes. I hadn’t been out to do fresh landscape imagery for awhile so it felt great to get out. We have been having much rainfall this year and on another drizzly day I ventured out to the city of Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton is known as the “waterfall capital of the world” with close to 100 waterfalls listed. Many of these waterfalls are merely the result of spring run-off cascading down the Niagara Escarpment, however, there are many substantial waterfalls to photograph. It is best to photograph these waterfalls during the spring as they will have nice flow. Usually by mid to late summer they dry up, but with the amount of rain southern Ontario has been having I think they will remain quite photogenic for longer this year. I found some of the falls to have too much flow, making it impossible to capture the scene I really wanted, due to excessive mist coming off the falls. In situations like this I often head up to the crest of the falls and shoot down river. When I need to shoot in the mist I use a clear plastic bag over my camera. I can compose my compositions and adjust my polarizer filter to my liking through this bag. When ther is a lull in the mist being cast I will take the bag off, quickly focus and trip the shutter. I then dry off any water drops from the polarizer filter and am ready to go again.
Webster’s Falls is found in the Spencer Gorge Wilderness Area. It is hard to believe that you are only a stone’s throw away from a city of 500,000 people when you visit Webster’s Falls. This is the most impressive waterfall in Hamilton. Right now it has substantial flow and is well worth visiting.
Tews Falls, on Logie’s Creek, is also found in the Spencer Gorge Wilderness Area. Next to the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, Tews Falls is the highest waterfall in southern Ontario with a height of 42 metres. Logie’s creek is a very shallow river so this waterfall will be reduced to a trickle or dry-up altogether during dry spells.
The best place to shoot Tiffany Falls was to climb up the steep side of the gorge to a spot where there seemed to be little or no mist. The problem here was I could not fit the falls into a pleasing comp with my 12-24mm lens. The solution – shoot a vertical panoramic. I stitched together two horizontal images to give me this wide-vertical composition that includes the elements I wanted in the scene.
Your waterfalls are all lovely Andrew, beautiful work as always!
Thanks very much for the kind words Denise!
I especially like the softly sinuous pattern of the water in the foreground of your photo of Webster’s Falls. Here in central Texas we’ve got an ever-worsening drought, so your waterfall pictures are especially appealing.
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
Steve, thanks for the kind words, very much appreciated!
Other then Balls Falls I haven’t been to any of the waterfalls in Hamilton yet but I really want to head down this spring. I’m closer to Owen Sound so usually end up at Eugenia, Inglis and Indian falls among others…beautiful pics you’ve got though…I really would like to invest in a good camera but I haven’t a clue what I’m doing and money has never been much other then tight. So glad you shared your photos. 🙂
Thanks very much for the comments. Inlgis and Indian Falls are two very lovely waterfalls…when I was at Eugenia it was during lower water levels.