Category: photography

Below are some photos taken in the Lake Tahoe area while visiting there in early October 2018. These are 218 photos selected from about 1,400 total. Here I’m sharing the 1920×1080 size versions of the photos for people use as desktop wallpaper or enjoy in other ways. They also make for fun tablet or smartphone wallpaper. If you’d like to use any of these for commercial purposes, if you’d like the originals, or have any questions about this collection of photos, feel free to contact me. Thanks!

For additional photos, see my iPhone X Tahoe Photos gallery from the same trip.

Locations Visited

During this trip, we mostly stayed in the South Lake Tahoe area. The higher altitude phots with a view of Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe are from a hike up Mount Tallac which is an ascent of about 3,290 from the trailhead to reach the 9,739 ft peak. We only climbed about 1,400 feet and turned back so we could get some sunset photos near the lake. Because of the steep ascent I burned about 2,000 calories round-trip on that hike according to my Apple Watch.

The Echo Lakes Trail at about 7,000 feet was another nice hike. At these higher altitudes the air is very crisp, dry, and fresh which is invigorating and energizing. Heading south from Tahoe, we found some nice trails and views along Highways 88, 89, and 50.

Equipment Used

I was using a Canon 6D Mark II camera. For the photos that seem to have more saturation, I had selected the Vivid or Intense options available in the CA camera setting. See page 102 of the instruction manual for further details about these features. I was using the 24-105mm USM lens that came with the camera. Although I didn’t have a tripod, the Canon Image Stabilization (second generation) seemed to work well enough.

Camera Settings

I was able to use the automatic mode for most of the photos. The camera’s choice of aperture, speed, ISO, and focal point were acceptable. Sometimes I’d switch to manual focus and at times used Aperture Priority when I wanted more control over the shot. Learn more about Aperture Priority on page 238 of the Canon 6D II instruction manual.

The Intense color setting can result in photos that seem too dark. However, using Intense that then later using software to increase the exposure will result in photos that are less washed out than if the photo had been taken without these color enhancement options. The Vivid setting is a less saturated option, but sometimes isn’t enough.

About Blurry and Abstract Images

In addition to traditionally composed photos where the subject and context are easily identified, I usually take some abstract photos as well. So, some of the photos in this collection were intentionally made blurry using manual focus to create an abstract image that could be used as a background. The in-focus version is also provided to show the subject used for the blurry photo. There are also some photos that are taken in such a way that the context is not provided, thus making the image difficult to identify. This is done intentionally.

Tahoe Area Photos

Here’s the gallery. Enjoy!