“Trees and Rising Sun” — The sun, slighlty diffused by clearing fog, rises behind Point Lobos trees.
Sometimes I arrive at a location with no specific plan in mind beyond “making photographs.” That was the case on this morning when I drove down toward the Big Sur area very early. Before Monterey I encountered thick fog, and I started contemplating fog photographs, perhaps at Point Lobos. The fog continued as I passed Monterey, skirted Carmel, and started down Highway 1 beyond Carmel Valley. It looked like I would get foggy conditions at Point Lobos… until a moment later when the fog inexplicably cleared.
“Tufa, Sky, and Water” — An island of tufa formations under early morning sky, Mono Lake.
I think of this photograph, in part, as a study in tones. I had been photographing a brilliant sunrise in color, but as the first wild sunrise colors diminished I began to think about monochrome. (Of course, my camera being digital, I was capturing color images, though monochrome results were in my mind.) The brightest areas of the clouds were extremely bright, while the facing side of the tufa formations, being backlit, were very close to black. My plan was to control the bright areas in the exposure and then lift the shadows in post, just enough to hint at details on the tufa.
“Tuolumne Meadows, Evening” — The day’s last sunlight on Lembert Dome the Sierra Crest.
My landscape photography often involves what might be described as hunting. I look for the potential of good light conditions and for locations with subject and compositional promise and then I… hunt. I wander, I go with hunches. I use what I know about light and terrain — but often I very much do not set out with a specific photograph in mind. This photograph was not made that way.
“Early Light, Mono Craters” — First morning sunlight on the slopes of Mono Craters.
Mono Basin is a fine place to contemplate geology and immense spans of time. Mono Lake itself is an ancient body of water, and one that has not always looked like it does today. The lake is probably 3/4 of a million years old, and its ancestor lake was, at times, much deeper and larger than it is today. At times its waters rose high enough to overcome its current landlocked state and drain either north or south. (To really bend your mind, its waters may have drained to ancient Lake Manly in Death Valley.) Today, as large as the lake is, it is greatly diminished in size and depth by comparison.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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