Aerial View of American Falls Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Skylon Tower, is a 700 foot high observation tower on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, with an expensive restaurant residing on top of this looming building. The tower is easy to locate because it dominates the landscape. My wife and I were debating whether or not go to the top of the tower when some tourists, who were on the same tour bus as we were, offered us their tickets to go to the top of the tower that they were given after they spent a small fortune dining at the restaraunt.

The view that you see here is of the American Falls with Niagara Falls, NY in the background. The view from the tower is fantastic and the entire American and Canadian Falls is visible from this perspective and the panoramic vista enables the viewer to see Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and I was told, even Toronto on a clear day. I added the WS photo, which fell too short on technical quality and sharpness to post as a photo for critiquing, to demonstrate how the falls are illuminated at night. Several large and powerful spotlights from the Canadian side are aimed toward the American Falls, and the huge colored filters are constantly being rotated to give the tourists a wide array of colors to enjoy. I just saw the gentleman who operates the lights interviewed on the Travel Channel. On my WS photo you can see the circular shapes of the spotlights being cast on the falls.

plimrn, teutza, Paolo, jean11-3, robertosalguero, japiey, feather, delic, JorgeCK, Greg1949, jwmunro, Photo65Net, zeca, PARDAL, emjleclercq, enedimd has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Paolo (40755) 2007-07-15 8:53

Hi Stan, amazing night view, with good quality and good exposure and a great capture of the falls.
the POV was great!
thanks, ciao

Cormac (26455) 2007-07-15 8:54

Very unusual and beautiful! The coloured lighting on the falls is really remarkable, and I can't ever recall seeing a shot quite like this. The positioning of the falls is good too, because it is balanced by the lights of the city in the background. Excellent!

ben4321 (9807) 2007-07-15 9:02

The colours here are amazing Stan, and your composition, with the three layers of the falls, brightly-lit city and evening sky works very well.
Unfortunately the lack of sharpness lets it down. You used a tripod, so it can't be due to camera shake - the only thing that I can think of is that maybe the camera focused on the glass rather on the view beyond. Switching to manual focus (if the camera lets you) might have helped.

Cheers,
Ben

jean11-3 (2799) 2007-07-15 9:13

Hi Stan, I have never seen Niagara Falls from this POV before, it is wonderful.
The colours are lovely and I especially like the twinkling lights.We get a good impression of the size of the river and the falls and its proximity to the city.A superb view tfs.
Best wishes Jean.

pat0500 (21513) 2007-07-15 9:53

Hi Stan,
Great picture of night and very beautiful point of view....I like much this one...!
Good lighting and very pretty colours, very nice composition...!
Best regards,
Patrick

robertosalguero (110) 2007-07-15 10:21

Hi Stan. The name of the tower is Skylon Tower and yes the view from up there is fascinating on a nice clear day, or night. The picture lacks sharpness, perhaps due to resizing or lack of a tripod. In any case the view is beautiful and you managed a nice view deep into the USA. Great job Stan.

Roberto

Bruno40 (6442) 2007-07-15 18:14

Stan,
Nice POV (never seen before), beautiful layers of colours of the water, and excellent composition.
Regarding the blur side of the photo, I read the photo info and the focal is at 17mm, but with a f7.3 you should not have problem of out of focus (outside DOF). However, I think that by being in a tower (made of steel I guess) you are subjected to vibration, sometimes unnoticed by humans, but at 4 seconds, maybe a camera noticed it. Just my idea.
TFS
Jorge

melmcree (2261) 2007-07-15 19:29

I've never seen a shot like this of the falls before. Very hard to capture something as grand as this that is original. Very well done, Stan.

DarkoG (2284) 2007-07-15 22:36

Not so common but very good and interesting shot of falls.

japiey (9521) 2007-07-16 0:30

Hello Stan.

MAJESTIC..

The wondrous effect created attracts at first. I don't feel that quality has so much of importance, but it has to be also..Here, the moment in capture is to be seen. With all the glittering colourfull lights, and the milky flow of the waters, given to us as a visual treat, why should we cry for sharpness? Let's not be that... I appreciate your sincerity in posting this image. Thank you, dear friend.
Wishes for a great week.

jean paul

feather (50168) 2007-07-16 1:39

I read some of the other comments about lack of sharpness. To me the falls area is perfectly sharp with detail showing up in the water and the rocks; it's just the bg that seems o.o.f. I don't think that detracts from the image; after all the falls are your focus. All-in-all I think you have done a good job with a small camera. The only think that puzzles me is the orange circle top left. What is that?
I also like the WS as something more abstract.
Kath

[2]

delic (6735) 2007-07-16 3:36

Hello Stan,
What everyone else said: the pov, composition and colors are fantastic. Parts of the background are indeed unsharp, and it's hard to tell why. In any event, I don't find this detracting as the falls themselves are sharply rendered. Regards,
Hakan

JorgeCK (2600) 2007-07-16 3:53

Hi Stan,
Great picture of the Niagara Falls at night. You have captured a beautiful view. Nice composition and good lighting and very pretty colors.
Regards
joRge

Greg1949 (8519) 2007-07-16 4:14

Stan,

The shot is good and the lighting gives it some scale since there is no maid in the mist. I see what you meand in your w/s, but the thought was there. I agree about the ISO number, I shoot at 100 all the time and almost always regret it when I put it above 400.

