Winter Waterfalls

As I continue my winter reminiscing, I'm going to talk about waterfalls next.  One of my favourite photographic pastimes in days gone by was to chase down waterfalls and get photos, especially in the winter.  This region is known for its waterfalls, because of the Niagara Escarpment, which runs along a very up and down course from the southern Beaver Valley to north of Owen Sound.  So I've pulled out some old photos of the best known falls, and paired a winter and summer or fall picture where I could.

   It's worth pointing out that I once prepared a presentation on the 'Waterfalls of the Beaver Valley Area' which was later posted on YouTube.  Look it up if you want.

The best known waterfall around here is Inglis Falls, just at the southern end of Owen Sound.  And in 2014 it froze over completely.  There's plenty of water running down there, but all under an outer shell of ice.  I've only seen that the once.

Here's a spring photo when water levels are high, and the water is just charging over the falls.  There's a mill pond just above the falls which helps moderate the flow.  This was an important mill site, the Peter Inglis Mill; my great-grandfather brought his grain here to be milled into flour.

And another in late summer when water levels are low.  As I recall this was on a visit with our little photography group from the Grey Highlands Probus Club.  It's worth noting that you only get a good understanding of a waterfall if you can go back in all seasons.

One of the other easily accessible waterfalls in Owen Sound is Jones Falls.  If you knw where to park you can literally walk 100 yards and see it.  If you're a little more adventurous you can walk another 100 yards and crawl down through a wide crevice to come out at the bottom of the falls, where this photo was taken in the winter.

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In not-a-very-good comparison this photo was taken in spring, but from the top of the falls and from the other side.

I spent considerable time in those days as an innocent amateur photographer learning how to achieve these 'misty' shots of waterfalls.  If you took your picture at a high speed you could 'stop' the water, but if you took it at a slow speed as these two, you could get the misty look.  Of course then you had to have a tripod.  The last two photos above show the 'misty' look of the falls; here's one where I tried to `stop` the water.  Didn`t quite succeed, but it`s a very different photo.