Click on the Mono Lake Sunset image to enlarge

Mono Lake Sunset

Mono Lake Sunset is taken in the eastern sierra along highway 395 north of the town of Lee Vining.  Mono Lake Sunset is one of those images that I call a “park the car, grab the camera and setup the tripod ASAP” event.

The Mono Lake Sunset image occurred on a winter trip to Death Valley.  This time of the year all of the High Sierra passes are closed.  The only way to get to this remote area is a long drive down highway 395 from the Lake Tahoe area.

But this time of the year it is also a beautiful and scenic drive, and Death Valley in winter is a fascinating place to be.

The Mono Lake Sunset image was taken on the way back home to Sonoma County on this trip.  It was the first photographic trip with my newly acquired first digital camera, a Nikon D100.

Many wonderful images of the desert were taken on this trip.  The winter light was beautiful in Death Valley.  The Nikon D100 was fun to experiment with and begin learning this new technology of a digital image instead of a film image.

A Mono Lake Sunset image was not a planned image.  It was one of those spontaneous photographic moments that can occur when you have a camera with you.

The drive back home from Death Valley up highway 395 on this day was uneventful photographically until the moment of the Mono Lake Sunset.  It was a beautiful winter day with a clear blue sky.  The eastern sierra were beautiful during the day, covered in white snow with a beautiful blue sky.  Beautiful scenery for sure, but photogenically speaking not the best for landscape photography.

I got to Mono Lake at the end of the day when the sun was setting across the Great Basin to the east.  The sun began lighting up the sky.  As I passed through the town of Lee Vining and Mono Lake came into view, I saw the dramatic light unfolding in front of me.  I looked for a spot along Highway 395 to park my truck and found one quickly.  I grabbed the camera and tripod and set them up on the gravel meridian of the highway.

The light happened for just a few seconds.  The glow from the sun setting in the distance reflecting off of the lake.

Mono Lake Sunset is one of those images that I call a “park the car, grab the camera and setup the tripod ASAP” event.