October 26, 2018 by Darren Clarke

I can’t remember which day I was down in the Falls for these pictures but it was definitely the rare October day where you’d want to have shorts on and instead I had elected to wear jeans. Needless to say, some sweat went into this particular labour of love.

It was a Gorgeous day though. This is my second photo blog of Niagara Falls but I love the fact that that the familiar can present something new and beautiful. The Falls always provides great people watching opportunities as well with everybody so focused on the wonder before them, their friends and family around them, that they forget to be so damn paranoid about having their picture taken.

People from everywhere- Asia, Europe, the good old US of A. The old and young from all corners of the globe unconsciously posing for consideration-  jaded looking gamblers on a break from whichever gambling table boldly smoking blunts outside the casino weeks ahead of the legalization of marijuana, newly married folks in matching baby blue t-shirts holding hands walking along the sidewalk on River Road, two older ladies asking a younger woman in a cowboy hat to take their picture, a young backpacker standing on top of the railing near the Falls framed by sky and clouds.The Falls also presents a wild dichotomy of natural beauty surrounded by bafflingly bloated bad ideas- go-kart tracks paving over green space, recently constructed yet somehow massively dated casinos and hotels hovering above the stunning natural wonder that reveals new and gorgeous incarnations of itself daily.

And a Pink Piano.

As if it knew I was coming with a camera that day.

A statue of Nikola Tesla also stands on the far side of River Road across from the Falls. The statue is relatively new and seems part of a sudden Canadian inclination to co-opt and celebrate even the remotest connection with the Serbian-American inventor who helped design the first hydro-electric plant in Niagara Falls. Much to wife’s chagrin Burlington also renamed Burlington Street to Nikola Tesla Boulevard (no trip to Toronto would be complete without a fierce Caroline rant about the absurdity of changing the name of the street being fully engaged the moment the highway sign comes into view).