Bill Ford-SmithFrozen Niagara Falls (kind of)
Posted on March 1, 2015
This winter has been another rather nippy one (although, so far, rather less long drawn-out than last year’s), with one result being that the American Falls at Niagara have largely frozen over.
All the headlines in the news made it sound like it was the Horseshoe Falls that froze over; naturally it wasn’t!
Regardless, the American Falls are still pretty impressive with this much ice on them.
(nerd note: the long exposure courtesy of a variable ND filter)
Chickadee in winter
Posted on September 8, 2014
I’m rather fond of chickadees; they’re as close as you get to things like Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus for any North Americans who haven’t heard the word used in an avian context!) in Canada and are thoroughly charming little things. A highlight of a winter walk in some of the woods around here is getting them to feed from your hand.
Whilst doing the categories for this post, I had to resist a pedantic cladistic urge to tick ‘reptiles’ too – after all, birds *are* dinosaurs – even inoffensive little chaps like this!
Health & Safety
Posted on September 3, 2014
Webster’s Falls used to be one of the finest places to visit in the Hamilton area: a lovely waterfall, with character varying with the seasons and a host of fantastic photographic opportunities. A stairway led down to the base of the falls, from where one could enjoy the river below and, in hot weather, the cooling spray from the falls themselves.
Unfortunately, the curse of Health & Safety has struck: now, the stairs are closed and blocked off with a very substantial fence that also extends far in all directions and completely blocks off all access to the falls. The small meadow just above the falls, where one could admire the view over the edge is also closed, as are a couple of great viewpoints further down the gorge. There is now nowhere that affords a view of the whole falls. A great shame – it is now really not worth visiting these falls as a photographer.
This photo was taken in the falling snow in the meadow that has since been closed – it now appears that this was a unique opportunity.
Bill Ford-Smith 