Shooting the falls at this time of the year can be tricky. The mist will freeze to your lenses on contact. Make sure you use a filter of some sort to protect your lenses because you'll at some point will need to duck inside a gift shop or other protected area to clean your lenses. The closer you get to the falls, the worse the mist. The falls at night are just about the most beautiful image to be seen with the ice and lights.
The Butterfly Conservatory: great place to visit and take pictures. Just be prepared to wait inside for awhile for your camera to warm up and the lenses to clear from fogging up. The humidity in the building is pretty high as well. Have plenty of quality lenses wipes with you.
The Bird Kingdom at Clifford Hill is another good place to shoot birds. Again, you'll need to take the same steps there with your camera as well. The layout in the place is pretty neat. And there's many different types of birds and few other critters there to check out.
Take a stroll up and down Clifford hill. It's a money trap and touristy as all get out. But cool to look at and shoot some pictures.
On the American side at the park there's a tower you can go up and get a great pano view of the falls.
I didn't check, but the Christmas lights along the walk may still be up on both sides of the falls.
On the NY side you can go to Goat Island. Which gives you different angles of shooting the falls.
Make sure you dress accordingly. A hat and scarf are a wise thing to have. Or a ski mask. I'm not joking the ice mist can be extreme. I took these and in one shot you can see ice crystals on my lenses. I had many other shots that were ruined because of the ice. All that aside, the falls are a awesome place to check out regardless the time of year. We are thinking about going at the end of Jan. ourselves.
