Tag Archives: mono

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Basin

June 9, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Desert hills, Mono Lake, Paoha Island, and the Mono Basin in morning light

When people think of Mono Lake they often seen to think first of the unusual tufa tower formations found along portions of its shoreline — and the subject of many photographs from the place. The towers are indeed impressive and unusual, and especially in the right light they can produce an almost other-worldly impression. But there is much more to be seen here.

My strongest associations with the lake do not involve tufa towers. Instead the strongest may simply be an impression of the vast space of the basin holding this giant lake, and the immense expanse of sky above — often pure blue and clear, but at times opaque with haze or broken by thunder clouds. There are sonic associations, and the strongest may be the sound of gulls and other birds, especially on a quiet and windless morning. On the morning when I made this photograph I was not at the “usual places” at dawn, but I passed by just a bit later, when the sun was a bit higher but the light was still spreading mostly sideways across the landscape, producing large and dark shadows.

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

Photographs: Nature

Smoke-Shrouded Hills

March 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wildfire smoke envelops hills east of the Sierra Nevada near Mono Lake

I made this photograph on a special morning that didn’t initially seem all that special. The night before I had driven down into Lee Vining Canyon after dark, and I could see the glow of a new wildfire to the southeast. In the morning I left my camp in the canyon and headed east to see what I could see. I found a high overlook and soon saw a giant plume of rising smoke to the south and tendrils of smoke drifting north toward and over Mono Lake.

I spent a few minutes photographing the drifting smoke above the lake, but very soon the smoke became too thick. I had to find a location that was on that boundary between too much and too little smoke — enough to partially obscure the details of the landscape, but not so much as to render it invisible. I moved further north to another high elevation locations and photographed back into the Basin. But this point the lower elevations were largely filled with smoke, but here one tree-covered ridge emerges and rises toward the still blue sky.

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, Reflected Clouds

December 17, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mono Lake has many moods. For example, as I post this, it is a quiet and lonely place where snow covers the mountains to the west, fog may fill in for days, and few people visit. In summer it can be very hot and often quite windy, with blowing dust and waves on the lakes surface. At dawn the light can be subtly colorful; at midday it may be intense and flat.

I made this photograph on a day just before the start of autumn, when the lake’s surface was unusually calm, to the point of almost justifying the description “glass-like.” I went to a place that is not visited as frequently as some of the more accessible and iconic locations, and from here I was able to photograph right at the water’s edge, a vantage point from which I was able to include a few isolated clouds floating past plus their reflections in the still surface of the water. At times like this, the strongest impressions of the Mono Lake Basin for me are of great distances, the immense sky, still water, and deep silence.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Tufa, Wildfire Smoke, Mono Lake

December 2, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tufa formations, the vast expanse of Mono Lake, and smoke covered desert mountains

This nowhere near the first time I have photographed from this location, though it is the first time I have worked with conditions like these. Quite a bit earlier this morning I began to photograph before dawn, quickly realizing that the thickening smoke from a nearby wildfire was blanketing Mono Basin and creating atmospheric effects ranging from very dark sky, to clouds illuminated from behind, to drifting layers. After photographing near the lake I headed to a higher elevation area to the north, photographed there, and then headed back down toward Mono Lake.

As I descended I soon began to enter the fringes of the drifting smoke clouds. Lit from behind, the clouds glowed from within and softened the edges of elements of the landscape. Coming past this spot along the edge of the lake I noticed that some tufa structures formed a near semicircle near the shore, giving a bit of definition to a scene that was otherwise quite soft.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mono

Mono Basin

Mono Lake, Reflected Clouds

Tufa, Wildfire Smoke, Mono Lake

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