My Top Ten Photos Of 2023 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's that time of year where I like to look back at the photos I've shot this past year, and choose my top ten favorites. These aren't necessarily the crowd favorites or the ones that got the most attention on social medias. These are the images that stick out to me as being special and that I'm especially proud of.

1. "Donner Lake Sunrise 47"
I really like how smooth the snow is in this shot. It's a very popular area and capturing it with no footprints or ski/snowboard tracks is rare. The sunrise was a great one and the arcs of the bridge, shadow, and car on the road all came together to create a great look.

2. "Old Hwy 40 At Night 3"
Yes, I've shot this location a few time in the past, but not with the Milky Way over Donner Lake. It was a cold evening, but totally worth it!

3. "Sunrise at Paradise Lake 5"
From a backpacking adventure to Paradise Lake, a favorite little local lake of mine. The water was perfectly smooth, the sunrise was a nice one, and the red leaves on the plants all made it a "keeper"!

4 - "Donner Lake in Autumn 27"
I shot a ton of photos of Donner Lake this fall. Well... I now live across the street from the lake! It makes it "easy" to get out there when the light is looking perfect. I really like the reflection of the yellow Cottonwood trees in this shot.

5. "Donner Lake Sunset 72"
Yup, another Donner Lake shoreline shot! The sunset fired off big time, it was one of my favorite shows of the year.

6. "Donner Lake in Autumn 32"
Did I mention that I shot a ton of Donner Lake photos this fall??? Fall colors, mixed with the low fog on the water, and a nice sunburst... Bam! This one was incredibly popular with the locals on other social medias.

7. "Lake Tahoe 5"
Alright... This one was genuinely my favorite photo of the year. It was a fairly simple shot. But it was a case of being at the right spot, at the right time. I was fishing from a boat, enjoying this view, when I got out the camera for a quick photo. This image is the new "cover image" on my website www.ScottShotsPhoto.com.

8 - "Icy Abstract 6"
A super cool photo... We've had some cold days this winter, but not a lot of snowy ones. This means there has been a lot of ice built up along the streams and creeks. I really like the composition of this macro shot. It would look "cool" printed up extra large and hanging on a wall.

9. "Sunset at Lake Tahoe 54"
It's hard to go wrong with a Lake Tahoe sunset photo. This recent sunset was particularly beautiful and serene. Another one that was incredibly popular with the locals on social media.

10 - "Donner Lake Sunset 74"
And #10, just made it onto the list! Shot 12-29-23. I love the rock spiral. The sunset was nice, but the spiral makes it a unique photo.

All of these images are available as large (and small) fine art prints on my website in the "Recent Work Gallery". Here's a SLIDESHOW of the images. Each image above is numbered, I'm curious, which is your favorite???

Thank you for looking. I hope you all had a great 2023. Cheers to 2024! Happy New Year!!!!!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

New Donner Lake Sunset Photograph

The water level at Donner Lake is fairly low right now, it always is this time of year. They drain it a bit in order to protect the docks and piers around the lake from any ice that forms. I wanted to get a new shot of the boulders that get exposed on the south side of the lake when this happens. So, yesterday afternoon, I walked out to that spot with my camera gear.

While there, I found this rock spiral that someone had built. The lake's water level was perfect for flooding the spiral, but leaving the rocks exposed. As soon as I saw the spot, I pretty much knew that it is were I would be when I set up the gear. Lucky me, we had a nice sunset, and I think I came away with another great photo!

These were both shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens. This camera's ISO was 50, and the lens aperture was f22. Two graduated neutral density filters were used on the front of the lens. The settings and the filters allowed me to have a long exposure of about 6 seconds. The long exposure allowed for the ripples in the water to look more smooth, which creates a better reflection.

Yup, once again... A happy photographer!

Thank you for looking and I hope you are all having a great weekend.

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe - Sunset Photo Shoot - Video

 

Join me for a behind the scenes look at my recent sunset photo shoot above Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe. Camera settings and techiques are discussed. The "keeper" photos are shown throughout the video.

Prints are available of the images in this video. For more information, please visit my "Recent Work Gallery"

Thank you for watching!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Christmas Eve Sunset Photo

The Sky Fire app was calling for a nice sunset on Christmas Eve, so I got out again to Lake Tahoe for some photography fun. Well, Merry Christmas to me, it was a great one! It was also a short one... The sunset colors only lasted a few minutes, I was feeling lucky to have captured a nice panoramic image above Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe at the peak of the colorful explosion.

This first image is a stitched panoramic image. Meaning, I shot several photos while panning the camera on the tripod. I then stitched the images together using a program called PTGui. In my opinion, PTGui almost always does a better job of stitching images together when compared to using Photoshop's panorama tool. It is 14 photos, that are combined in to one wide high resolution photo. Shot with the Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens. The camera's ISO was 50, the lens aperture was f/16, and each of the 14 exposures were 10 seconds long. A tripod was used, and a 1.2 stop graduated neutral density filter was used on the front of the lens.

This second image was also shot with the Canon 5DS R, but a 24-105 mm lens was used, and the lens was set at 88mm. It is a much closer look at the intense sunset colors, most of the colors in the clouds had faded by the time I set up this shot.The camera's ISO was 50, the lens aperture was f/16, and it was a 10 second exposure. A tripod was used, and a 1.2 graduated neutral density filter was used on the front of the lens. Yup! It was the same settings as the images for the photo above, the only difference was the lens choice.

And this selfie... well, it was shot with the Samsung S22+. Happy photographer!

Thank you for looking!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com