Chasing and Guessing
Last Friday, June 12th, I took myself up to Tahoe figuring it’d be windy and stormy again, two things I love to photograph up at Tahoe, primarily because it kicks up the waves to create some interesting scenes. It also helps with the social distancing since there aren’t too many people keen on hanging out at Tahoe when there’s a rainstorm peppering the ground with precipitation.
For this trip, I wanted to hike along the east shore, a quick and easy jaunt to Chimney and back, taking some pictures along the way. As I made my way along the shore, the sunlight penetrated the clouds intermittently, an inconsistent burn that lit up scattered sections of the shoreline. I was pretty content seeing the light unfold and getting a few pictures of that as well.
Until the rain came.
It started raining, and although I was prepared this time with my rain gear and proper footwear, it’s still not too fun when you’re getting pelted by a waterfall of relatively cold precipitation.
So I hiked back to my car and had a little snack (mozzarella cheese wrapped in prosciutto - great little snack) before driving back to the Reno/Sparks area.
Here’s where you need to be adaptable and patient.
Knowing that the light had been peeking in and out all afternoon like some atmospheric game of hide-and-seek, there was a chance the actual sunset would light up. That was on my mind as I was driving toward Incline Village.
As I peered out toward the lake (briefly - I was still driving!), I saw the horizon had a small gap of blue sky, something that most landscape photographers always have there eye on, especially with medium-to-high elevation clouds in the sky.
We need light. We guess where it shows up. And we chase it.
So I decided to chase it. The light.
As I approached the outskirts of Incline, I turned around, drove back down 28, and found parking near Hidden Beach, guessing at the possibility of some decent light to photograph. And because of the rain, most, if not all, of the people who were around that area basically vacated due to the precipitation.
So I went to a new favorite spot, found a decent composition and fired away. The end result is below.
This is a blended image. The first image used was for the bushes and trees, getting an exposure at a relatively fast shutter speed and ISO to get a clean look. The second exposure was for the waves. And I used a third exposure for the crashing wave in the background. I used a 16mm focal length for all the exposures (except for the crashing wave) and blended them in Photoshop.
Shoreline (Trees/Bushes):
Aperture - f/8
Shutter - 1/125 second
ISO - 800
Waves:
Aperture - f/16
Shutter - 1/6 second
ISO - 100
Crashing Wave:
Focal length - 18mm (aligned in PS)
Aperture - f/16
Shutter - 1/4 second
ISO - 100
