Waves

Some waves at Tahoe. Not the ones that splashed me though.

Hello! Since this is the first post on this website, I figured I’d open briefly with the intentions of a blog here. I definitely want to talk about photography in general, along with writing my thoughts about some of the captures I’ve posted. I’m still in the process of learning photography and with this art form, just like any other, you’re never ever done acquiring new knowledge.

So to begin, we’ll talk about the picture taken last weekend (the picture above), when a storm rolled into Northern Nevada, which was preceded by strong gusts that whipped up some wave action along Lake Tahoe’s east shore.

That made me giddy. That’s right, I said giddy.

First of all, I try to get to my location an hour or two before the actual time I’d like to shoot. Though honestly, when I say “try,” that really means 1 out of 3 times when I actually get there as scheduled. The other two are usually spur of the moment rush jobs. Like it was in this case. When I arrived, I had a quick 30 minutes to find a composition and set-up shop.

Now I thought I had scouted the place well, observed where the waves were crashing and reaching the rocky shoreline. I chose an initial spot that I thought was safe.

I was wrong.

I ended up getting splashed at least 3 times during the course of my first set-up. I actually have a picture of the water just before it hit me. And not just gentle little splashes that lightly douse your clothes. I’m talking about those surprise waves that crash so violently against the shoreline that it kicks the water at least 6 - 7 feet in the air (for Tahoe, that’s pretty high), splashing further inland than you anticipated. Luckily, my jacket was water resistant so that helped, at least partly.

My jeans, however, weren’t as apt to repel water. And that was it. I decided to find another composition.

This also re-emphasized the thought: when shooting near water, even at Tahoe, always watch out for yourself, especially around some larger waves.

So for the next 10 - 15 minutes, I was scrambling around, trying to find another shot in half-drenched jeans as the light started fading slightly, starting it’s slow descent behind the curtain of storm clouds approaching from the west.

And just as the light was diminishing, the above image is what I found.

Now, I’ve definitely processed this a bit, boosting the saturation and vibrance, just to give the picture a little pop. I also blended another exposure into this shot, to get the waves I wanted within the frame. I think, overall, I took around 300 shots, most of them trying to time the capture to get the three waves into a frame.

I came close, but ultimately decided to do this little blend.

I definitely like the pop of colors along with the hint of the sun coming from the top right of the frame. I also like the aqua-green of the Tahoe waters shining through in this shot.

So there you have it. The first blog post. I’ve written blogs before, but could never stay consistent with a schedule. It’s not because I’m lazy (well, maybe a small bit of it is due to laziness). But I am a teacher, so that does take up a lot of my time. We’ll see if I can either post blogs on Saturdays or perhaps even twice a week.

We’ll see.