I have tried to break into Canada twice before, but alas, the fates must have conspired against me. The first instance was about a year ago when my friend and I were all set to go, but the morning of the trip he informed me that his green card had expired and that he would probably not make it past the border control to get back into the states.
The second time I was going to visit with my girlfriend at the time, but my car died on the trip and we had to take the train back down to get home.
This time I actually made it, but it was a close call.
After a long car ride, a conversation with a gamut of topics, and listening to some great tunes we made our way to the border where this cutey of an officer was asking us some questions:
Q: What is the nature of your visit?
A: I wanted to answer "Pleasure" but said "Came to see the Falls for vacation"
Q: Have you ever been here before?
A: (No, but John had)
Q: Can I see your hotel reservation?
A: (Passes confirmation printout)
Q: Did you bring any cameras?
A: Yes
Q: How many?
A: Thinking and looking up for a moment I counted in my head and said "five".
Q: Five? Why do you need that many?
A: "Because I do film photography" - granted that is not the most lucid answer to someone who might not be into film photography, but it made sense to me at the time.
After a few more questions she handed us a yellow sheet of paper and said to pull over and give that to the people that would come out to meet us. On the yellow slip of paper "5 CAMERAS" was written and underlined.
John noted that he did not want to have a cavity search because I had brought five cameras across the border.
The people that came out to greet us said that we needed to go into "immigration" while they searched the vehicle.
Inside I had to explain that I was not shooting for commercial purposes and that our visit was recreational. After a short probing we were let through.
I received the nickname "5 Cameras" after the incident.
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