Tag Archives: haze

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Basin Sentinels

Image December 7, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mono Lake is immense, but it is dwarfed by the full extent of Mono Basin, the large valley it occupies. Prehistoric Mono Lake was much larger and deep enough to leave water marks along the base of mountains that are today quite dry. To get an idea of the full extent of the basin you must either travel around it (and learn how long it can take) or find a high place from which the whole thing is visible.

On this morning I was up in mountains south of the lake and the basin, mountains that form part of its border. I was there for some other photographic targets, including long views of the east side of the Sierra Nevada and some aspen groves. But as I worked I noticed these rock “sentinels” standing guard on a nearby ridge in morning light, and the view of the vast basin in the distance.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Valley Light, Autumn

Image December 4, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

By now this meadow and its trees and beautiful light seem like old friends. Over the years I have photographed these subjects many times — in winter snow, autumn color, spring greenery, and even in the hot, crowded summer months. Many things have changed during that time. A few trees have fallen and their trunks and branches decay, and a few young, new trees have appeared. Access has become more difficult as the Park Service tries to protect the vegetation, a change about which those of us who remember the “before times” have mixed feelings.

Ironically, the beautiful light streaming down through a gap in the upper cliffs and lighting the trees and meadows is emphasized here by smoke. It being autumn when I made the photograph, it was the season for managed fires, set in order to clear out excess undergrowth and promote a more healthy forest. But still, it was a bit disappointing to arrive in the Valley and find it full of smoke — until I noticed the beautiful effect it had on this light!

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake Shoreline, Morning

Image November 16, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sierra Nevada autumn photographs often feature the colorful leaves of aspen trees, but this is what fall looks like at the base of the eastern escarpment of the range. The grasses have turned golden brown, there’s often a bit of haze in the air, and things seem to be quieting and slowing as the seasons change. I made the photograph on a fall color trip to the Sierra, but I also ended up spending a lot of time in spots like this.

The Mono Basin is a fascinating place and an interesting contrast to the Sierra Nevada. It is dry, even though gigantic Mono Lake stretches across much of it. It is also a place where the geology is laid bare, unlike parts of the Sierra where much of it can be hidden by trees. A string of old volcanic vents and craters begins near the north shore of the lake, includes two islands in the lake, and then continues south through the Mono Craters and on to points below Mammoth Mountain.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Morning Haze, Mono Lake

Image November 8, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A photograph can be viewed in more than one way. The default is to regard it as an objective record of the subject — a “capture” of what was there when the exposure was made. But photographs are not really objectively accurate, and it might be better to think of them as expressions of how the photographer views and wants you to view the subject. This takes us to yet another possibility — that beyond the literal content of the photograph, we can also view it as a sort of abstraction, a composition of shapes and colors and densities, and textures. In the end, it can be all of these at once, and more.

I made this photograph of Mono Lake on an early fall morning, not at dawn but early enough that the harsher daytime light wasn’t there. It was hazy, which is quite common at this time of year, in part because this is wildfire season. Consequently the details of the scene are muted. Some of the impressions that I associate with Mono Lake include deep quiet and stillness (well, except when the wind kicks up!) and immense space — the vast size of the lake itself and then the even more distant surrounding terrain.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: haze

Mono Basin Sentinels

Valley Light, Autumn

Mono Lake Shoreline, Morning

Morning Haze, Mono Lake

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.