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San Francisco plans scrapped... Ontario destination tips?

M

MetroMan

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Hey guys, I was planning on going to California next week but my travel partner had to cancel. I have another friend who wants to learn the ropes in photography so I'm going to use my free time next week to teach her.

Any good places in Ontario aside from the obvious ones (Niagara, Ottawa, etc)?

I've travelled the world over, yet I don't know my own province.... :eek:
 
Urban Setting?

Or Wilderness?

State what major cities you haven't been to.

I suggest Kingston.
 
In Ontario, I must confess, I've seen very little of it. Somebody suggested Detroit but I'm a little iffy about lugging around an expensive SLR and set of lenses.

I think I'm looking for a small quaint town with lots of photo ops.

Kingston's been suggested to me. Care to elaborate on that one please?
 
Bruce Peninsula National Park. Enter the park by way of Halfway Logdump road and continue on towards the waters of Georgian Bay. A bit of photography heaven is to be found.
 
Kingston is a very historic town with a lot of distinctive limestone buildings. It's history lies in its location which was of strategic significance to the French, and then the British army. It's also where the Rideau Canal begins. It has a waterfront, so there's a lot of things to photograph. I think it has something to offer beyond the charming but too common Ontario small town "formula" of Victorian retail strip surrounded by some grand old houses and in many cases eventually factories.

Hamilton is always an option, and you get the bonus of the lovely waterfalls in the areas around the escarpment. It gives you a variety of things to photograph too, from healthy historic neighbourhoods to extreme decay. See flar's photo threads if you haven't already.

If you want to see natural areas, then the national parks like Bruce are hard to beat, especially with the shorelines. There's also Algonquin Provincial Park.
 
I really like Paris (Ontario), it's a quaint, pretty town loaded with photographic opportunities. It'll be nicer there in two or three weeks once lawns and leaves start to green up, but then everything in this climate will be better in two or three weeks.
 
If you want more colour for your cameras to play with - then currently it is better to go further north, and get into the areas that have coniferous forests. Bruce Peninsula National Park (as noted earlier) is gorgeous and has the advantage of the perennially green (and fascinatingly ancient) cedar trees clinging to the sides of the Niagara Escarpment. Plus you get the amazingly clear blue waters of Georgian Bay to play with. Villages in the area provide the occasional Victoriana, with a fair bit of that in Owen Sound and Southampton at either side of the base of the peninsula.

You can check out this Flickrer's photostream for general inspiration in the Bruce County area.

42
 
If you're interested in natural history, Bancroft's marble quarries - last excavated in the 1930's and now overgrown with greenery - might be worth visiting. They looked quite picturesque in the photos shown at the ROM Colloquium in February. The Rotunda and stairs in the east wing of the Museum are clad in various kinds of marble and blue sodalite from the area. As I believe you're a ROM member, the curator who gave the talk - Vincent Vertolli - would probably have information on where they're located if you ask.
 
Tobermory is a quaint and lovely village. And for more fun, if you've got the car, take the ferry and do a Bruce-Sudbury-Muskoka/Parry Sound round trip. If you've got lots of time, you can take a very slow drive up to the Bruce checking out some nice towns - go through Guelph and up Highway 6 passing through Fergus, Elora, Owen Sound, etc. Spend a day or two at the Bruce, drive through Manitoulin, see Sudbury, a very non-typical Ontario city and drive back through Muskoka.

Kingston's another one, very lovely town. You can even take a ferry there (free) if you drive the pretty Loyalist Highway through Wellington, Picton and Bath. On the way back, go through Napanee and Belleville.
 
For underratedness, how about the length of the Lake Erie shoreline, from Niagara to Essex?
 
Small quaint towns with lots of photo ops?

There are a bunch to choose from:
Elora, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Dundas, Fergus, St. Mary's, Stratford, Paris, Galt (Cambridge), and Goderich immediately come to mind. London and Guelph are nice smaller cities.

Bruce Peninsula National Park is my favourite, you can camp there, but you need to make reservations. Great natural scenery, deep, cold, rocky Georgian Bay on one side and sandy Lake Huron on the other.

There are about 80 waterfalls in the Hamilton area, feel free to PM me for locations and directions if you want. As mentioned, Hamilton offers a wide range of photographic opportunities ranging from natural scenery to industrial grit to Victorian neighbourhoods, all within a small area.
 
Peterborough, Cobourg, and Port Hope are all very scenic with busy downtowns and close by. Bobcaygeon is a nice village built on several islands in the Kawarthas. If you're into the arts, try Warkworth.
 
i've always seen san fransisco in my mind as this shied therning utopian city on the hill. Im very jealous. and it didnt help when my plane stopped there for a layover, it filled with young beautiful and extremely friendly san Fransiscanites.

maybe ill move there one day, unless hopefully somebody will smack some reality into the city.
 
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