Archive for July 20th, 2009

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Landscape photographers often maintain pretty strange hours. The best light of the day almost always occurs in the margins of the day; sunrise and sunset. That often means waking well before sunrise and being out well after dark. During the long days of summer it makes for very little sleep.

This is one such, sleep deprived, image. I took it two years ago while on an extended family vacation in South Lake Tahoe. The gathering was in celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We were staying near Stateline which made Emerald Bay about a 35 minute drive. I like to be in place at least 30 minutes prior to sunrise so that meant setting the alarm for around 4:30AM.

My plan, on this particular morning, wasn’t to shoot from this spot but we were early so I stopped. The amount of light is deceiving as it was still very dark as sunrise was still another 45 minutes away. While I really couldn’t see it, I knew that if I could leave the lens open long enough there should be color along the horizon. I also knew that if I exposed to get detail in the trees and lake that the color would get blown out. Read the rest of this entry »