This is a different view of Mono Lake than most people see. Most often it is viewed and photographed from the shoreline near the west side of the lake, often in areas with the famous tufa towers. To make this photograph I went south of the lake and up to a mountain ridge — high enough to no longer really be part of the sage brush basin and range terrain.
Continue reading Mono Lake, Paoha Island
There are little personal spots all over the Sierra Nevada that I return to each year — a bend in a road, a tree, a favorite rock, a viewpoint. These trees are on that list. I suspect that most passers-by might not really notice them. They are along a route to a different popular place, and there’s a good chance that most people are thinking more about that destination. And when people leave that other spot, their attention may well be focused on the road more than on a couple of trees. But I notice, and I stop almost every time.
Continue reading Autumn Aspen Leaves
A few clouds drifted east from the Sierra crest and held together long enough to occupy the sky above Mono Lake at sunset. The long shadow of the Sierra stretched across the foreground shoreline and tufa formations, and in the distance the earth’s shadow is visible above basin and range mountains.
Continue reading Mono Lake, Earth Shadow, Clouds
Late in the afternoon I was photographing autumn aspen trees in a deep valley along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. Not long after I arrived there developing clouds began to block the light that best shows the intense colors of the trees. I continued working and found ways to photograph effectively in the soft light, but I was a bit disappointed by the cloud cover. And then it occurred to me that the cloud line would end as they dissipated out over Mono Lake.
Continue reading Evening Clouds, Mono Lake