Visiting the Waterfalls

Today Ralph and I went to see a couple of the Waterfalls in the Dundas and Hamilton area.  We first walked to Webster Falls. It was really beautiful.  I would love to see these in the fall and winter as I'm sure they would be amazing.  Unfortunately we couldn't go down the stairs to take a picture looking up towards the falls, but we were still able to get some nice pictures.  Unfortunately for me, my camera stopped working.  I'm not sure why, but it got stuck and wouldn't work.  Ralph was nice enough to let me use his and practice some of things that I learned in my course. 

It was really important for me to practice this technique.  I've learned a lot and now know the importance of having filters with me when attempting to take pictures of running water.  The effect that I wanted to capture was to smooth out the water.  This is done by leaving the lens open for as long as you are able.  It sounds simple, but when the sun is shining you can't do it without over exposing your picture.  To help combat this, I placed a Neutral Density filter on the camera and at one point even added a 2nd Polarizing filter to make it darker to allow the lens to stay open longer.  The best I was able to do was 2 seconds and I think that this was for only 1 picture.  The rest were at 1 second or even a bit quicker.  I'm happy with the results.

On the above picture, you will notice that you can see the water as it pours down.  It's rough to look at.  This was taken at 1/250 seconds and is what most pictures of mine would normally look at.  Now, I'm trying to smooth out the water.  Have a look at the following pictures.

 

See the difference in the water.  Isn't it beautiful!  I love this technique. 

Since we weren't able to get down to the bottom of the falls, this was the best I could do from the angle that we were looking at.

There was nice bridge that you could walk across.  You can see it in the distance.  This allowed us to view the falls on the other side.

 

A view of the bridge that we walked across.

 

We then walked to Tew Falls.  This is a bit smaller but just as pretty. It's not far away, maybe a 10 minute walk. 

All in all I would say it was a successful morning.  You might be wondering why I am so fascinated with getting these pictures.  We are going to see a very large waterfall when we are in Alaska. It's called the Nugget Falls and is located by the Mendenhall Glacier. It's about a mile away from where we are being dropped off on the tour that we are taking.  I only have 1 hour to get there, take my pictures and get back so that I don't miss the bus as the next part of the tour is our Whale Watching excursion.  I want to get a nice picture of the falls and the glacier but know I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with settings on my camera.  So my plan is to have everything written down - what works, what doesn't to ensure that I know how to set up once I get there. 

 

Below is a picture of the Nugget Falls.

 

Season Opener

The morning dawned dark and dreary.  Hmmm I thought to myself.  It doesn't look like a good day for our first round of golf.  It was still early, so we packed up our clubs and headed out to Granite Ridge Golf Course.  This was one of our free rounds from the golf show.

It turned out to be a beautiful day.  A little chilly, but still nice and sunny.  We talked to the grounds keepers as they were cleaning the property.  Sadly 390 tree's were damaged as a result of the ice storm this winter.  You could see plenty of signs of the damage around the course.

An Easter visit with the family

We were on the road early this morning.  It was going to be a beautiful day.  We drove to St. Thomas in time for the morning church service.  We listened to a good sermon about Job. It was interesting how he tied the message to Jesus's crucifixion.

Afterwards we went to Laura and Jay's house for a lovely day.  We enjoyed a nice lunch all together.  Everyone was in good spirits.  I love days like this,  spent with the family.

The Badlands of Cheltonham

“Badlands” is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies. Such areas are rare in Ontario and this is one of the best examples. They exhibit the reddish hue of the Queenston Shale that forms them; the iron oxide in the shale produces this colour. The narrow greenish bands that can be seen throughout the shale are due to the change of red iron oxide to green iron oxide brought on by the circulating groundwater. The relatively soft shale is essentially clay and is easily eroded by water.

We were up early Saturday morning and decided to visit the "Badlands" before they got too busy with tourists.  This is a unique place near Caledon and really quite beautiful.  We stayed for about an hour taking pictures.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast out and then ran some errands before coming home and cleaning up around the house.  I have nice clean windows again (yeah) and I raked the front lawn and gardens. I was amazed at how many branches and twigs were on the ground.  We lost a lot of grass as well this winter and while raking I was finding many bald patches that will need repair. 

It was a beautiful day!!

Photo class

Sadly the photography course is over.  Today was my last day with the class.  We went to McMichael Art Gallery today to practice some of the techniques that we learned.  All pictures were taken using either manual mode or  shutter priority.  We had fun.  The weather was nice and we had a chance to try the things that we have learned.  I look forward to signing up for some more lessons. I really enjoyed them and learned a lot.