So I started a photography group with my circle of friends and Friday we were initially suppose to go to Algonquin park to do some astro photography but that was called off due to the forecast calling for rain so we went to Niagara instead.  Annoyingly (for me), it didn’t rain and was clear so what could have been the best night to shoo the stars was for naught but I digress, I complained a lot to the guys…  Along with me was Eddy & Mario, Alan joined us a bit later in the day.

We walked around the falls, local area and while we were waiting for Alan I was able to shoot a bird of prey (not sure what it was) and there were two turkey vultures hanging out in the skies too, how cool is that.

What a treat it was to have those things flying in the air…  We met up with Alan at around 2 at Bird Kingdom, yes I was there two weeks ago but the guys haven’t been and knew they’d love it.

I didn’t take that many photos of the birds this time, I was there more as a guide lol and the boys had a great time.  I know Mario especially enjoyed himself, he got to give his Canon EF 100-400 MKII lens a good workout and understood why I love mine so much.

After we went to the Butterfly conservatory, again I was there two weeks ago but it’s still fun.

Again having been there previously I knew what worked and stuck the Canon RF 70-200 F2.8L IS USM lens on the Canon EOS R5 and caught quite a few butterflies in the air.  Super hard since they’re erratic fliers but that’s part of the fun right.

We needed to use the bathroom so we went into the Skylon tower and found the arcade closed down due to COVID19.  Understandable but that gave us an opportunity to walk around and take photos of course. 😉

Finally we stuck around till dark, wanted to take some pictures of the signs and sights but I had a weird problem, even at F22 & ISO 50, I could only expose for 2-3 seconds before things were blown out.  Never needed to use an ND filter for long night exposure before but I guess the R5 sensor is more sensitive?

For instance I could only expose for I think 2 seconds with the Ferris wheel so I couldn’t get a circular pattern.

Finally we walked to the falls and took some photos of the light show.

I didn’t actually take that many good photos because I was busy playing with the Canon EOS R5’s IBIS and my god it’s amazing!  Leaning on the railing using the Canon RF 24-70 F2.8L IS USM lens @70mm, I was able to expose for 5 seconds handheld!!!  That’s pretty insane & I didn’t even need to bust out the tripod!  Colour me impressed, I absolutely love this thing and lol I’ve been saying for a while that I am trying to make up for my lack of talent with better gear haha.

I got a good workout, carrying the R5, 24-70, 70-200, EF 100-400 MKII & the Samyang 14mm F2.8 lenses as well as the tripod and then walking 22k steps.  My feet hurt pretty much all weekend but it was worth it and a lot of fun.  Yes I did do things Saturday & Sunday but I was out in the sun all afternoon and am too tired to write up about it now so I’ll talk about it tomorrow.