Gallery One: Mono Lake

Mono Lake lies directly east of California's Yosemite National Park. A typical Great Basin lake, Mono is saltier than the ocean and exceeded in saltiness only by the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is surrounded by remnants of volcanic activity, including a couple volcanic islands in its midst. One of its most extraordinary features is its tufa formations. These are columns of calcium carbonate that were deposited under water, when the lake level was substantially higher, by the action of fresh-water springs mixing with the lake's salty water. Canoists will still see springs bubbling up from the lake's floor.

I began photographing Mono Lake several years ago when I attended a workshop with Don Jackson. I owe Don the subtle lesson of restricting one's photography to the sun's first (or last) light. Once the sun has been up for fifteen minutes or so, it's time to retreat to Lee Vining and have breakfast at Nicely's.

Virtually all of my images of Mono Lake are on 35 mm color transparency film (Fugichrome Velvia (iso 50) and Kodak E100VS (iso 100)). As a consequence, this page is "in process" since each image has to be scanned from the original transparency. Most images were created with my Nikon N80 35mm SLR camera and a Nikkor 28-105 mm (macro) zoom lens.