Wingfield Park - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 9)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

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 see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see my best sunset and night photos of 2012, 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 | 10 | 11 | 

Before I get started on today's blog post, I would like to tell you about a great product that I own. Let me ask you first: Do you have a device like the Canon EOS 7D that only takes Compact Flash cards? Hate the big prices on the Compact Flash Cards? What if I tell you that you can use your current SD cards lying around your house in these devices? Well you can with the SD-CF II: SD to CF Type II Adapter. This little adapter will adapt all your SD cards (SDHC and SDXC) into a CF card! Unlike other brands of adapters, I can shoot 1080p video on my camera with no breaks! Other cheaper adapters sometimes don't have the speed to support 1080p video, this adapter is not one of them. If you are tight on your photography budget and have a bunch of SD cards lying around, this adapter is definitely a must have for you!

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are from the night of my 3rd day. That night I decided to do some night long exposures, mainly in Wingfield Park in Downtown Reno of the Truckee River. After thinking about it, I have decided to leave the photos from the 4th day of my trip for next time.

Truckee River facing east. The mountains off in the distance was not visible to the naked eye that night but the camera picked it up in the long exposure. Sure surprised me! 

Now facing towards Harrah's hotel. The direction should be southwest.  

 Another shot facing southwest from a different angle towards Harrah's hotel. 

Now just facing west. The city's lights really cast a great color on the clouds!

Another shot facing east. Again the mountains were only visible to the camera when I exposed for the shot. 

Facing south. 

Facing west. 

Then I did a shot from my hotel room of Downtown Reno. The reflection you see is my camera lens. I turned off all the lights but some reflections still showed up. 

These are all the photos for today and I am done with photos from my 3rd day. Next time I will begin the photos from my 4th and last day of my trip. I hope you have enjoyed these! 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 Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Night Photography/Midway in Circus Circus - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 4)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

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 see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see my best sunset and night photos of 2012, 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 | 10 | 11 | 

Before I get started today, I would like to tell you about a great product to add to your camera bag. The product I would like to tell you about today is called the Giottos Rocket Air Blaster. This product is pretty much a rubber air blower. You squeeze on the ball and a big puff of air comes out of the tip. I always use this product on my lens before I wipe to get rid of any big  particles that could potentially scratch my lens. It usually does a good job and I don't even need to wipe! This product also lets me dislodge any dust that have gotten onto my sensor without even touching it. This is usually all I need to bring my sensor back to a clean state. Not only is this product great for cameras, I also use it to dust my keyboard and mouse. Another great feature that sets this product apart from other air blowers is that it includes a patented one way valve that prevents you from sucking up and dust that you have just dislodged! Greatest invention ever and I never regretted my purchase because it is so useful. If you don't have one, you should get a Giottos Rocket Air Blaster now! The company makes the product in 3 sizes: Large (Also Available In Red), Medium, and Small. The company also makes a Q-Ball Version that has a flexible tip that can be angled.

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are some of the photos I took on the second day of my trip at night. It includes some night time long exposures, indoor long exposures, and some photos from the performance I saw at Circus Circus. For the performance, the rest of the photos of the performance will come in the next blog post.

 Like I showed you in Part 2, it was snowing in Reno. This view was taken from Harrah's parking lot. If you compare it to the same view in Part 1, I think you'd agree with me that the snow adds a nice "fog" to the whole image bringing out all the lights in the buildings. In fact, I used my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT to capture a few falling snow flakes. See those dots in the upper right hand corner? Those were snowflakes falling captured with several flashes (Using Multi) of my Speedlite. 

Afterward, I went into the city to take some of the snowy landscape in the city. Very different from the dry landscapes I showed you in Part 1. Great photo ideas here!

 Here is another night long exposure with part of a car captured using my Speedlite. 

Try out a Giottos Rocket Air Blaster today!

It was a bit cold and wet outside for me so I headed back to the hotel. Here is a long exposure I did indoors at Harrah's before the security guard headed my way. LOL Probably was going to tell me not to loiter. Anyways, just got one shot before I went to go drop off some stuff in my room and headed to Circus Circus.  

Midway at Circus Circus! This photo actually turned out great, but I was testing out my camera settings (ISO, Aperture) before the show started.  

 And the show begins!

It was an okay show, but wish there were more performers. 

These are all the photos I have for today. I hope you have enjoyed all of the night long exposures and the photo of the performance at Circus Circus! The rest of the photos I took of the performance will come next time. Thank you for looking! 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 Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Donner Lake/Reno At Night - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 1)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

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 see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see my best sunset and night photos of 2012, 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 | 10 | 11 | 

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) These photos are from my first day of the trip, on my way to Reno, NV. My first photos are just before sunset, and after I arrived in Reno, NV, I took some night street photography in downtown.

This was on the road right before sunset. First snow I saw and I turned out first chance I got. :) Story doesn't just stop here, see the rest under the next photo. :P 

 So I turned out and parked on the side of the road doing some long exposures because it was right before sunset, dark out... The next thing I know, this cop car drove by and screamed at me and this other car parked there, this is private property, you can't park here. LOL So I continued my trip after this shot. A lot of snow though. :P Loved it!

Obviously this photo was taken after sunset. I stopped at the Vista Point on I-80 to see Donner Lake. This first one was a 30 second exposure. 

I noticed the 30 second exposure seemed a bit dark so I pulled out my remote shutter release and did a 1 minute exposure instead.  

 The hotel I stayed at was Harrah's in Downtown Reno. Before I headed to the hotel lobby, I took a night long exposure from the parking lot. Sure was cold, but it was worth it. The day I arrived, the weather was pretty good, no snow. I picked the good days to go and leave Reno so driving wouldn't be hazardous.

As my parents went to go check-in to our hotel room, I decided to get a long exposure inside the lobby. The blur is all the people walking around.  

 Here is another long exposure in the lobby. Can't believe the people on the left barely moved! XD

After I dropped off some stuff in the hotel room, I decided to go downtown and do some night exposures of the lights. 

Here is another shot of Cal-Nevada with a car driving by.  

 Here is a shot of the road between Cal-Nevada and Harrah's.

I thought all the lights would make great bokeh! I was right. :) Looks cool doesn't it? 

Here is an in focus shot of the photo above. Love night time long exposures, they are fun, except I was freezing to death in the cold. LOL 

 Here is another bokeh shot with my lens on the 35mm (farthest zoom). Looks cool doesn't it?

Here is the Reno sign. I tried to to a bokeh on this too, but it didn't turn out cool. The lights were too close together.  

Long exposure of Eldorado. 

I hope you have enjoyed these snow photos and long exposure night photos! These are all the photos I have for today, next time I will start on photos from the next day. 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.

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