View from the 7th Floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Niagara Falls, ON

September 2012

When I first began reviewing the series of photos I shot before and after attending a conference in Niagara Falls, I wondered how I would be able to differentiate between the early morning shots and the late evening shots. After all, I knew I had captured images from each side of the day, and that all of them would be equally daylight compromised.

Of course, as I continued browsing the photos, I discovered it was actually very easy to tell which were taken when! Niagara Falls at night are illuminated - brightly and colourfully and unmistakably. It's a cool addition to this attraction, making it visible for a longer period of time and giving it an artsy, metamorphic treatment, but it's nice to view without as well.

So you see before you a photo taken through my hotel window at around 6am.

When I look at this, what I remember most is the magical calmness of this typically active landscape, and how it allows one to listen to the serene sound of the perpetually falling water. I envy those locals who get to bask in the constant lull of nature's cadence every single day. And perhaps for many, the fact they can hear it all the time means they don't hear it at all. But I know that doesn't apply to all of them.

And even though I have lived within twenty minutes of this world famous natural attraction for as many years, I never tire of gazing at it, marvelling at it, photographing it, or listening to it.