Nigel called me up and asked if I would be interested in a day trip to Hamilton to check out some of the waterfalls. Well, you know I said yes.
What was supposed to be more of an overcast day ended up being the exact opposite. Blue skies are not exactly what you want when photographing water falling over cliffs as the camera has a hard time with extreme light variations. Our first stop of the day was Albion Falls, a very popular waterfall in Hamilton. Because it was our first stop and it was fairly early there were only a couple of people around (and none of them in our shots).
Albion Falls
The harsh light didn’t make the waterfall look that great in colour so I switched it over to black and white to take advantage of the high contrast. Because part of the falls is partially in the shade it makes it very difficult to get the whole waterfall in without getting blown out highlights or too deep blacks. Sometimes the best thing to do in this situation is look for the details.
Edges of Light
Nigel and I explored the waterfall from many different angles before deciding it was time to move on to our next stop. He was taking me over to a small cascade waterfall I had never heard of – Billy Monkley Falls.
Cascade
A pretty easy waterfall to get to the bottom of and even to cross so you can get multiple angles. Something however, was wrong with me as most of my photos were blurry of this waterfall. I think I was having a moment. Things got better later when we headed over to Mountview Falls.
Mountview Falls
We had a bit of scrambling to do to get some of the shots here at Mountsview Falls but they were well worth it. The manmade stones created a really nice texture (although they were a little slippery). On the way from the parking to Mountview Falls is another small waterfall known as Upper Princess Falls.
Upper Princess Falls
Now I don’t know where Lower Princess Falls might be but I’m sure it exists somewhere, right? Anyway, this one was a little tricky as it flows onto the main walking path and then over the escarpment. Normally it’s not a big deal but in February it usually means a crazy amount of ice. We had to find just the right spot so our tripods wouldn’t slip and slide and that we were out of the way of the many people deciding to hike that day.
Overall a great day out exploring some of the more well known and the lesser known waterfalls in Hamilton.
My friend, Dave Hook, called me up asked if I wanted to get out to photograph Billie Green Falls in Hamilton. I jumped at the chance as I had never visited that falls before. Little did I know just how easy it would be to get there. This waterfall is located right at the side of a main road.
Billie Green Falls
The difficult part was finding a good angle in which to see the entire falls. The above photo shows only the upper portion of the waterfall, which is most of the falls, but you miss out on seeing the sharp turn it takes before going down a little further. There are large boulders blocking the best views but hey I take what I can get. For this shot I had to maneuver myself past some rocks, along a narrow shelf and then braced myself against the rock wall to get this view. The fallen tree to my right was in the way but I used it to frame the photo.
Tree and the Fog
Trees are very eerie in the fog and its one of my favourite things to photograph when the fog rolls in. The tree above was in a park not too far from the waterfall.
The Marked Ones
From Billie Green Falls we headed over to Devil’s Punchbowl but the fog was way too thick here to even see the falls from its regular vantage point. The trees in the parking lot was much more interesting in the fog, don’t you think?
After a couple of days of snow temperatures here are now on the rise which means that today was a great day to enjoy some warm weather on Hamilton Mountain (and also that the snow is slowly melting away into nothing). When preparing for my hike today I didn’t take into consideration that the melting would create so much ice on the trail. Certain sections of the trail were tricky especially when on the edge of the escarpment. The photo below shows a field which was were I felt safest to stop and take photos.
The Icy Path
You can see the icy path at my feet. And although it would not be so hard to go around it other parts of the trail are not so wide open or even offer an escape from the ice. The fun thing about shooting ice is the patterns that it makes as it was being formed or even as it melts. Here is one of my favourites from the day.
Crystallized
To me it’s almost like looking at clouds. I can see the shape of a monster about to eat another 😉 What do you see?
