Last week, I got out to one of my favorite spots on Lake Tahoe called Secret Cove. There wasn't a ton of yellow fall foliage but there was a cottonwood tree and some other shrubbery that had turned color and were incredibly photogenic in the afternoon sunlight. I posted a dtube video about the adventure, that can be found HERE if you missed it.

One of the great things about this time of year in Tahoe, besides the colorful foliage, is that it is the slow season as far as tourists go. It's a little cooler out so you don't find nearly as many people at the Tahoe beaches as you do in the summertime. There were only a few other people at Secret Cove which allowed me to get some compositions that would normally have people in the shot on a warm summer day.

Here are a few of the "keeper" photos at Secret Cove. I'm curious...

Which Secret Cove image is your favorite?

click images to view large
#1

#2

All of these images were shot with a Canon 5DS R. The images above were shot with a 16 -35mm lens set at 16mm. A tripod and a polarizing filter were used. The polarizer helped cut through the glare on the surface of the water and bring out more color saturation in the yellow leaves and blue sky. The ISO was 50, nice and low so these will look great when printed huge, with very little digital noise. The aperture was f22, a smaller aperture of f22 helps create a bigger and better looking sunburst. The shutter speed on the first image was 1/6 second and the second image was 1/10 second.

#3

The image above was shot using a 24-105mm lens set at 24mm. A polarizing filter was also used for the same reasons as above. The ISO was also 50. The aperture was f20. Although I wasn't worried about using a small aperture for a sunburst, the smaller aperture can help get a better depth of field where the foreground and background are sharp, in focus.

The image below is a fun over/under photo! I used my camera's underwater housing and dipped the camera in Lake Tahoe so that half the lens was above the water, and half was below. No polarizing filter was used since it does not work with the lens ring needed for the underwater housing. The ISO was 400, a bit higher since I shot this handheld and I need to use a faster shutter speed of 1/200 second. The aperture was f18, small enough to still get a good sunburst.

#4

Personal update:
Yesterday I had the pleasure of hanging out with @freedompoint and @freedomtowrite at their campsite deep in the Tahoe woods. I'm embarrassed to say that not a single photo or video clip was taken but we did have a great time and had fun and long conversations. If you follow them and you are wondering why they haven't been posting, there is no cell signal where they are staying and it's a pretty long and rough dirt road to their site so they can't easily drive into town for cell signal. But I hope to be meeting up with them again soon so we can see some of my favorite spots on Lake Tahoe, maybe even Secret Cove...

Thank you for reading!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography