Views of the Valley #1

My favourite photo spots are the few places where you can get a widespread view of the Beaver Valley, sometimes extending as far as Georgian Bay.  But it's a huge challenge to get good pictures that capture these distant views. As I try to get photos showing the landscape of the valley I've concluded that landscape photography is far more difficult than close-up photography.  Never-the-less, here's the start of a tour of some of my favourite viewpoint photos..

The top of the old abandoned Talisman Ski Club (that's another story!) is the best viewpoint looking north from the upper valley.  For those of you who don't live nearby, the upper, or south end of the valley is quite narrow and great scenery for southern Ontario, while the lower valley opens out to the north toward Georgian Bay.  You can just catch the blue water in the far distance here, beyond the unused ski lift and snow gun on the left.

A closer look at that distant view shows the wide flat swamp of the Beaver Valley Lowlands in the foreground, through which runs a popular canoe route.  Further away is the water tower for the town of Thornbury on the far left, and a faint distant headland just to the right of the centre of the photo on the horizon.  This is the north end of Christian Island, nearly 60 km or 36+ miles away!  At this distance the brilliant blue water of Georgian Bay, the most eye-catching part of these distant views, shows up clearly.

You can also look across the valley from the top of the old ski runs, to the high outcrop of Niagara Escarpment cliffs known locally as 'Old Baldy', though the view further south to the right is cut off by the trees.  Tomorrow we'll check out the view from those cliffs.  The wide-angle shot here makes the valley look wider than it is to my eyes.

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