I feel like the photos are always dramatic, but it's really hard to interpret. For one thing its not clear the photos are from the same time of year. But even with photos from the same time of year, we visualize surface area and visibility of "bathtub ring", not volume.

Actual data is here: https://cdec.water.ca.gov/resapp/RescondMain. It seems Lake Oroville, the resevoir featured in the article, and Cachuma are the only ones that are well above historical average.