Maid of the Mist, Niagara Falls, Canada

Amy Davies, Features editor

Panasonic GX9, 12-60mm, 1/3200sec at f/5.6, ISO 200 I took this while on holiday in Canada, and visiting Niagara Falls was a highlight – not least because of the brief respite that the mist offered from the oppressive heat of a freak heatwave that swept through the area.

Taking (good) pictures while on the boat is almost impossible, so I took this from afar. This is the American boat, ‘Maid of the Mist’, which along with the Canadian boats ‘Niagara Wonder’ and ‘Niagara Thunder’ enters the mist on a rotation every 15 minutes or so. Looking at this picture, I’m immediately taken back to that day. The huddled figures, each bedecked in their blue ponchos, gives a sense of human scale against this backdrop of one of the world’s most dramatic landscapes. The insignificance of the boat at this scale is another reason I like it.

Usually I shoot in a 3:2 ratio, but for this shot, using 4:3 has given extra space for the vast white mist created by the sheer force of the falls. Meanwhile, the movement in the turquoise-tinted waters reminds me of impressionist landscape paintings, which I have always loved.