First Light, South Tufa. Mono Lake, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
First light of dawn illuminates tufa towers and distant mountain at Mono Lake, California.
This photograph was made at the usual spot – anyone who has photographed at Mono (and who hasn’t!? :-) knows that the most consistent spot to shoot sunrise light is at the South Tufa area, down the road from highway 395 a bit south of Lee Vining. On a good morning you’ll have at least some clouds, and the location of those clouds may dictate what your foreground subject is; do you want to shoot to the north and the low hills, to the east and towards the sunrise, or toward the Sierra Nevada crest? You arrive very early, usually well before dawn, and walk out to the edge of the water where the towers are. You find a composition and wait, with the only sounds the cries of seagulls (a sound I immediately associate with Mono) and possibly the voices of other photographers. The sky begins to lighten and then, almost before you know it, the warm glow of the first dawn light begins to light up the towers. (Am I the only one who marvels that this happens in almost complete silence?)
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
keywords: first, light, dawn, sun, rise, morning, illuminate, tufa, tower, south, mono, lake, water, reflection, cloud, sky, red, pink, rock, ripple, pattern, gull, bird, distant, california, usa, eastern, sierra, nevada, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, stock, bird, shore
I was there today and I smelt that too! Not even sure what it was, the smell of salt? maybe bird poops?
Anyway reading this article really reminded me how tranquil it was this morning when I was there at 5AM. It’s complete silence and as described in the article it was just the birds tweeting and the voices of a few photographers. I wandered around the area to find the best spot as the sun rose. It was a very unique experience.
Hah! That smell can be pretty awful at times – I know what you mean!
Dan
The last time I was there I got up before the dawn and went to a spot north of Lee Vining and next to 395 to shoot the sunrise. The color that developed that early morning was spectacular and so I thought I would walk up close to the shore to catch some reflections and try some water abstracts. As I got close to the shore though, the smell of rotten eggs was so bad that I almost lost it. I was gagging big time and had to turn around and walk away from that spot. It was bad! But I still managed some nice sunrise shots full of blazing color. Mono Lake is an amazing place to shoot!