Angora Fire

Last week I was down in So Cal golfing with my dad and visiting my mom. So on Sunday afternoon I found out that South Lake Tahoe was on fire. Luckily for me the fire was on the other side of town. So yesterday I drove home into the smoke. When I got into the Carson Valley the smoke was so thick it reminded me of a foggy day at the beach. It was also very smokey down at lake level, so I knew with all the smoke that the sunset would be a good one and it was. This is the only down side to living in the mountains. Knowing that at any time a huge wildfire could erupt and destroy whatever is in its path. If you want to know more about the Angora fire here is a link the the local paper.


This picture was taken at the end of my street looking down at only a small part of the fire.

Normally you can see South Lake Tahoe and the mountains, not today.

If you look closely you can see the fire on the mountains in the background

A smoke filled sunset looking towards the west shore.

Tour de Nez

Yesterday I went down to Reno to the Tour de Nez to watch some road bike racing and take some photos. It’s been over a year since I’ve photographed any type of a sport and I had a great time doing it again! For some of you that don’t know that’s how I got into photography in the first place, by taking photos of snowboarders and other sports. They had a masters race, which is for guys over 40 years of age that were probably pro at one point in their life. It was fun to watch them they were really fast and it was cool to be so close to the action. Then for the real deal, they had a pro race and I thought that the masters were fast; well the pros just strait nuked the course! They had the Columbia national team there. One guy from the Discovery Channel Team was also there and lots of other smaller pro teams from the U.S. So here are some photos that I took yesterday.

Green False Hellebore

On Tuesday I went up to the Woods Lake area to mess around with my camera. There are tons of patches of green false hellebore everywhere up there right now. So I decide to take a bunch of detail shots of these plants and I was very happy that I did. I love some of the shots that I came away with. Photo geek time: all of the photos were take with my 50mm f/1.2 set at f/1.2 and my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens set at f/2.8.

Tahoe Rim Trail Take 2

So yesterday I went and rode my mountain bike on the same stretch of the Tahoe Rim Trail that I tried riding over a month ago. Back then there was a ton of snow on the trail and now it's snow free and a blast to ride! It's a great single-track trail with epic views of the lake. As you can see by looking at the photos that I took with my point and shoot camera.

That little water way going back towards the mountains is Emerald Bay.

Weird Weather

Ok so on Monday the high temperature up here in Tahoe was about 70 degrees. Well yesterday a storm rolled in and the high was around 50 degrees. Well I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow!!!!! Yep that’s right snow in June. That isn’t uncommon though for this area. But it’s just the drastic change from the nice 70-degree temps to it snowing.

The pictures were taken from my back deck.

A view of Heavenly Ski Resort

Carson Pass

This photo was taken on Sunday afternoon at the top of Carson Pass with thunderstroms fast approaching. The lake down there is called Red Lake.

Thunderstroms

The past couple of days up here in Tahoe we’ve had thunderstorms. Well today it rained for about 40 minutes or so. When I left my place to go to the bank I noticed that there was a spot fire that was started by lighting. It’s probably about a mile or so across the valley from me. Luckily it rained a lot before it started and is still raining off and on. If it was dry lighting I think the whole forest would be on fire and I would be evacuated for sure. The picture was taken off of my side deck.