I've Scene my hometown; have you?

"Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch"...you need be older (and probably from Niagara) to recognize this lead-in. Abbott & Costello made famous the quote. Many have scene it. Our ancesters married near it (before the naive found Vegas); the lucky still do. The unfortunate don't prioritize it. The distrubed end their lives over it. The daring try to survive it. The Discovery Channel replays it like a rented mule (no offence to my Jr. HS teacher featured in it; Mr Gromoziak you rock!). Many have frozen it on post cards so fake. But few know it to be a one of 7 Natural Wonders of the World, and fewer understand how differently it can appear with each passing day.

Oh Niagara! My hometown. I have photographed the almighty Niagara region since I was a teenager (c.1978). I wish I could post the film-based shots to prove it by showing the lack of new Canadian Niagara skyline across the river then, and the reality of it I will show now. The local lore includes stories of "negative ions" that stimulate romantic behavior below the elevation of the land and brink of the Falls (the lower river), in the 200-300 foot gorge from the Falls to before where the river rolls out to Lake Ontario. Others realize a sort of trance from the constant flow and sounds of river flowing in the background. If fact the Falls recedes 1 foot each and every year as the powerful water erodes the rock at the brink. No matter, the Niagara River creates perpetual change that can only be imagined as we live and sleep away from its beauty.

Oh Niagara! The topic so vast, that you will soon see, maybe a dozen posts to you from me. Sit back, enjoy, and you will cease the scenes I freeze.

This series (starting with this post focued on the American Falls) is dedicated to the place I grew up. Why many chapters you will say? There are simply too many GSP coordinates from which to freeze it just the right way! Too many views, so many season-parts, so many days, so varied weather - it changes every day.

Don't believe me? Two of the above shots were taken in 2006 with an inferior camera; the rest with my BIG LENS in June 2008. Can you see which shots redundant, so do they deceive?