Mono Basin, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Autumn wildfire haze slighlty obscures mountains on the far, eastern side of Mono Basin.
Early on this autumn morning, before heading off to find aspen trees to photograph, we made a side trip to a high spot with a view of the Sierra Crest, Mono Lake, and most of the the Mono Basin. We arrived before sunrise and set up our equipment to photograph the sunrise, which turned out to be a subtle experience due to the prevalence of drifting wildfire smoke east of the Sierra Nevada.
Mono Basin is a gigantic landscape. It is one of those places where the scale is so grand that it is actually hard to realize just how big the distances are. This photograph looks across the surface of the huge lake to its far, eastern shoreline and to the dry mountain ranges beyond. That distant landscape lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, and it quickly takes on the dry quality of Nevada’s basin and range country.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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