I’m a little embarrassed to say that this is my first blog post since June 2023. What can I say, I’ve had a lot of personal stuff and other interests take priority over writing blog posts. I’ve always been a proponent of following your heart and doing what you want at any given time in your live, and after recovering from shoulder surgery last summer, I was way more into riding my mountain bike than sitting at my desk writing blog posts.

However, I’ve missed it. I actually love writing, and while I’ve been doing other types of creative writing during the past year, I have missed this regular creative and mental outlet that has satisfied a huge part of my live during the past 15 plus years.

So, I’m back at it today with some brand new photos. I recently spent three weeks in upstate New York, which kicked off with a day trip to Niagra Falls. I visited this place once before when I was a kid, and even then it was a spectacular sight. Imagine the same kid 50 years later, but with a camera.

Walking around all day, on both the American and Canadian side, I shot hundreds of photos the Fujifilm X-T50 body that a friend loaned me, and three lenses, the 16m f/2.8, 35mm f2 and 70-300mm. I loved using the X-T50, (here’s my first look review of the X-T50), especially the dedicated “film simulation dial,” and that trio of lenses was a perfect combo. I often say that for any trip or photography outing, as long as you have wide, middle and long, then you’re covered for just about anything. No need to carry more than you need, right? 

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However, when you’re at a place like Niagra Falls with tens of thousands of other people, and you have very few unique vantage points, and there are already millions of pictures of the falls, how do you come up with something unique, or at least intriguing to your own eyes and creative brain?

This is where long lenses really shine. Aside from letting you eliminate all the other tourists and buildings in your photos, you can zoom in and compose on specific elements of the falls. One of my favorite compositional methods in photography is the concept of abbreviation, where you pick out bits and pieces of the main subject that suggest the larger scene. This approach worked really well here, and I’m pleased with the photos I was able to capture.

I also enjoyed playing around with the different film sims, which also adds a great deal of unique creativity to your images. The photo above was shot with Classic Neg film sim, while this one below was ACROS black and white. Overall, this is a very monochromatic scene, but the different color palettes add a slight unique quality to each photo. 

I’m fascinated by the geological aspect of the of the falls, and of the entire Finger Lakes area, where we spent most of our vacation. When the massive ice sheets that once covered this area retreated about 10,000 years ago, the left behind a landscape filled with mountains, steep gorges and numerous large lakes, including the Great Lakes themselves, which comprise 20% of the world’s fresh water, all of which flows over Niagra Falls at a rate of over three thousand tons of water per second.

Living here in Alaska, we have glaciers just a few miles away from our doorstep, and I explore them as often as I can with my little Cessna bush plane. Of course, even with increasingly warmer temps every year, it’s still going to take a very long time for all of our glaciers to melt, but when they have finished carving up the landscape up here, what will it look like? Interesting things to ponder…

One of the most memorable aspect about this day was shooting photos of other people enjoying their visit to the falls. After watching one couple awkwardly trying to take a selfie, I offered my services, which began a fifteen minute session of me shooting portraits of people and couples with their phones, some at my own offering, and a few others who watched form the side before garnering up the courage to ask me for their turn. It was fun to share my skills in this way, knowing that theses strangers will go home with a great photo of themselves in front of this amazing natural wonder.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these photos. Thanks for reading and for your understanding during my long absence from the blog. I promise I won’t let that much time pass again before my next post.