Cross Country Ski Photoshoot with Martin Benes MVB Coaching

 

Join me on a quick photo adventure with Martin Benes of MVB Coaching. Martin offers in-person and online coaching for nordic skiing, backcountry skiing, marathon running and more. If you participate in endurance sports, you could benefit from Martin's guidance. Check out what he has to offer at https://mvbcoaching.com.

The "keeper" photos from the shoot can be seen at the end of the video. Camera settings are briefly discussed but this is more of a "plug" for Martin. I truly appreciate the new skill he has taught me and it has been fun getting out to winter locations with the camera, further and faster.

We met up at a nearby higher elevation location that still has plenty of snow. Really, it's kind of ridiculous that there is still this much snow in Truckee/Tahoe this time of year... It was very foggy at times yesterday, and the sun popped out a few times. This made for some very different looks and Martin ended up with many new "keeper" photos for his website and social media. Here are some of them:

These were all shot handheld with a Canon 5DSr and a 24-205mm lens. No flash was needed as the light was pretty flat and the shadows on Martin did not need to be filled in with a bit of extra light like is sometimes needed on sunny days. The ISO was 400 and the shutter speed was 1/400th of a second. The camera was set to shutter speed priority, so the aperture varied depending on the light.

Martin coaches everyone from olympians to beginner goof-balls like me. You can really see it in the photos that he knows what he is doing. He had perfect ski posture in every shot. Martin also shot a little video of me and you can really see that I am a beginner, lol. My technique and posture need a few more lessons...

 

Thanks for looking!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Donner Summit Milky Way Photoshoot

Join me on a late night photoshoot above Donner Lake in Truckee, California where I photograph the Milky Way and discuss a bit of techniques (shot 4-20-2023). It was cold out there! But the final results were worth it. I ended up with a great Milky Way photo that can be seen at the end of the video. Thanks for watching! 

The photo will soon be available as prints here: https://www.scottshotsphoto.com/galle... 

Scott Shots Photography print are on exhibit and available for purchase at: 

Gallery 5830' in Downtown Truckee, California - https://gallery5830.com/ 

Art Obsessions in Reno, Nevada - https://www.facebook.com/art.obsessio... 

and at The Genoa Gallery in Genoa, Nevada - http://www.thegenoagallery.com/

Donner Lake Panoramic Photoshoot With Quill Dog

Join Quill dog and I for a little sunny day photo adventure above Donner lake in Truckee, California.

Camara settings and techniques are discussed. The "keeper" photos are at the end of the video. 

The photos will soon be available as prints here: https://www.scottshotsphoto.com/galle... 

Scott Shots Photography print are on exhibit and available for purchase at: 

Gallery 5830' in Downtown Truckee, California - https://gallery5830.com/ 

Art Obsessions in Reno, Nevada - https://www.facebook.com/art.obsessio... 

and at The Genoa Gallery in Genoa, Nevada - http://www.thegenoagallery.com/

Donner Lake Photo Adventure with Quill Dog (video and photos)

Quill dog and I got out for another snowshoe hike yesterday while it was dumping snow, again... It's been snowing a lot so I decided that we would take a big hike to a favorite spot of Quill's - Dog Beach at Donner Lake, in Truckee, California. I'm not sure if that's what it's officially called but if you say "dog beach" to any Truckee local, they know exactly where you are talking about.

I shot a quick video while out there. It was a big hike but not a lot of photography was accomplished as the wet heavy snow made it impossible to keep the lens dry. I was only able to fire off a few photos before the lens was wet and the photos were blurry. The video is a quick look at our adventure. Not much in the way of photo advice or tutorials, just a quick look at the day in the life of a Truckee photographer and his dog.

Here are the "keeper" photos, all available as large fine art prints. Shot on a Canon 5DS R with a 24-105mm lens.

Thanks for looking. Cheers!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Icy Alder Creek Photo Adventure With Quill Dog

Quill dog and I got out for a nice big walk recently where Alder Creek flows into Prosser Reservoir, here in Truckee, California. Snowshoes were needed, I also brought my camera and tripod in hopes of having some icy abstract photo fun. Success! I found some interesting ice and little scenes that made for some nice shots. A video of the adventure is above, the "keeper" photos are below.

All of these were taken with the Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. A tripod was used so I could use a somewhat long exposure, about an 1/8 to 1/2 of second. The ISO was 50 for all of them and the lens aperture was nice and small at f/22. A polarizing filter was used on some of the photos in order to allow me to use a longer exposure than the shots without the filter.

At one spot, I saw that the water was moving in a circle, like a little whirlpool or eddy, and I knew that it might make for a cool look with a longer exposure. Yup! I like the little circular smears that the little bubbles in the swirling water made.

I'll admit, I increased the contrast quite a bit when editing these next two. But I love how the ice was looking spikey, and getting the blacks a bit darker made the ice stand out a bit more.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a cool day!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

YouTube Videos Of My Photography - New

A little sunrise photo adventure above Donner Lake in Truckee, California. It's been a few years since I've shot one of my photo adventures. 

And here's a little recent YouTube Short of an icy Donner Lake shoreline.

I'm a bit out of practice but I hope to start shooting more of these "behind the scenes" videos of my photography sessions soon. Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a great day!

