Tag Archives: mono

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Morning

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Mono Morning
Morning light and hazy atmosphere above Mono Lake.

Mono Morning. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light and hazy atmosphere above Mono Lake.

Mono Lake is, of course, particularly known for the tufa formations found along its shoreline and in the close-in shallow waters. These remarkable features were formed underwater and revealed as the lake’s water level dropped. (By looking at the surrounding hills you can observe evidence of much higher prehistoric water levels. ) The lake also affords dramatic views of the steep eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

All of these things appeal to me, but they are not what I most associate with the place, namely its vast expanse of stillness and quiet. The scale of the Mono Basin dwarfs the peaks to the west, quite honestly, though you have to slow down a bit more before its stillness gets to you. I think I most like the morning hours, when the air is often still, and when the morning sun can make the atmosphere luminous.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin

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Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin
Dawn clouds above Mono Basin

Dawn Clouds, Mono Basin. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn clouds above Mono Basin.

Traveling to the eastern Sierra Nevada, I end up in Mono Basin and areas around Mono Lake with some frequency. Highway 120 through Yosemite is my most-used trans-Sierra route, and it intersects with US 395 at Lee Vining, which sits right above the lake. I pass through even when I cross via one of the other passes to the north.

The most common photographs of the area generally feature relatively close-up views of the tufa towers that are found in places along the Mono Lake shoreline. I have photographed those, too, but they aren’t what most characterizes the place for me. What sticks with me about. the lake and this entire basin is the vast stillness and silence there on most days. I made this photograph early on a mid-October morning from a high vantage spot along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin

Tufa Field, Dawn

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Tufa Field, Dawn
First dawn light on a field of short tufa formations.

Tufa Field, Dawn. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First dawn light on a field of short tufa formations.

One of the great privileges about photographing landscapes is that I get to wake up way before dawn so that I can be in place before the sun rises. No, really. Like many of you, I used to dread the idea of getting up in the dark, and I could not fathom how anyone could actually want to do this. But even though I’ll admit that the sound of an alarm at, say, 3:30AM is not something I look forward to, at least I now understand that there are rewards that make it worthwhile. Such as standing alone in an immense, silent space as the first light creeps over mountains to the east.

Tufa, from I’ve come to understand, comes in quite a variety of shapes and sizes. There some well-known tufa structures that have been photographed lots of times not far from here, and I’ve photographed those, too. I have gotten to know some absolutely huge tufa formations in desert areas around Death Valley. (If you were familiar with only the first one I mentioned above, you might not even recognize the second as an example of the same thing.)These very small tufa structures embody yet another form of this stuff.

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 and Amazon.

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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 Basin, Morning

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Mono Basin, Morning
Autumn wildfire haze slighlty obscures mountains on the far, eastern side of Mono Basin

Mono Basin, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn wildfire haze slighlty obscures mountains on the far, eastern side of Mono Basin.

Early on this autumn morning, before heading off to find aspen trees to photograph, we made a side trip to a high spot with a view of the Sierra Crest, Mono Lake, and most of the the Mono Basin. We arrived before sunrise and set up our equipment to photograph the sunrise, which turned out to be a subtle experience due to the prevalence of drifting wildfire smoke east of the Sierra Nevada.

Mono Basin is a gigantic landscape. It is one of those places where the scale is so grand that it is actually hard to realize just how big the distances are. This photograph looks across the surface of the huge lake to its far, eastern shoreline and to the dry mountain ranges beyond. That distant landscape lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, and it quickly takes on the dry quality of Nevada’s basin and range country.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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