A few days ago in Boston, there was a Rainpocalypse… It was nuts. My street was literally a river.
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/3.5, 1600 ISO, 1/25th sec, 33mm
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/16, 400 ISO, 1/60th sec, 28mm
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, 1/25th sec, 90mm
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, 1/30th sec, 95mm
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, 1/30th sec, 95mm
The morning after I got back to Boston, me, Trevor, Peter and Padrick went location scouting for his film, Limbus, in at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT. Here are some of my best pictures:
Peter sat behind Trevor in the car and we played Scrabble on our phones 
Spying on Peter and Padrick with my make-up mirror.
Padrick yelled at us for taking pictures of him, so I have none. Haha. Just you wait, Padrick!
Adorable.
A glance that could kill 20 Joann’s at once
Trevor and Peter taking pictures inside one of the train barns
Trevor looking at the ads on our antique train. We’re renting one of the museum’s subway cars for two days for our film.
Awesome hand-rails on this old-fashioned subway car.
A picture from my Colorado > Boston trip last Sunday. Ironically, just a few years ago I would’ve been tackled for trying to take this picture. But, I guess we’re far enough away from 9/11 that DIA no longer freaks out if you take pictures of their airport, which is definitely the coolest airport EVER.
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/16, 400 ISO, 1/60th sec, 28mm
On Saturday night, me, Aunt Lucy, Mom, Trevor, Rebecca, Rebecca’s Mom, Dad and Brother went over to Angelo’s house for a massive graduation dinner celebration. Of course, in typical Cella style, we were stuffed to the gills with delicious Italian food– stuffed mushrooms, caprese salad, sausage, steak, grilled chicken, pizza, chocolate espresso whoopie pies, pastries, cake, espresso and fruit (among many other things). Oh, and did I mention all the homemade wine? I couldn’t have too much because I was driving, but I’m sure Lucy enjoyed herself Anyway, here is a great picture of the Cella family:
From Left to Right: Mike (Teresa’s Husband), Teresa, Maria, Angelo (Center), Ilaria, Arcangelo, Nikki (Antonio’s Wife), and Antonio
I love the Cellas!
As a Ferris Wheel lover, I convinced my mom to go on the Sky Wheel, a huge ferris wheel with a great view of both falls. Underneath the sky wheel was a Dinosaur themed mini-golf course under construction. Maybe I’ll have to make another trip up to Niagara to play mini-golf this summer when it’s completed.
Another view of the American falls from the top of the Sky Wheel
The Sky Wheel behind the mini golf course
And my favorite crude picture of all time:
This guy was assembling the dinosaur and had his hand up its butt for at least 20 minutes while we were there. What he was doing, I’ll never know. But I got several good pictures of him.
For those of you who follow The Office, I’m sure you remember Jim and Pam getting married and completely soaked on a boat at Niagara falls. How they were perfectly dry and clean ten minutes later is beyond me. But anyways, if you go to Niagara, you will see boat after boat after boat going right up into the Horseshoe falls. This is called “The Maid of the Mist” and it departs every fifteen minutes in front of the American Falls from both the American and Canadian sides. I got a few good pictures, but to save my poor little 7D from drowning, I had to put it away for the more misty parts of the trip. And yes, you get soaked pretty much no matter where you stand on the boat.
A very fogged up view of the outlook by the American falls. I kind of like the way this looks… It seems like a painting from a couple centuries ago that has seen some age.
An epic up-close view of the Horseshoe falls. Believe it or not, several people have gone over these falls and survived, including a small child!
Wow!
And finally, I took several pictures of this cute little girl on our boat. I felt pretty bad for her– she was very cold.
Cute.
Among the many touristy activities at Niagara Falls is “Journey Behind the Falls,” a trip deep into the tunnels behind Niagara Falls and onto a small lookout station. The lookout was pretty cool, and although the tunnels themselves were cool, looking out from behind the falls is almost pointless, because you can’t see anything but a thick wall of water. Either way, it was probably worth the money.
