This Morning's Sunrise At A Chilly Donner Lake

The ice has been looking incredible around here lately. We could really use a fresh coat of snow, it's been a while, but for now I will be getting more cool photos like these.

Yesterday, the MySunset app was forecasting a nice sunrise so I set the alarm for 4:30am and made it out to nearby Donner Lake here in Truckee, California. I saw a few posts on social medias recently that showed some of the ice build up along Donner's shoreline. It's a different look than usual so I knew I had to capture it.

These were all shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens. A tripod and a graduated neutral density filter were used.

This first photo was ISO 320, the aperture was f/22, and it was a 25 second exposure. A headlamp was used to provide light on the ice, without it the ice was dark and you could barely see it in the photos.
1.

This second photo was my personal favorite. The ISO was 50, the aperture was f/22, and it was a 3.2 second exposure. I zoomed in a bit with the 16-35mm lens, it was set at 23mm.

2.

This shot below was taken right after the one above. It is a stitched panoramic photo. Seven horizontal images were stitched together in Photoshop in order to capture this very wide angle view.

3.

The photos above are numbered 1-3. I like the second best but I'm curious, which one is your favorite?

Thank you for looking and I hope you all have a "cool" day!

Scott Thompson
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com