Yesterday's Sunset Photo Adventure

avatar

I was lucky to get out yesterday afternoon for a little 4x4ing and a photo adventure. The plan was to drive down to a spot at Stampede Reservoir (north of Truckee, California a bit) to photograph the Kokanee salmon run using my Canon camera's underwater housing. I've been to this spot and shot there before but this year, the fish seem to be a bit behind schedule. When I finally got there, after a pretty rough drive down the unmaintained dirt road, I was incredibly disappointed as I only found two dead Kokanee and no alive ones. Bummer!

20190922_1733001.jpg

One dead Kokanee Salmon above and one disappointed photographer below.

20190922_173453.jpg

I was actually at this spot about three weeks ago. A fishing buddy and I approached the area by boat, and then walked rather than by 4x4. We saw that it was still too early then but I thought it would be good to go this time. Wrong.

However, I did see that they put the gate back up across the river. I believe it's fish and game rangers that do this, it stops the Kokanee from going further upstream and allows the rangers to collect eggs from the fish to bring to a fish hatchery. I believe this means I'm not too late, I just need to go back and check the area again in a couple of weeks...

20190922_173339.jpg

Well, after my failed attempt at some over/under shots of the Kokanee, I walked around a bit to see if I could find a decent scene for sunset. I considered driving back to Donner Lake, a more popular lake, but it was getting too late and I didn't have enough time, so I explored where I was.

The best scene I could find was this patch of red/pink ground cover plant. Not the most interesting foreground but I felt it was the best I was going to find out there.

20190922_182800.jpg

Luckily, we had a decent sunset and I ended up with this "keeper" shot below. Not my best work but I was happy to redeem myself after a failed fish photo attempt. Stampede Reservoir is hard to see but if you look closely, you can see it in the background. I'm pretty happy with the shot. I doubt it will ever sell as a big print but it is still going to make it onto my website.

_Q1A0205b.jpg
Shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens set at 16mm. Two graduated neutral density filters were used on the front of the lens in order to darken the sky a bit and balance the sky exposure with the foreground exposure. A polarizing filter was also used in order to get a bit more color from the clouds. The ISO was 50 and the aperture was f20. This all let to an exposure time of 13 seconds so a tripod was used.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all had a great weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
portraitandlogo200.jpg

left.gifscottshots.gif


0
0
0.000
16 comments
avatar

Oh yeah! If nothing else, you certainly got a great sunset! Nice!

0
0
0.000
avatar

It was great to see the sunset, definitely made me feel better about not shooting the fish. Cheers!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
TIBLogo

You have been curated by @freedompoint on behalf of Inner Blocks: a community encouraging first hand content, with each individual living their best life, and being responsible for their own well being. #innerblocks Check it out at @innerblocks for the latest information and community updates, or to show your support via delegation.
0
0
0.000
avatar

Super shots looks like you had a really nice day out and about

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you! It was a great day for sure. Went to that spot again yesterday. Post coming soon...

0
0
0.000
avatar

I can see you have enjoyed your day.. Such a gorgeous place to visit and for photo-shoot....

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's an awesome spot to visit for sure. Went there again yesterday and the kokanee salmon were looking great. Post coming soon... Cheers!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh really... That would be nice.. Did you shared those pictures anywhere else buddy??

Posted using Partiko Android

0
0
0.000