Summer Sunset Over Rocks on Lake Tahoe East Shore near Bonsai Rock with Lens Flare and Mountains
by Brian Ball
Title
Summer Sunset Over Rocks on Lake Tahoe East Shore near Bonsai Rock with Lens Flare and Mountains
Artist
Brian Ball
Medium
Photograph
Description
Taken July 9th, 2016 just off of NV-28 in New Washoe City, NV
Destiny Not Luck
Do you believe in destiny? What about luck? It's true, I've been extremely lucky in this life so far and am more than happy to share as much as I can with everyone while I'm here. Regarding destiny, well... that's an entirely different topic of conversation that seems to be hit or miss for a lot of people. Were you and I destined to share this moment together by way of this image? Perhaps. Was a bit of luck involved? Definitely.
After having lived in Northern Nevada for about 6 years now, I'm only now finding myself headed to Tahoe on mini photo journeys, and this shot marks the first shot I was able to happily walk away with from my virgin experience at Bonsai Rock.
Having no idea really of how to find the location, I did my best with Google Maps and found a parking spot on the side of NV-28, not terribly far away from what I assumed to be the famous rock island. There were no trail markers or signs, so I picked one of three or so visible trails and headed down the steep cliff to the water. I guess I picked the wrong trail (the one to the far left/south), as when I reached the water, there was no sign of my intended destination. Mind you, it was pretty hot out and the sun was blazing down. I was carrying my tripod and camera gear and left the canteen with water in the car, which in retrospect was a bit foolish. So, I started weaving my way back up and down the steep cliff for what seemed like half an hour before I caught a glimpse of the elusive natural wonder.
When I finally got close enough to see it, I also noticed several other photographers setup to the right / north of the rock, pretty much where I was hoping to shoot from. Not wanting to disrupt the others, I settled on a rocky location a bit to the south. This spot also happened to provide a nice view of this cluster or rocks seen here, in perfect alignment of where the sun would be setting. Maybe this was destiny? I'm not exactly sure, but went with it.
After finally reaching my destination and getting setup, the beauty was incredible, which was a welcome juxtaposition to my parched throat and sweat-drenched t-shirt; but hey, many have lived longer with far less, and I was too proud (stubborn) to make the trek back up to the car, so there I stayed.
What we're looking at here is a 5-shot composite of exposures merged together using Lightroom's HDR photo merge function. Subtle color and tone adjustments were made in LR and a little more color embellishment took place in Color Efex Pro before calling it done.
Uploaded
August 8th, 2016
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