After going several stories underground, you’re lead into a long tunnel which goes behind the falls. There are several tunnels off the main one which lead to outlooks from behind the falls:
See? You can’t see very much from the tunnels other than extremely over-exposed water. Don’t worry, people with small children who happen to come across this blog, I’m taking this photo over a railing that is about 10 feet from the edge.
As you can imagine, so much water pressure causes a lot of erosion. Even in spite of efforts to prevent erosion, it still erodes over a foot each year. Before said efforts, it eroded over 3 feet a year.
The view from the furthest tunnel. Again, lots of overexposure. Nothing distinguishable other than gleaming water.
The view from the little outlook right next to the falls. My lens got pretty fogged up with all the mist, which is why this and the following few pictures are a bit blurry. Thank heavens for my UV filter (yes, always have one on your lens) and my supposedly water-proof 7D body (although I don’t trust that, so I kept it as dry and protected as possible).
A wet, chilly Canada Goose (thank you, Peter Brunet, for informing Trevor and I that it is a “Canada Goose” not a “Canadian Goose”) looking out over the edge.
A misty, foggy closeup of some of the rocks at the bottom.
And finally an epic bird flies through the falls picture. Dedicated to Julian Broudy, an his love of silhouetted birds.
More Niagara pictures to come…
Today’s photo: The back of an awesome leaf from a rose that Angelo gave me at the Film 3 screening. All the leaves have these weird little cheerio-like tumors on the back.
Canon EOS 7D w/ 60mm lens, f/2.8, 400 ISO, 1/20th sec, 60mm
Tuesday’s Picture: My great-grandmother’s locket that my Aunt gave me for graduation. It has two pictures of my late grandmother in it– one as a young woman, one as I knew her in her 80s. Thanks Lucy!
Canon EOS 7D w/ 28-135mm lens, f/5.6, 800 ISO, 1/15th sec, 132mm
On Monday, May 16th, Mom flew in from Colorado to come visit me in Boston for graduation. I convinced her to rent a car and drive up to Niagara Falls (the Canada side), since neither of us have ever been. Unfortunately, it rained both ways. We left Boston at 1:30 or 2 and found a motel around 10 PM. We both fell asleep very soon after our convenience store dinner and woke up in the morning to the world’s most expensive breakfast. Little did we know that 1 pancake with a side of bacon, 1 waffle and 2 orange juices would– I kid you not– total up to $35 (without tip). Apparently, Perkins in Canada is ridiculously expensive. Lesson learned. Anyway, we spent the next several hours wandering around Niagara Falls before heading back for Boston around 1:30 PM (again). It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a good time.
I decided because of the vast number of pictures I took that I’d split them up into multiple blogs. The first is several general pictures of the American and Canadian Falls. I’m definitely glad we went to the Canadian side because you have a better view of both falls. Better view = better pictures.
This is the Canadian “Horseshoe Falls.” The thing that was most disappointing to me upon arriving at the falls is how disgustingly touristy it is. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, that the falls is completely surrounded by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Maddame Toussand’s Wax Museum, Haunted Houses, Haunted Mazes, etc., but I was hoping there would be at least some space between this natural wonder at the miniature Las Vegas that Niagara Falls has become. On the left, the falls, on the right, the touristy crap. Too bad.
The Maid of the Mist Boat passes in front of the more rocky American Falls
A view of the cliff face opposite the falls and the Sky Wheel in the background
Apparently the falls fills a million bathtubs per minute. Impressive.
A few poncho-wearing tourists at the “Journey Behind the Falls” — a trip I would take later in the morning.
The Maid of the Mist enters the Horseshoe part
The bridge between the U.S. and Canada, with the American Falls on the right
A crazy walkway going down next to the American Falls
Some birds perched on a rock down river of the falls
As impressive as the Horseshoe Falls is, I do love the rocky nature of the American Falls
The American Falls and some beautiful daffodils on the Canadian side.
