Always Look Behind You

One of the early lessons I learned in photography class was to never be afraid to move around, and maybe even get a little dirty.  Most people shoot their photographs from a standing position, while the simple move of bending over or going belly-down on the floor can turn a regular photograph into something more.  I didn't get very dirty taking this photograph, but I did take advantage of the previously mentioned lesson.  Though to be honest, it was done accidentally.  This shot was taken while on vacation at Niagara Falls.  I was feeling sad by the recent death of my Grandmother and one of the final conversations that we had was about how she had visited Niagara Falls when she was younger and how she hoped that I'd make my way there as she knew I'd be able to take some nice photographs.  I walked up and down the sidewalk next to the falls, trying to get the perfect angle, but just couldn't come up with something that interested me or was a unique image.  Out of frustration, I gave the stone wall next to the sidewalk a good kick and then turned, leaning against the metal railing.  That's when I saw it.  Illumination Tower.  The concrete stage where all of the lights that are used to light up Niagara Falls are located.  Sitting just behind the stage was the Niagara Falls casino with it's bright red lights reflecting against the passing mist created by the Falls.  I quickly spun the tripod around and snapped the picture you see here, and that was one of the featured shots on my exposition last autumn.  It was shot at f/7.1, 13sec., ISO 100 at 35mm and was the jolt that I needed to get that lesson mentioned above drilled into my head.  Everybody goes home with a picture of Niagara Falls lit up at night.  But I think my photograph of the lights that light up the Falls is much more interesting than anything else I took on that trip.

***UPDATE***

During the write-up I forgot to mention that I timed the exposure for 13 seconds purely because of the casino in the background.  Lucky 13 and all.  You could get pretty much the same result with an exposure of 12 or 14 seconds.