-Scott Thompson

This Morning's Sunrise Shoot At Donner Lake

I had a morning photoshoot scheduled today with Coach Martin of MVB Coaching. Martin trains athletes for marathons, cross country skiing and more. His beginner cross country ski lessons helped me get going with the sport right away. (He also does online consultations and training if you're interested...)

Last night, I looked at the Skyfire app and it was forecasting a great sunrise with lots of color. So a change in the plans was made and we decided to meet up even earlier, in the dark, and head out for about a 30 minute trek to a great view spot at Donner Lake, here in Truckee, California.

The forecast was correct! We ended up with some beautiful photos with a colorful sky and stunning scenery behind the action. Here are a few of my favorites from this morning:

Shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. A flash unit on the camera was used. No lens filters or tripod. The photo above was ISO 1000, aperture f/4.0, and 1/200 of a second. The photo below was ISO 640, aperture 7.1, and also 1/200 of a second. A decent amount of work was done to the RAW images in Photoshop in order to balance everything out.

Once we were done shooting images at the peak sunrise color, Martin found this wood chair and took a quick break. Gotta stop and smell the roses, even when you're a competitive athlete.

I thought I'd share a screenshot of the Skyfire app. As you can see, Friday morning was in the orange which means "GO SHOOT!" It's the best sunrise/sunset forecast app I've ever used. A dollar a week for the subscription adds up but for me, it's totally worth having.

Yes, that is frost on my beanie, it was chilly out. Tons of fun, good exercise, and some great photos too.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a photogenic day. Cheers to the weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Snow Snow and More Snow, New Photos

It's been snowing a bit in my area. Ok, it's been snowing a ton! We aren't having the biggest year yet since I've lived here in Truckee, however we are getting close...

I was planning on taking Quill dog for a snowshoe hike yesterday afternoon, but after trying it in the backyard before I left, I decided not to bring him. It was just too deep. I was ok with my snowshoes so I walked down the street to Alder Creek for a little photography fun.

As you can see in the photos, Alder Creek is buried in areas and was a bit sketchy to walk near. I didn't want to fall through the snow into the creek. It was great exercise and I ended up with a few keeper photos:

These were all shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens, handheld with no tripod or filters. I was trying to keep things simple and not add a bunch of weight, it was a tough enough hike as is. Fortunately, someone had already broken trail so some areas of my hike were a bit easier than others.

We've been getting some surprise colorful sunsets lately that were not in the forecast, so since I had some free time, I thought I'd cross my fingers and go for it. Nope... It was a dud sunset. There was a touch of warmth to the sky as you can see below, but not what I was hoping for. Oh, well, it was fun to get out.

Thank you for looking and I hope you are all having a great day!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

New Prints at Gallery 5830' in Downtown Truckee

It was a very busy holiday season at Gallery 5830' in Downtown Truckee, California. And lately, I have been busy creating more prints, canvasses, and ordering more metal prints (My studio is not set up to print on metal). It's been great, new work is up on the walls at the gallery, so I thought I'd share a few photos.

Part of my canvas print process is coating the prints with a UV and water resistant glossy coating. I can also produce non-coated glossy prints, but they get damaged easily at galleries and by moving them around a lot so I have found that a nice protective coating is best.

You can see both of the prints above on the wall at the gallery now, along with many other new pieces. Nice and full again, ready to view, enjoy, and hopefully buy...

If you ever find yourself in Truckee, please feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to meet up with you at the gallery. There have been lots of little events and exhibit openings there lately. This current exhibit below is by Ryno of www.rynoart.com They are digitally manipulated photos, something I'm not always a fan of, but these all look great! It's a fun look when done well and printed up large.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a great weekend. Cheers!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

New Snowy Truckee Photos

I took a couple short drives into town with the camera yesterday. It was dumping snow but there weren't many other vehicles on the roads so it was actually quite enjoyable. I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and proper studded snow tires so traction on snow and ice is not a problem for me, it's those other drivers that cause problems...

Because of all the fresh snow, there are hardly any places to park along the roads. Eventually, I found a little pullover along Donner Lake and stopped for a few quick photos of some snowy docks along the shore. This one below was my favorite.

Shot on a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. This ISO was 400, the lens aperture was f/8, and it was a quick 1/320 second shot. I wanted to make sure I was able to freeze the frozen snow flakes in the shot.

After getting a few dock photos and not much else, I went home thinking I was done. Quill was glad I was back as it was play time for him:

Later in the day, the sky started to clear and it was looking like it was lining up for a surprise nice sunset. So I grabbed the gear and headed back into town, this time to the Truckee River. Again, parking issues... but I was able to find a business's parking lot near the river so I parked for a few minutes and captured this scene.

Another handheld shot. It's hard to use the tripod and lens filters when it's dumping snow so simple handheld shots are usually best.

Sunset ended up being a bust. It started dumping snow again and the color in the sky did not happen. So, I took a walk in historic Downtown Truckee and ended up with these two keeper images below. I couldn't resist shooting the leg lamp! As a Christmas Story movie fan, I would totally put this up in my living room for a couple weeks out of every year. Wouldn't you???

And a nice scene of one our best restaurants in town, in my opinion. Great food and a great atmosphere there. This is usually a fairly busy corner, but not many people out yesterday.

It's snowing again today. It's that time of year, and fortunately we've been having a big winter. All of our reservoirs should fill up nicely and fingers crossed, the spring wildflowers should bloom big in a few months.

Thank you for looking and I hope you are all having a great day. Cheers!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com