New Rainbow Bridge Sunrise Photograph - And A Behind The Scenes Video

A few days ago, I got out to one of my favorite "go-to" spots for sunrise photography. It's a fairly easy spot to get to when I don't have a lot of time to spend hiking or driving further. Rainbow Bridge above Donner Lake and Truckee, California has provided many cool photos for me over the years. Although I was hoping for more explosive sunrise colors that were also higher in the sky, I really can't complain as the vibrant pinks were beautiful looking.

"Sunrise at Rainbow Bridge 4"

Photographed with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens set at 28mm. A graduated neutral density filter was used on the lens in order to darken the sky above the bridge a bit. The ISO was 400, the aperture was f11, and it was a 30 second exposure. The scene actually looked darker to the naked eye but the long exposure helped lighten the scene and also bring out more color to the lights of Truckee and Hwy 80 in the background. The RAW image was worked on in Photoshop's Camera RAW feature where I lightened the shadow areas quite a bit.

The making of this photo can be seen on a recent dtube video:





 As always, fine art prints of this image are available through my website. Canvas prints, prints on metal, and photo gift items.

Thank you for looking, reading, and watching!

-Scott Thompson

New Bottle Photos Added to the Website.

"Beauty at the Bottom: Tequila Sunrise 8"

Surprise surprise, I'm back at it again. I created more "Beauty at the Bottom" photos over the weekend. The bottles were piling up so it was time to recycle them into photographic works of art. (More about how this series was created can be found in this post)

Failed attempt at a Sunrise shot.

One of the ideas I've had with this series was to get an actual sunrise shot though a tequila bottle for the Tequila Sunrise photos. After a major failure up on Donner Summit in freezing windy conditions with no color during the sunrise, I came up with an alternative idea. I decided to bring up a sunrise photo I had shot in the past on my computer and use that to light up the bottle. Here's a photo of the set up:

Beauty at the Bottom photo set up with Casa Noble tequila bottle.

And here is the finished bottle photo paired up with the sunrise photo that were used to light up the bottle:

"Beauty at the Bottom: Tequila Sunrise 9" 

"Donner Lake Sunrise 4"

Also, I have shot through many types of alcohol bottles in the past, but this was the first time I shot through a gin bottle:

"Beauty at the Bottom: Gin 1" - This is a photograph of a gin bottle, shot right down inside the mouth of the bottle.

And here's a fun new one of the inside of a red wine bottle:

"Beauty at the Bottom: Red Wine 7" - This is a photograph of a red wine bottle bottle, shot right down inside the mouth of the bottle.

More new photos from the "Beauty at the Bottom" series can be found on my web site's Bottle Photos Page. You can enjoy a slide show there. Images can also be purchased on the site as large fine art prints, gift items, and as stock photography. Cheers!

-Scott Thompson

Lunar Eclipse over Downtown Truckee Photo, December 10, 2011

Wow! That was beautiful. I almost didn't get out of bed but I'm so glad I did.

I just photographed the December 10th, 2011 lunar eclipse over Downtown Truckee, California and it turned out beautiful!

Here they are, enjoy. Click on an image for purchasing options. Available as fine art prints and to license and download right now as stock photography.

-Scott

"Lunar Eclipse over Downtown Truckee, CA. 2" - Photograph of the December 10th, 2011 lunar eclipse over Downtown Truckee, California.

Photographed with a Canon 5D MarkII, 100-400 lens, ISO 400. f8, 2.5 second exposure, flash, tripod, and cable release were used.

"Lunar Eclipse over Downtown Truckee, CA. 1" - Photograph of the December 10th, 2011 lunar eclipse over Downtown Truckee, California.