This Morning's Moon Setting Over Donner Lake

I've been a little disappointed with my sunrise/sunset forecast app lately... It's been wrong a lot. I've been missing some good ones and waking up early for some duds. This morning's sunrise was originally supposed to be a great one, then last night the forecast dropped down to being just an ok one. Then I woke up early this morning to let the dog out and the app was again saying it was supposed to be a great one. So I quickly got dressed, grabbed the gear, and headed to the closest lake.

On my way to Donner Lake, I realized there was hardly any clouds in the sky. How can the sunrise be a colorful one with no clouds!? Oh well, the moon was still looking great so I decided to continue to the lake and go for a moonset composition.

Hey Photographers! Question for you: What is your favorite app and/or method for forecasting the sunrise and sunset quality?

This spot on the lake is very easy to access, the road where I was parked is a 30 second walk from where the tripod was. The water is kept low in the winter so there is less ice damage to all the piers and docks on the lake. Now that today is the first day of spring, they will probably start letting the lake fill back up soon. The streams and creeks have been flowing strong as the snow melts, it's time...

Shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens set at 27mm. The ISO was 640, the lens aperture was f/9, and it was a 8 second exposure. No flash or filters were used. The dock looks bright because the sky was starting to get bright behind me due to the sun rising.

The obligatory selfie... It really is me shooting these!

I was about to pack up the camera bag and call it, but I decided to get out the 100-400mm lens for a few more photos of the moon setting above Donner Summit. Glad I did! In the bottom-left of the photo below, you can see the old abandoned train tunnel that I hiked through in This Hive Post.

It was another beautiful morning out there. I hope you are all having great day today too!

Scott Thompson
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com