Niagara Falls : Summer 2012

As I’ve shared before in the last 5 things post, we did an extended vacation to visit family in the northeast. One of our stops was at Niagara Falls because Bill had never seen it in the summer (it’s a completely different experience in the winter). I always take vacations as a time to play with different photography shots. Luckily it was sunset which was a great time of day for some interesting shots with incredible lighting. So this is what we came up with…

Can I please make an announcement, people still go over the falls and die, about 20-25 people per year. If you haven’t been there you’d imagine that every dangerous area is kept from people by railings and signs and guards. The thing is, it isn’t. If you walk over the bridge (the top photo on the right) onto Goat Island there are all kinds of wooded areas and trails that just lead right to the edge of the water just before the falls (seen in the bottom photo on the right). Niagara Falls are actually made of three separate waterfalls, American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Canadian (or Horseshoe) Falls and you can go over any of them quite easily.

While walking one of the trails we saw this man and his young son IN THE WATER! They were picking up change that people had thrown into the water in probably the calmest area right before the falls (the picture on the right was taken just a few feet from where these people were in the water). There are signs posted everywhere about being fined for getting in the water but these people didn’t care. The mother was just standing there watching them. They spoke very little English but when we said THEY WILL DIE she quickly collected her family. Amazing.

And that was Niagara Falls.