The hike to Lake Margaret is a great way to escape the heat of the valley. I extended the hike by taking the short scamper to a peak above the lake to get this panorama. The sun shining down through the clouds made the Tahoe sky come alive. It is always worth the extra effort for the view from the top!
This orange butterfly was minding his own business when I found him, and he didn’t mind posing for a photo op.
I really wanted to make this a two tone image, so I isolated the flower as much as I could to give it a more abstract feel.
The sun was hitting this orange flower just right as it was opening up.
On a hike I came across this little guy right in the center of a muddy trail. As far as I can tell he is some type of Western Checkerspot, but I am not a butterfly expert. What I do know is that he was very orange and had some really cool eyes!
There are many fallen trees on the hike to Lake Margaret. This one was on the side of the trail and someone had taken the time to cut all of the branches off. I’m not sure why they were cut off, but as I looked at it from the end I liked the way the stumps disappeared into the background.
This is another shot from our Lake Margaret hike. These flowers were everywhere. The green and red offset each other nicely, and I like the way the contrast allows the foreground to stand out.
This is my first photo for this series that I’m posting on the day I took it. I hiked to Lake Margaret by Kirkwood and it was beautiful. The water was warmer than I expected for a lake at this elevation, and it was amazing to swim in. The sky was clear all day until this point where the clouds on the right started rolling in and rained on us a little bit by the time we got back to the car. The dead and living trees on each side of the lake framed this shot nicely. Great day.
