A Scarborough Bluffs Surprise

Over the weekend I had another chance to go visit the beautiful Scarborough Bluffs Park. The day started off overcast, but fortunately by the time I got there, the clouds opened up and it turned out to be another gorgeous day to be there.

I alluded to this in an earlier post, but the best part of the day came when the jet skiers came out of nowhere to give us a private show as they swirled and made noises down below. Since this was such a unique moment, it was important that I was able to capture this uniqueness while showing the surroundings.

Capture the Uniqueness

Everybody and anybody has taken photos from this vantage point. In fact, I was here not too long ago taking pictures from this very spot. So that’s why whenever you encounter a unique moment, it’s important to be able to capture the uniqueness of the moment while showing the viewers where it occurred.

For this particular photo above, it was the fact that there were jet skiers all around the area next to the famous circular pods of the park. I had my 14-24mm wide angle lens on, so I managed to capture the beach on the left, the circular pods on top, and the jet skiers on the right, all within the beautiful turquoise waters. This uniqueness is what people want to see, and that’s what I wanted to capture that day.

The jet skier knew we were up there so he even posed for me as I had my 70-200mm lens attached, pointing at them from above. Thanks for the pose!

The Scarborough Bluffs Park is perched high above the lake, so I wanted to capture part of the cliff in this frame, to show the viewers that the jet skiers were in fact right by the cliffside, and not in the middle of the lake. By adding the cliff on the right hand side, I added another element to the frame, offering the viewers more information on where this was taken.

The flurry of jet skiers in the water as they twirled and made patterns in the water is what I tried to capture here in this frame. It was a little difficult holding my 70-200mm lens while filming on Periscope at the same time, but I think this turned out well.

The contrasting patterns made in the water here is what interested me: the circle on the left and the linear line from the right.

And finally, we have a big group shot of all the jet skiers. I intentionally included the foreground green to add an extra element within the frame to make it more interesting. This makes it feel as if I were peering through shrubs.

It was a great day to be up here with the colours as vibrant as ever. My hope was to be able to depict the beauty of the bluffs with the uniqueness of the jet skiers.

If you’ve taken photos from the Scarborough Bluffs, please feel free to let me know in the comments below!