The Majestic Casa Loma Castle

Casa Loma is an old Edwardian castle on the outskirts of the city. A very nice place for those who are visiting Toronto. It's a antique house that belonged to very important people. The former home of Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt, Canada's foremost castle is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens. The Casa Loma itself built between 1911 and 1913. 

The architecture outside is beautiful, every site from side, front, to back you see the beauty and detail. This place has unique high rise towers, the most exciting is you almost go through a maze and through back doors to finally get to the winding staircase to go high above at the top point of the building and look at the beauty of the grounds and view of Toronto. It has an underground type tunnel that winds under the street to an old Horse Stable at the other side. Absolutely a Canadian treasure. If you're a fan of castles like me Casa Loma is for you!

Address: 1 Austin Terrace
Toronto, ON M5R 1X8
Canada

Canada's majestic Castle

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35 comments Canada, Canada Trip, Castles and Mansions, Historic Landmarks, Toronto

Niagara Falls Light at Night

I’ve had my new Canon Rebel T3 as my Christmas present, and I’ve had some opportunities to test it out. However I haven’t had as much time as I wanted due to the cold weather , but with Spring upon us, those opportunities will surely grow. As a new Digital SLR owner, I am still learning proper terminology and techniques. This blog is for me to share experiences, as well as learn from my readers.

My husband and I didn’t have work today, so he decided to take me to Winter Festival of Lights across the Canada border.   It was a beautiful night of winter. I took my Canon Rebel T3  along to get some more experience using it, hoping to get some decent shots. To clarify the conditions while I was taking these photos, it was quite dark and wet. My camera was set at Aperture Priority, and the entire time I was trying to find the proper Shutter Speed and ISO. My first few shoots I was very disappointed. I couldn't make it perfect or set it in right camera settings.

To start out, I’ve primarily kept the camera on NIGHT mode, just to get a feel of the camera and its abilities. One of the first differences I’ve noticed from the digital point-and-shoot models I’ve owned is “depth of field”. With my old cameras, when a picture was taken, everything in the photo was generally in focus. With my T3, that isn’t necessarily the case. Depending on the aperture setting, the entire photo may be crisp and clear, or perhaps just one object while everything else is blurry. At times, the camera has focused on the wrong object, causing a poor photograph.

Below is an example of a few of the first photos I’ve taken with my new camera. Comments and tips are appreciated.

Niagara Falls Spectacular Lights at Night

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13 comments Canada, Canada Trip, Niagara Falls, Winter Memories

Birds Kingdom Canada

We had the pleasure of visiting the Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls this weekend and since we both a bird lover we were looking forward to this exhibit. We enjoyed the experience it exceeded our expectations - it has several exhibits, including a reptile room (where you can interact with and hold lizards and snakes), a normal bird aviary, a nocturnal area, and a large open large bird aviary. We like the main aviary. You can actually take pictures with the birds really close without them flying away. It seems like they are not afraid of people. When you have finished observing the beautiful birds in this section, you go through a dark area of "night creatures", bats, owls and so on.

Finally, after leaving the night section, you enter the main aviary. This truly is magical: a large, and very pretty waterfall which one can walk behind, walkways throughout, and so many beautiful free-flying birds. It was just wonderful being able to get so many photos of the birds from all different angles. They are very used to people, so I managed to get really close to them for the photos. There is also a tea house/snack shop in the middle of this section. Over all, it's a great place to go to if you love birds, photography, or just want a difference in pace from the Casinos or Clifton Hill. Nature lovers from around the world will be in awe of Bird Kingdom. Bird Kingdom has been voted as one of the top 5 attractions at Niagara Falls. 

Snake and Lizard bestfriends forever :)

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16 comments Aquarium and Zoo, Canada, Canada Trip, Ontario