a blog by lesia

It’s been a while on here, but look!  I went whitewater rafting on the Rogue River in Southern Oregon through Lake Tahoe Community College’s Whitewater Guide School.  The trip lasted 8 days and I learned not only how to guide big paddle boats, but how to steer an oar boat and (the best part) a little inflatable kayak.  I might not become a raft guide but it was a week of learning I’ll always remember.  So who wants to go out on the river again?

Been finding a lot of new touring spots in Tahoe.  This is my new favorite.

Tried out my new Jones Women's Solution splitboard for the first time a few days ago, and I am OBSESSED.  Iphone photo 12.11.14

I woke up in Oregon this morning on the sixteen hour drive from Tahoe to Seattle. Iphone photo 11.19.2014

Learned to fish for my own food at Upper Blue Lakes.

I am so grateful to be able to live and play in the most beautiful place on Earth.

Edited the photos from my two week National Park road trip and will upload them soon.  Here is one of my favorites from Zion, taken in the evening after hiking The Narrows.

Христос Воскрес!  Scenes from Holy Saturday basket blessing at Saints Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago.  I flew in from Tahoe Friday night to spend the entire week relaxing with my family, but photography never takes a day off.  

iPhone photo: this was taken early morning at Emerald Bay while driving to Squaw Valley on assignment. I love calm, beautiful mornings like this when the sky is clear and the lake looks like glass.

iPhone photo: went backcountry skiing today in a secret little place in South Lake Tahoe. It was hard work in snowshoes but nothing can compare.

This is a photo that happened accidentally on purpose.  As I was driving back from a hot spring about an hour away from Tahoe, the silhouettes of the pine trees stood out on top of the mountains in the evening light. While photographing them as my friend was driving, I accidentally put my camera too close to the front windshield and got a bit of the blue window tint in my photo.  It acted as a filter and made the sky look piercingly blue.  I think it really accents the calming mood of the evening.  

On foggy days like today in Tahoe, with the snow endlessly falling from the sky and the mountains nowhere in sight, I like to pretend I'm at the edge of the Arctic Ocean.  Sorry I have been slacking on the blog posts lately.  More photos coming soon.

More scenes from Tessa's deb.

The bouquet from Tessa's debutante ball last Saturday.

Spraypaint art by Brett Flanigan at Snowglobe Music Festival in South Lake Tahoe over New Years.

One quick photo from my second to last day in Ghana.  This was taken at Kakum National Park on a canopy walk suspended about 150 feet in the air.  It brought out the fear of heights in many people, which was a little amusing to me.  There may or may not be a few more photos from this canopy walk that I'll be posting soon, because the lines from the ropes and the beautiful vanishing points were simply impossible not to photograph.

Forgot about this photo until just now.  It was taken just outside of Quito, Ecuador in the Paramo Cloud Forest.  I edited the pic a bit just to represent how cold it was up there even in the middle of June.