Hiking: Webster Falls and Tew Falls

I've really started to enjoy using our Lumix Panasonic DMC-TZ70 the past few weeks. This weekend was our first opportunity to get out and about in the Brantford and Hamilton areas.

We went on our first hike from Christie Lake Conservation, where we found a short 5km loop to some falls... which turned out to be some beautiful falls! We spent a while at the lake, which was completely frozen over. It was such a bizarre sight as a Brit, I've never seen a lake that big, completely frozen! Just look how big the lake is... it looks so strange as one big ice cube!

After walking for about 45 minutes in icy and snowy trails we came across the first waterfall; Webster Falls. The view wasn't fantastic from the view point unfortunately, however we managed to capture a really great photo; although a little bit of a fluke shot, I'm pleased with it. It would have been fantastic to find a trail which went to the bottom of the falls.

After the Webster Falls we walked back to Christie Lake before heading to Tew Falls (unfortunately the trail between Webster and Tew Falls was shut as it is still to dangerous to use). From Christie lake we drove about 10 minutes to Tew Falls... it was a beautiful fall. Almost twice the height of Webster falls and not far off Niagara Falls, I didn't expect such a elegant waterfall in such beautiful surroundings. I was also able to play with the shutter feature on the camera and after a little editing, I managed to create this photo, and I am chuffed! Look at the wispy flow of water!

I am not a hiker, so the thought of planning a walk (and driving a car in Canada!) was pretty terrifying. The weather in Brantford was still hovering around zero or below, so the trail would definitely be icy but I didn't expect as much snow. The trip was successful and I'm now even more keen to do more hiking,

I used the following websites to help plan the trip:

The Spencer adventure: http://conservationhamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/Spencer-Adventure-Brochure-2017.pdf

Christie Lake Conservation: http://conservationhamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/CLCA-Brochure-2016.pdf

Learning to use a Panasonic Lumix Camera

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70

I am 100% the amateur photographer, just checkout my instagram's (@elthomas7, @thetravellingpickups) and you will realise this very quickly! However, you can see that I love taking photos, its my way of remembering and reminiscing about various times in my life - I love just looking through my camera roll on a regular basis!

The other day I read this tips page by Panasonic about taking some awesome waterfall photos - note the tip is for a different make of panasonic. By chance the next day, whilst on a walk, I found a dam! I was pretty excited about the prospect of learning to take a cool water photo, however I did struggle to find the correct settings, so thought I'd write down the steps I took for future reference. 

1. Find a waterfall or dam.
2. Turn camera on and turn the settings to "S" - this means Shutter Priority and essentially means you can set how quickly or slowly the shutter will close when taking a photo.
3. For flowing water, you need a setting of about 1/4, which can be changed by carefully using your thumb anti-clockwise on the large circular button on the back right of the camera and keep turning until you reach 1/4.
4. ISO settings - although stated in the instructions your unable to modify this setting on this particular camera.

Here is the image I took of the dam yesterday, for comparison I took a "normal" photo (second and fourth photo) as well:

As you can see, the water appears to be flowing from the dam, rather than the camera taking a photo of droplets. I wanted to stay a play with longer shutter times and adapt the exposure, however it was freezing cold and my fingers were going numb!

If anyone has any tips or tricks for stunning photography, let me know - I'm keen to learn throughout this trip.