This Morning's Sunrise Shoot At Donner Lake

I had a morning photoshoot scheduled today with Coach Martin of MVB Coaching. Martin trains athletes for marathons, cross country skiing and more. His beginner cross country ski lessons helped me get going with the sport right away. (He also does online consultations and training if you're interested...)

Last night, I looked at the Skyfire app and it was forecasting a great sunrise with lots of color. So a change in the plans was made and we decided to meet up even earlier, in the dark, and head out for about a 30 minute trek to a great view spot at Donner Lake, here in Truckee, California.

The forecast was correct! We ended up with some beautiful photos with a colorful sky and stunning scenery behind the action. Here are a few of my favorites from this morning:

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Shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. A flash unit on the camera was used. No lens filters or tripod. The photo above was ISO 1000, aperture f/4.0, and 1/200 of a second. The photo below was ISO 640, aperture 7.1, and also 1/200 of a second. A decent amount of work was done to the RAW images in Photoshop in order to balance everything out.

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Once we were done shooting images at the peak sunrise color, Martin found this wood chair and took a quick break. Gotta stop and smell the roses, even when you're a competitive athlete.

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I thought I'd share a screenshot of the Skyfire app. As you can see, Friday morning was in the orange which means "GO SHOOT!" It's the best sunrise/sunset forecast app I've ever used. A dollar a week for the subscription adds up but for me, it's totally worth having.

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Yes, that is frost on my beanie, it was chilly out. Tons of fun, good exercise, and some great photos too.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a photogenic day. Cheers to the weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

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13 comments
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Love that second shot with the clouds behind Martin. All are quality though. Happy Friday 🙂

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Thanks! I wasn't sure which one to lead with. A Donner Summit background was the original plan so I went with that one. There was about 10 minutes where it was colorful in every direction. It was a good one!

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What a wonderful place to cross country ski. You can really breathe pure air of freedom from what you see in the photos! Beautiful share, have a wonderful weekend!

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Glad you like the photos! Yes, it's a great place to cross country ski and snowshoe. And there were some groomed trails that brought us out to that spot too. Cheers!

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Incredible setting for a ski. I hope to get out snowshoeing tomorrow.

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Indeed! And it looks like someone might be upset if you don't...

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Ass in a chair, and skis on his feet. It remains only to take the fishing rod in hand.

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...or a beer! It was a bit early for a !BEER though.

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Oh, yes, and beer in the other hand. :)

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