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