Category Archives: Photographs: Mono Lake Basin

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin

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Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin
Dawn clouds above Mono Basin

Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn clouds above Mono Basin.

Traveling to the eastern Sierra Nevada, I end up in Mono Basin and areas around Mono Lake with some frequency. Highway 120 through Yosemite is my most-used trans-Sierra route, and it intersects with US 395 at Lee Vining, which sits right above the lake. I pass through even when I cross via one of the other passes to the north.

The most common photographs of the area generally feature relatively close-up views of the tufa towers that are found in places along the Mono Lake shoreline. I have photographed those, too, but they aren’t what most characterizes the place for me. What sticks with me about. the lake and this entire basin is the vast stillness and silence there on most days. I made this photograph early on a mid-October morning from a high vantage spot along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada.

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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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin

Tufa Field, Dawn

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Tufa Field, Dawn
First dawn light on a field of short tufa formations.

Tufa Field, Dawn. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First dawn light on a field of short tufa formations.

One of the great privileges about photographing landscapes is that I get to wake up way before dawn so that I can be in place before the sun rises. No, really. Like many of you, I used to dread the idea of getting up in the dark, and I could not fathom how anyone could actually want to do this. But even though I’ll admit that the sound of an alarm at, say, 3:30AM is not something I look forward to, at least I now understand that there are rewards that make it worthwhile. Such as standing alone in an immense, silent space as the first light creeps over mountains to the east.

Tufa, from I’ve come to understand, comes in quite a variety of shapes and sizes. There some well-known tufa structures that have been photographed lots of times not far from here, and I’ve photographed those, too. I have gotten to know some absolutely huge tufa formations in desert areas around Death Valley. (If you were familiar with only the first one I mentioned above, you might not even recognize the second as an example of the same thing.)These very small tufa structures embody yet another form of this stuff.

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

Paoha Island, Mono Lake

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Paoha Island, Mono Lake
The view across Mono Basin, including Mono Lake and Paoha Island

Paoha Island, Mono Lake. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The view across Mono Basin, including Mono Lake and Paoha Island.

The light in this scene appeals to me. Yes, the view itself is impressive, but the warm-colored early-morning light is especially lovely. It is also a bit deceptive. It probably looks like a warm high-desert day, but the truth was quite different. It was an extremely cold autumn morning, and as we drove we encountered temperatures as low as high single-digits at one point. Ah, that’s fall in the Eastern Sierra!

I made the photograph from a high point above the southwest shoreline of Mono Lake, on a hill that was easily accessible. The view follows the slope down toward the very blue surface of this hug lake, then continues across Paoho Island. Although it is blocked by the island, the water continues beyond it to the far shoreline, where gentle slopes that were once submerged when the lake was larger lead to mountains that surround the Mono Basin.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Mono Lake, Paoha Island, Hills

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Mono Lake, Paoha Island, Hills
Arid hills above Mono Lake and Paoha Island.

Mono Lake, Paoha Island, Hills. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Arid hills above Mono Lake and Paoha Island.

To look at this photograph you would never guess that it was a very cold autumn morning that felt much more like winter than fall. We were camped in an eastern Sierra canyon, had gotten up very early to head out across the Mono Basin, as not far from this spot we encountered temperatures below 10 degrees at one point! Such is autumn in and around the Sierra — summer one moment and distinctly winter-like the next.

This view, photographed in early morning light, looks across the rounded, volcanic hills between the lake and Mono Craters toward the lake and Paoha Island, one of the two volcanic islands here. The distances encompassed by the photograph are quite huge, extending beyond the far shore of Mono Lake to the slopes to the north. That immensity is one of the main features that quantify the experience for me: immense space, deep quiet, and the huge sky.

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 | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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