Pinnacles, Mono Basin, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Rocky pinnacles above the immense Mono Basin, early morning.
As I have written before, my visits to the Eastern Sierra to photograph autumn color often lead me to other non-autumn subjects in the area, and frequently subjects further east than these mountains. That was the case again this autumn, and on more than one occasion I got up early in the morning and left the Sierra to explore the western edge of the basin-and-range country to the east.
The photograph doesn’t give this away, but it was a very cold morning! Temperatures at our campsite in a canyon on the east side were below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and as we headed out into the more open high desert landscape to the east we saw the thermometer drop to as low as 9 degrees! We arrived at a high overlook before dawn, witnessed the first light on the eastern Sierra crest, and realized that there was quite a bit of wildfire haze floating around. That left me focusing on closer subjects or at least including nearer subjects as foreground to the more distant views. Below our position an impressive set of small buttes stood on the gentle slopes above the distant Mono Basin and the hills beyond.
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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