A very short adventure to share today!

I’m back in London, ON and found a great (but still pricey) deal on a variable neutral density (ND) filter. It goes from 1 to 11 stops of light. This means it acts like sunglasses for my camera lens. If I darken a scene I can leave my shutter open longer which allows anything in motion to blur. The main reason I know of to want this is for moving water! It becomes silky smooth instead of crisps little water droplets.

I bought a 77 mm variable ND filter and a step down ring to 67 mm so it would fit my smaller Tamron 28-75 which is a wider angle as well. I tried it out on Good Friday in Hamilton and found out I bought the wrong step down ring. All the stores were closed for the holiday so I was up the creek without a paddle for the day!

I checked out , or rather I tried to , check out four waterfalls in Hamilton, ON. Top of the list was the Devil’s Punch Bowl. As cool as the name sounds but a little viewing area and not much to do there other than look at the cool water feature.

Albion falls was very nice but there was a natural resource officer parked making sure you didn’t go anywhere near the trail on threat of a 10k fine. It was a muddy and rainy day and would have been easy for someone to have a spill so I can see why he was sent out to block off the trail. Hopefully on dry and sunny days the trail opens. I might pop back to check it out again on a nice day if I can. No photos of this one except with my cell phone.

Next was Tews and Websters falls which are close to each other. Arriving at Tews the parking lot is closed for weekends and holidays so you need to drive 6 km down the road to a conservation area, pay $15 to park and take a shuttle to the falls. Every road is marked with signs saying local residents only and no street parking. I was unnaturally irritated by it and they even had cops parked at the entrance to Websters falls. It felt incredibly unwelcoming and I bounced. I don’t have time for whatever cold shoulder game the area was playing.

Last I spun over to Tiffany falls and happily paid the $5 parking fee to make the short but gorgeous walk up to an impressive fall. The cascade of water was awesome and I ran into another Nikon photographer there who lent me a variable ND filter for my wider angle lens to try out. As he warned his filter had some troubles but a few shots still turned out. The better shots were my Tamron 70-200 mm which was ill suited for waterfall shoots but I made it work!

That’s it for me today. I hope to post more often again. I’m off to Toronto for an Anime convention next!

Until next time!

~Jeff the RPG