Icicles & Snowstorm (Part 1) - Truckee/Tahoe February 2016

Back in February 2016, I took at trip to Truckee, CA and Lake Tahoe (both California and Nevada side). Most of the photos are of snowy winter scenery. I visited places such as Donner Lake, Tahoe City, Kings Beach, Abandoned Historical Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels, and more. I took many photos and are here to share with you. The photos will be split over several blog posts. If you have been following me on here, you'd know there has been a ton of stuff happening in my life such as my old computer breaking down and health issues I've had to deal with. This delayed my photo processing by a very long time which is why I am only posting them now. I also did vlogs on this trip. If you are interested in viewing them, you can do so here.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best Lake Tahoe and Truckee photos for 2012 and 2015, use this link. To see my best monochrome and abstract photos for 2016, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 

The photos for today are from day 1 of my trip and were shot on 2/19/2016. The photos are abstract photos of icicles, and scenery photos during a snowstorm in Truckee, CA. I didn't take that many photos on day 1 because my friends and I didn't arrive in Truckee, CA until 3 AM that day (we left for Truckee on the 18th at night), and then we spent 2 hours shoveling snow out of the driveway and settling in. We barely got any sleep that night.

 There were some icicles hanging down from above at the balcony of the place we were staying at. I thought they would make a great abstract shot with some nice bokeh in the background. I darkened the background by lighting the icicles with my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Photography Tip: If you want to isolate a subject by darkening the background, make sure you have some distance between the subject and the background. You can achieve the effect by overpowering the flash and underexposing the shot. Flash drop off is exponential. The subject closer to you will get a lot more light than objects further away. 

Another abstract photo of the icicles shot using the same method as I have detailed above.  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 Another abstract photo of the icicles with some trees in the background. 

My friends and I went to a local Safeway in Truckee, CA to get some food for the weekend. I shot this photo from a snow pile in the Safeway parking lot. This is the beginning of a snowstorm. You can see the snowstorm on the mountain in the distance. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 35 N 120 12 26 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

I decided to take some snowstorm photos. Here is a photo from Snowpeak Way in Truckee, CA.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 21 12 N 120 15 17 W 

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

A snowstorm and tree photo from the the parking lot for Tahoe Donner Ski Area in Truckee, CA.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 21 19 N 120 15 27 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

It was still snowing, but it did die down a bit. Here is another photo from Snowpeak Way.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 21 14 N 120 15 23 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Another photo from Snowpeak Way.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 21 14 N 120 15 21 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.

Here is a photo of Sunny (me) in a bikini! A wild girl at heart. :) As I mentioned earlier, my friends and I were all very tired from the previous night. We had a hot tub so we decided to go soak in the hot tub for a while. I came up with the idea of having a swimsuit shoot before we did. I set up the camera with the flash and gave it to my friend Lilly who took the photos of me. I also helped to take a few photos of her too, but I don't think she wants the photos of her on here. Lilly said she is fine with me posting the photos of me here though.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! In the next blog post I will have photos of Donner Lake and Donner Creek. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 

Truckee & Tahoe (Part 1) - February 2016 Vlog

I went up to Truckee, CA with a few friends for vacation, sightseeing, and of course photography. Here is part 1 of the 3 part vlog series where I visited Truckee, Donner Lake, and Lake Tahoe. In the vlogs, you will get to see the videos of the places I took photos at, get some tips and tricks for photography and traveling in the great outdoors, and see little bits of my hangout with my friends (yes, it did get a bit crazy in a few of the clips).

In this vlog:

• Lots and lots of snow. 
• It is snowing in Truckee and I was taking photos out in the snowstorm!
• Hot tub with Sunny in a bikini. We play with icicles. 
• Donner Lake & Donner Creek
• Truckee River (Drive to Tahoe)

Warning: Hateful, rude, anti-LGBT comments will be deleted, and you may be banned from my channel.

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Yosemite National Park/Mono Lake (Yosemite Falls Comparison)

Yosemite National Park is a national park located in California that stretches eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of California and covers around 761,268 acres or 3,080.74 km² of land. Yosemite National Park is best known for its waterfalls, deep valleys, grand meadows, giant sequoias, giant wilderness area, and much more. Mono Lake, a salt lake east of Yosemite National Park that is located in Mono County, California, covers a total of 45,133 acres or 182.65 km². The lake is famous for its high salt content and its tufa formations. I have visited both of those areas and are here to show you some of the photos I took at these two places along with some other photos I have taken along the route. These photos will be divided over several blog posts. I hope you enjoy the photos! If you would like to get notifications when I do post, you can Like/Follow me on the following fan pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Yosemite National Park photos from 2012, use this link. To view all of my photos from Yosemite National Park photos from 2012, use this link.

Parts: Yosemite Falls Comparison | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | HDR Compositions | Panoramas | 

Now let's introduce today's photo. That's right, I said photo... Technically it's 3 photos, but I combined them to form one photo. In today's article, I just want to do a comparison of Yosemite Falls between the fall this year, and the fall in 2010. You will be quite surprised at what it looks like. You can click the photo to see it magnified.

Surprising right? There was like no water at all except for a few small drops of water (shown on the left). It was very dry and hot there. The amount of tourists I saw that was in bikinis, bathing suits, and swimming trunks that walked away in disappointment. HAHA For me, it was also kind of a disappointment too. I was able to get photos of the empty waterfall to show you guys, but I really wanted to go in the water to cool down and splash around in. :/ I still remember back in 2010 when I got to walk in the water. It was a really great experience and I really loved it. In fact, I heard people say there is no water from people who visited the park before me, but I didn't expect it to be this dry. I thought there would still be a some left, and in my head, I was picturing like 1/8 the amount of water as before. I really thought there would be a little bit of water to play in, but I was wrong. It was a really dry season sadly.

Well, this is all I wanted to show you guys today. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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