Donner Lake in Truckee, CA (Part 2) - 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 2 of my trip and were taken on 2/20/2016. The photos are of Donner Lake, Donner Creek, and other random parts of Truckee, CA. You will get to see a lot of snowy winter scenery in this blog post.

A photo of Donner Lake shot from a random pier on the side of Donner Pass Road. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 30 N 120 16 11 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Another photo of Donner Lake from the same pier. You can see on the on the right that another pier is covered in snow. The one I was standing on was also covered. It was a pain to walk on. Being from the San Francisco Bay Area, I am really not used to walking in snow! Also on the mountain in the center, there is the Abandoned Historical Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 31 N 120 16 11 W

 Black and white process of the photo above.

A photo of a bush growing on the shore of Donner Lake. Photo also shot from the same pier.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 32 N 120 16 11 W

A photo of Donner Lake shot in a park on the side of Donner Pass Road. I am glad I actually got into the park this year because I remember it snowed so hard one year, the park and parking lot was just a giant pile of snow! On the mountain in the distance is the Abandoned Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 29 N 120 16 60 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

At this point in my trip, I decided to get a photo of myself at Donner Lake. This is one of my most favorite view points of Donner Lake. Sunny in a winter wonderland. :) I took the photo on a self timer. 

A photo of Donner Creek shot from South Shore Drive. This creek leads into Donner Lake. I had much better luck getting a good photo at this spot back in 2012. You can see that blog post here. There was a lot more snow that year and it looked much prettier. On the mountain in the distance is the Abandoned Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 13 N 120 17 25 W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

A photo of Donner Creek and Donner Lake from the other side of the bridge I was on for the photo above. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 13 N 120 17 25 W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

A photo of a cabin in the woods shot at Summit Court in Truckee, CA. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 14 N 120 17 28 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

I then headed to a park on the side of South Shore Drive. Here is a photo of the snow covered shore of Donner Lake. This was very hard to walk in. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 19 N 120 17 25 W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

A photo of Donner Lake shot from the park. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 20 N 120 17 21 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

A photo of Donner Lake and its shore at the park. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 19 21 N 120 17 21 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! In the next blog post I will have photos of Lake Tahoe from Tahoe City, CA. 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 | 

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)

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