Reflection Lake Sunset - Tyler Westcott Photography

Reflection Lake Sunset, Lassen Volcanic National Park

I've posted a very similar shot from this location, which can be seen here (in case this looks familiar to anyone).

Once again, while working on a project I was brought back to photos from my long road trip from San Francisco to Seattle last year. The first evening we had a brief opportunity to stop at Lassen Volcanic National Park. I knew essentially nothing about the park and only had a few hours to take it in, but in those few hours I was very impressed with what I saw. Just before sunset my wife and I took a walk around this small lake at the north exit of the park, Reflection Lake. From the opposite bank of the lake you'd be looking back towards Lassen Peak and its reflection in the lake. As we were just making our way back to the car the sky lit up beautifully with the warm light of sunset. Looking back to Lassen Peak it took on an amazing pink-orange color, but I was not in a good position to photograph it, but the view across the lake was fantastic.

The small branches seen in my other photo were just at the bottom of the frame in this shot (I cloned out the bit you could see, I think I had only a small area on the bank to work with otherwise I'm sure I'd have just adjustment my position to avoid it all together). I also simulated a 1.5 stop ND Grad filter by blending two exposures, differing only in their 'exposure' value, to lighten the right side of the frame.

Lassen Volcanic NP was much more than I expected for how little I've ever heard about it. If you happen to be making the drive past on I-5, it's well worth the short excursion east to check it out.

Nikon D40 | Nikon 18-200VR@18mm | f/8 | 1/50s | ISO400 | Handheld

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