fun around caples lake

the end of summer is typically when i find time to go camping with the girls. this year it is the same. the last two weeks we have spent roaming around caples lake and emigrant lake. actually, we camped at caples lake during the first week and made an unsuccessful attempt at hiking to emigrant lake. i didn’t give us enough time and as a result tried to push the girls too hard. the next week i made sure we had all day to do it, and i made sure not to forget the bug spray. the trip did present me with a plethora of photo opportunities and some excellent learning opportunities as well. all the shots here were taken with the EOS Rebel T2i. the vast majority were with the 18-55 kit lens. hover over the images for exif data

for instance, after finishing the day off fishing at caples, the moon and the sun were setting simultaneously

with the moon already set and very little in the way of light pollution, it was a good night for practicing some astrophotography. this is where we camped

more fishing the next evening. we were one fish away from being skunked for the trip

fishing on caples lake with round top and the sisters in the background

campfires are fun, skylyn enjoys her perfect marshmallow

jasmyn practices her penmanship

skylyn too gets into the light writing. we didn’t see this shooting star as it occurred. turns out though that wishes made on pictures of shooting stars can come true too.

ghosts of caples lake. during the 30 second exposure, i painted the girls with a little light and then we switched spots so they could paint me with a little light

big and small

teh milky way. you’ll notice the stars look a little sharper in this one than the last. i bumped the iso up one full stop to 6400 while dropping the exposure time one stop down to 15 seconds, thus reducing the star trail effect

orbs. i’ll be practicing more of this in the future. this was with a head lamp, which is directional. it is best done with a non-directional light source on a string.

the next day we attempted to hike to emigrant lake, but we left a little late given i had to work at 4. still, it was a nice day for a walk. we started at the emigrant lake trailhead, home of the caples lake spillway

forest of flowers

fast forward to the next week. another opportunity at emigrant lake. we started at the woods creek fishing access at the southeast point of caples lake. this saved us some distance, but involved bushwhacking and several creek crossings (this is emigrant creek). i wish i had bumped up the iso to 200 for this one.

we made to the lake. turns out it is beautiful in the summer too. not sure why i shot this at f5 instead of 3.5

we found a nice rock to sit on and have lunch. i thought i had this focused on the girls, but it looks like i missed a bit. lesson-use the manual focus some times. this was with the sigma 50-200

the sigma is a capable piece of glass though

this is one of my favorites. i like these candid shots much better than the posed in most cases. also with the sigma 50-200

emigrant creek just as it leaves the lake is quite the beautiful spot

with lots of small fry

thanks for looking! love me some comments/criticisms