Anyway I like your shot, goes well with the others from the area.

Greg

mesutilgim (37324) 2007-07-16 6:14

Hello dear Stan,
This is a real "masterpiece" . Something quite differet from all Niagara shots, we've been used to see. I simply wold say ; "quite american" . And you really did a good job.
TFS
MESUT ILGIM

jwmunro (6255) 2007-07-16 9:03

Hello Stan -

This is a very nice image and well executed considering the hardware used. The DOF seems a bit shallow as the bg looks to be OOF or soft - I guess f/7 is the best a small PnS can do. It really seems like a limitation that makes landscapes less than perfect. I like the composition and the colors at the end of the blue hour. One thing that has me puzzled is the bright orange ball near the upper left. Well done!

Thank you for sharing.

John

Photo65Net (43096) 2007-07-16 10:01

Stan,
I hadn't seen these famous falls by night !
This one is fantastic, with the perfect POV and these magificent colors.
Of course the BG is a little blurried, but somewhere it emphasizes the falls colours.
Very nice,
Regards,
JB.

carper (65742) 2007-07-16 10:08

the effect of the falls on the colours and the composition are fantastic, I like the good job you did do here, the nightshot is well taken and the details are super, very good photojob, and nice serie Stan.
gr. jaap

zeca (20026) 2007-07-17 0:37

Hello my friend Stan! The view is fantastic and original! The exposition is maybe a little bit oe, blowing up from the city lights. The colours are very nice! A difficult shot.
Regards,
Zeca

PARDAL (680) 2007-07-17 8:49

Hi Stan!!!!
THANK YOU for showing us this amazing place by night!!! No words....
Amazing POV, You really had a great time!!!
Interesting information.
TFS
Greetings from Natàlia i Joan

teutza (10568) 2007-07-18 2:59

this is maybe the one i like the most !because i think it's a more unusuall shot!i like all those colourful lights!!
good one
teo

emjleclercq (14524) 2007-07-18 15:24

Very nice view of the falls with nice colors, rather unusual in a night view. I am less interested by the background which leads me to believe the site is now very urbanized.

All the best,

Emmanuel

isabela_sor (42493) 2007-07-20 8:14

My God!!!This view is amazing, lovely night shot. Beautiful exposure, dazzling flood of lights. Especially I like the colorful waterfall included in the bottom part of the picture!!!Congratulations !!!!

enedimd (1528) 2007-07-21 7:14

Hi Stan,
Amazing and impressive night view shot. Well captured and great POV.
TFS,
Have a nice weekend.
Emir Nedim

Standa (1861) 2007-07-23 9:10

Hi Stan,
another excellent view of Niagara Falls you made. This composition is realy great, superb colours. But I have to agree with Ben. It is a pitty that the subject is not sharp. When it´s focused to the subject this photo would be (in my opinion)the best from your Niagara theme.
Best regards,
Stanislav

puzzle (700) 2007-08-30 14:55

wowww Stan,what a point you chose to take this shot,great compo and colors,just lacks sharpness a bit but still so impressive..
thanks for sharing ..

leyla

ayansadhu (1499) 2007-12-20 0:21

Another great shot from your arsenal...!!!

mikeo (12117) 2007-12-27 5:03

Hello Stan,

Great POV, nice colours and superb composition. Seems you are very lucky to have a chance for such photos.

Dont know what about the sharpness...but it completely doesnt matter here:)

Best greetings
Aga

danyy (69499) 2007-12-28 14:19

Bonjour Stan,
une vue très colorée de ces chutes qui plua habituellement sont blanches d"écumes.
Ton POV nous pezrmet de bien voir la rivière qui alimente les chutes ainsi que la ville bien éclairée.

Regards.
Daniel.

Dragut (2025) 2008-01-06 10:52

Hi Stan

Nice shot.. interesting did you try to do it in journey ( daylight)

Dragut

plimrn (19740) 2008-02-10 7:29

Hi Stan,
Great framiung heree!! I've never see this view of the falls. It is really interesting to see both the river above and the booming cataract below. It is also surprising so see such a major waterfall so closely surrounded by the city. Typically waterdfalls are in more remote places; I suppose that is because most of the urban rivers have been dammed to harness their power.
HLJ, Pat