Category Archives: Photographs: Mono Lake Basin

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Ship Yard Buildings, Crane

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Ship Yard Buildings, Crane,Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.
“Ship Yard Buildings, Crane” — Weathered ship yard buildings illuminated by saturated colors of artificial lighting

I recently had a chance to return to this ship yard facility near Vallejo, California to work on night photography. This is the place where I first tried that genre approximately fifteen years ago. It was more or less on a whim — I read that someone was inviting photographers to come up to Mare Island, in conjunction with the annual Flyway Festival, and find out about night photography. I knew almost nothing about it, but decided to give it a try. Since that time I’ve been hooked. I’ve returned to photograph here often during the intervening decade and a half, and my night photography expanded from that beginning to incorporate other subjects and places. (Recently I have focused on night street photography done with small handheld cameras.)

This photograph is an example of several things that intrigue me about photographing at night. Scenes that might seem mundane in daylight are transformed at night. Not only do many distractions simply disappear, but the light itself, especially in areas with varied artificial illumination, transforms these subjects. In many places LED lights have replaced the wild mix of tungsten, fluorescent, sodium vapor, and other sources today — an unfortunate development in the visual sense, as LED light is more or less like daylight. But in places like this one, the colors of the light become intense. Here the intense green of a large work light predominates. Another appeal of night photography is that it lets me make photographs of things that my eyes cannot see. In the ambient lighting I could only barely see the details of this scene. But with a long exposure there is enough light to reveal hidden features, a pure example of “seeing what the camera sees.”

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening

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Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening
The last light on hills beyond the Mono Lake shoreline

Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening. Mono Basin, California. October 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last light on hills beyond the Mono Lake shoreline

I’ve long been fascinated by the view across this section of the Mono Lake shoreline. It contains a lot of things that I consider essential to the Mono Lake experience — tufa “towers” (though these are more like islands), the shallow shoreline with its curving edges, the larger islands and buttes, the distant mountains in the east, the immense open sky, and the textured and reflecting surface of the water.

In a way, this photograph was sort of (but not exactly!) the result of “killing time” between photographing two other subjects. I had been at a nearby area with colorful aspen trees, and had finished up there — the light was gone sooner than expected when high clouds moved in. At that point I knew that the full moon was going to rise close to sunset, so I decided to find a location along the Mono Lake shoreline to photograph it. I arrived there too early — better than too late! — and had some time to photograph other things as I waited for the moon. I went ahead and set up tripod and camera with some urgency as I noticed to last sunlight on some of those distant hills.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Trees, Volcanic Slopes

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Trees, Volcanic Slopes
Sunrise light on trees ascending the side of a volcanic cone, east of the Sierra Nevada

Trees, Volcanic Slopes. Near Mono Lake, California. July 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light on trees ascending the side of a volcanic cone, east of the Sierra Nevada

I frequently photograph in the Mono Basin, at and around Mono Lake. I have been photographing there long enough that I’ve learned to look beyond the famous tufa formations — worthy photographic subjects that they area — and try to find other elements that also are intrinsic to the character of the place. The lake itself is one subject — its huge expanse, the immense quiet and stillness often found there, the birds, and the sky. The surrounding terrain is also very interesting once you spend some time looking away from the lake: the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, gentle terrain rising to eastward mountains, ponderosa pine forests, and more.

Many years ago I became intrigued by these trees that grow a good distance up the sides of the volcanic domes rising just south of the lake. At certain times the light bathes them in color and can turn a normally drab scene into something quite striking. ON this morning the sun had just risen into hazy skies, and there was a great deal of red in the light, contrasting with the very blue color of the shadows.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains

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Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains
Evening thunderstorm clouds begin to break up above high desert mountains east of the Sierra Nevada at sunset

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains. Mono Basin, California. July 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening thunderstorm clouds begin to break up above high desert mountains east of the Sierra Nevada at sunset

The Sierra Nevada, being more out of the path of the seasonal monsoonal flows that beset the Southwest, often experiences clear weather — sometimes too clear! Most photographers prefer a more interesting sky, and we can actually be heard complaining about too much nice weather at times. But periodically the atmospheric flows shift northward and westward a bit, and we do see thunderstorm weather in the Sierra. Most of us love this, and we look forward to “interesting skies” when it happens. The clouds often build up over the crest and they can then spread east or sometimes west as the day wears on. Mostly the clouds will clear out late in the day, but sometimes when they drift to the east of the range the electrical show may continue into the evening.

I experienced some of this “interesting weather” on my recent visit to the Sierra around the northeastern portion of Yosemite. It actually turned out to be more interesting than expected, when a forecast of clearing on day two of my trip morphed into a forecast to daily thunderstorm chances. On one afternoon I took a hike up an east side canyon, and on my return I was surprised to find that there was rain falling near the mouth of the canyon. Before long in rained and hailed on me, and these appeared to be the kinds of clouds that might stick around into the evening. I decided to forego dinner, instead finding a high overlook and photographing the cloud show right on through sunset and into the post-sunset blue hour.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.