Tag Archives: lake

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake Moonrise

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Mono Lake Moonrise
Early autumn full moon rising over Mono Lake, California.

Mono Lake Moonrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn full moon rising over Mono Lake, California.

This is a photograph of that magical moment when an early-autumn full moon rises above the mountains to the east of Mono Lake while there is still a bit of sunset or early twilight light in the sky. I’ve experienced this here quite a few times, and I often time my arrival at this point for this hour when it is full moon time. On this evening it all worked out perfectly: intense color in the sky as the moon appeared, plus sky color reflected on the surface of the lake, interspersed with blue areas where surface turbulence broke up the reflection.

Photographing a full moon is a bit trickier than it might appear at first glance, especially if you want to include the landscape in the scene, too. Once it is dark or close to it, the difference between the light on the landscape and light of the moon is huge — the moon is essentially a daylight exposure, while that landscape is much darker. Even with a camera that had enough dynamic range to capture both of those extremes, you would either end up with a well-exposed moon and a nearly invisible landscape or a nicely exposed landscape and featureless white disk of a moon. One approach is to time the photograph so that the moon in in the sky before it is fully dark. Ideally, this means photographing the moon a bit before it is truly “full” — or photographing at a time of year when there is still light on the landscape when a truly full moon rises.

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Last Light, Mono Lake

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Last Light, Mono Light
The shoreline of Mono Lake, a cone, mountains, and the last light of an early Autumn evening.

Last Light, Mono Lake. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The shoreline of Mono Lake, a cone, mountains, and the last light of an early Autumn evening.

The views from this section of Mono Lake have long intrigued me. I think it may be because I frequently arrive here late in the day from the north, and especially in the autumn it is pretty common for me to come down the grade from Conway Summit at just about sunset. On quite a few occasions I’ve raced the sunset to get there in time for the last light, occasionally with the rising full moon in the scene. By now I have a few particular locations where I like to pull over and set up on these lovely evenings.

This view looks along the shore of the upper “corner” of the lake just off of US 395. The shoreline undulates here now that the waterline has dropped from historic levels. (I’m fairly sure that the foreground peninsula was previously under water.) A second peninsula extends into the lake from the Black Point formation, and beyond that lies Negit Island. In the distance, beyond the far shore of this huge lake, lie desert mountains, catching the final sunlight of the day in this photograph.

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

Autumn Color and Sierra Crest

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Autumn Color and Sierra Crest
Early autumn color in a landscape of rock and forest below the east side of the Sierra Nevada crest.

Autumn Color and Sierra Crest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn color in a landscape of rock and forest below the east side of the Sierra Nevada crest.

Thoughts of autumn have begun over the past few weeks. I can imagine all sorts of reasons. As I have written, that mysterious “something” that indicates that the seasons are changing appeared recently, right on schedule. (I attribute it to changes in light, the angle of the sun, the time of sunset and sunrise, and perhaps a few other things.) Here in the West, it may also be triggered by an intense desire to see the end of the hot, dry conditions that plague us during this time of global climate change. I miss cooler weather!

This, of course, gives rise not only to ideas about where to go to photograph this year’s color, but also to reexamination of autumn photography from prior years. This photograph comes from a few years back, during the relatively wet interval between the previous five-year drought and the current drought. I made my first fall color visit in very early October that year, hitting a few of my favorite places and checking out a few new ones that are less known. This location is more the former than the latter, a very large system of canyons draining the eastern Sierra above Bishop, full of rivers, forests, and plenty of rocky terrain leading to the crest of the range.

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: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Oregon Sky

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Oregon Sky
A still lake, a band of forest shoreline, and sky with wildfire smoke in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

Oregon Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A still lake, a band of forest shoreline, and sky with wildfire smoke in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

This, I suppose, is sort of a vacation photograph — a subject “snapped” with a handheld camera while on a hike. “Not a normal vacation snap!,” you say? Well, OK. To be honest, I’m not a very reliable family vacation photographer. I have to remind myself to make those “normal” (and important!) straightforward photographs of people and activities. And, somewhat sad to say, I came back with none of those at all from my recent family camping trip in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

But I did bring this back. One morning, before joining the rest of the gang for morning camp festivities, I went for a short hike along the shoreline of Lava Lake. It was a very quiet and slow morning. I don’t think I met more than a couple of other hikes and the biggest action was the passing of a couple of kayakers. The lake was still since the day’s winds and not started yet, and there was a wildfire smoke haze in the sky. In this part of Oregon, at least on this day when the smoke obscured more distant features, the open sky dominated the landscape.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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