I just got back from a night at Great Wolf Lodge with my son who will be turning 7 in less than a couple of weeks. It was his early surprise birthday present and we had a blast. After spending about 8 hours in the water over the past two days, I don’t really care to ever see another water slide right now, but it was totally worth it… and not because of this picture.

Of course, no visit to Niagara Falls is complete without heading down to the actual falls. Especially at night! So after a long day of water slides, we drove over to Clifton Hill to grab some food and walk down to the falls. It was surprisingly warm when we left the car (at parking lot furthest away – I refuse to pay $15 for parking on a Wednesday night in November!), but by the time we ate and started down to the falls, the wind had picked up and it got cool fast. My son complained that he was getting cold, but we soldiered on. When we got to the bottom of the hill, he started to really complain about the cold, so I suggested we head back to the car. To which he replied

I have the sweetest kid.

The thing is, I wasn’t prepared for night time pictures of the falls. I had purposely left my tripod behind in the car. Still he refused to let me leave until I grabbed a few frames. So I cranked my settings and grabbed a few handheld shots to make him happy, and so we could get out of the wind. He checked what I took, and seemed happy enough.

Just goes to show, photography is not always about getting the perfect frame. This is certainly not the best photo of Niagara Falls. It’s blurry and noisy, but it’s a keeper for me.