Discovery Bay, CA (Aerial Photography) - 5/27/2016

Discovery Bay, CA consists of a town built on top of a huge artificial lake surrounded by a lot of farmland. I usually describe Discovery Bay as a town and artificial lake out in the middle of nowhere. If you take a look at the town on Google Maps, you will understand why I describe the town like this. With that in mind, I thought it would be a really cool place to fly over with my DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter after looking around the area on Google Maps. I can see from satellite imagery, the roads and houses in the artificial lake made really interesting shapes and patterns. I wanted to take photos myself of these wonderful designs and this is why I performed this flight. It was very interesting seeing the designs with my own camera and aircraft. I also shot video on this flight, you can view the video here. In this blog post, I will share with you the photos I took on this flight.

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 aerial photos for 2016, use this link. To see all of my aerial photos from Discovery Bay, CA in 2016, use this link.

Aerial scenery of the huge artificial lake and residential area.  

Black and white process of the photo above. 

A top down aerial photo of Sand Point Court and the artificial lake in Discovery Bay, CA.  

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Aerial scenery of the huge artificial lake and residential area. I thought it looked really interesting having a strip of lake in between the strips of houses. 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Aerial scenery of the huge artificial lake and residential area. I thought the partial circle looked really cool. 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Aerial scenery from Discovery Bay, CA. In this photo is Slifer Park (foreground) and Timber Point School (slightly right from the center). 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Aerial panorama of Discovery Bay, CA. On the bottom right corner is Slifer Park. You can view the full resolution panorama here.  

Black and white process of the photo above. You can view the full resolution panorama here.  

Aerial scenery from Discovery Bay, CA. In this photo is Slifer Park (center) and Timber Point School (right).  

Black and white process of the photo above.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! 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.

Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 7)

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 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. First question I for you is, do you do panoramas? If you do, have your panoramas ever turn out tilted? I have an easy solution for you. In order to have a straight panorama, not only do you have to get your camera leveled out, you also have to get your tripod leveled (usually the root cause of tilted panoramas)! Most tripods only have levels for your camera but not for the legs itself, but that is easily fixed. The product I want to tell you about today is the Manfrotto 032SPL Autopole Spirit Level. This tiny level is adjustable, and fits on most tripod's center columns so you can easily level your tripod legs so you can fix the root problem with panoramas. There isn't much else to say about this, and using it is pretty self-explanatory, so if you are interested in getting your panoramas leveled and straight the time that you take it, please check out the Manfrotto 032SPL Autopole Spirit Level.

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are from my 3rd day. These photos are from my trip down to Donner Lake and also some photos from the residential area (on Point Drive for a few) near Donner Lake.

Continuing my trip down to Truckee, CA to go see Donner Lake. These first few photos are from the Hirschdale Road Exit (bridge) on I-80 near Truckee, CA.

Beautiful tall tree covered in snow at the Hirschdale Road Exit.

Then I proceeded to take a photo of the Truckee River on the bridge at the Hirschdale Road Exit. So much snow right?

Here is a photo of the bridge and a bridge for walking (not too sure what the right bridge is for) at the Hirschdale Road Exit. 

Tree covered in snow.

Then I proceeded to Truckee, CA and circled Donner Lake. This is not Point Drive yet, just some other residential area near the lake. 

More houses covered in snow! 

I think this might be Donner Creek? Not too sure though. Photo taken on the bridge on the east side of Donner Lake facing east. At approximately +39° 19' 25.31", -120° 14' 13.41" (Thanks Google Maps!). On the mountain in the distance is the Abandoned Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels.

Photography Tip: Try to use lead in lines in your photos to guide the viewer's eyes to your subject. In the photo above, the creek acts as a lead in line. 

Same location above, just facing west this time. Donner Creek (again not too sure) flowing into Donner Lake. Donner Lake off in the distance. 

Now here are the photos I took on Point Drive (a small residential road near Donner Lake). The whole road was covered in snow! In fact, the hill was so slippery, I asked my parents to park the car on the side of the main road and I just walked down there. The hill is too hard to drive down on, might get stuck, in fact as I was going up hill, I saw a guy's car just slide half way downhill! Lucky he didn't hit anyone. 

Another shot of the snow covered roads. The area sure got a lot of snow fall this year. 

The reason I circled Donner Lake was to find a wide open area where I can get some landscape shots. Didn't really find one. Most of the parks and decks had too much snow piled up to access. Here is another shot in that residential area with a small view of Donner Lake. The snowy landscapes was beautiful too, but I wanted the lake. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them! Next time I got more snowy landscapes from residential areas and also some photos from Donner Memorial State Park. 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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