It was another beautiful morning here in Truckee, California! Last night, the Skyfire app forecast was for a good sunrise so I woke up at 4:30am and headed up to Rainbow Bridge. It's a favorite local spot of mine. When the road is plowed it is fairly easy access. I was glad I had spiked crampons attached to my boots for a bit more grip on the icy snow, but I would have probably been fine without them.
The first photos I shot were pre-dawn, the colors started early. They kept getting better and eventually exploded with the oranges and yellows that I love. Those colors always look great when printed.
I was concerned that this area would have a lot of foot prints in the snow as it often does. There's a small parking lot nearby and a lot of people stop there for Donner selfies and maybe a quick hike. Fortunately, the snow looked perfect and I'm very happy with the smooth cool foreground in this shot.
An inversion caused some clouds to settle over Donner Lake. The lake is mostly covered but you can see a bit of it still. Usually the inversions completely cover the lake. Another win!
The yellow streak in the lower center is a "light trail" from a driving car. I took some shots without cars but I like how the light emphasized the bend in the road and I thought it went well with the arc of the bridge.
Shot on a Canon 5DS R with a 16-35mm lens set at 16mm. A graduated neutral density filter was used on the front of the lens in order to balance out the foreground light with the sky exposure. ISO 400, the lens aperture was f/6.3, and it was a 30 second exposure.
And of course, I usually try to get that selfie... The Samsung S22 was struggling with focus for some reason, this is obviously a bit soft but I wanted to share how happy I was looking. It was worth the early wake up!
Thanks for looking and I hope you all are having a great day too. Cheers!
Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com
