'Pink Morning' - Mono Lake

Having photographed Mono Lake countless times, I headed there with the F4 crew in January to see if I could find a new way of photographing the spectacular tufa mounds.

 

While Nick, Adam and Thomas were busy working the beach with wide angle lenses, I opted for a different approach.

 

I felt that our landscape photography courses needed some diversity in the type of images we created so I decided to walk away from my subject.

 

After a short but steep hike in the fresh snow, I finally found the perfect viewpoint to survey those glorious sculptures as the morning light set them aglow.

 

Using a 100-400mm lens I had just enough reach to frame up this composition.

 

I had to use a ten-stop neutral density filter to force a long exposure of thirty seconds. This made the surface of the water smoother and less detailed which simplifies the composition and paints the scene with a relaxing mood.

 

As the sun rose over the horizon, the coyotes began their dawn chorus to usher in the new day and I breathed a very contented sigh.

 

Watch detailed videos showing exactly how I shot and processed this image by downloading the F4 ROAD TRIP over at f4roadtrip.com

 

Thanks for looking

Gavin Hardcastle

 

 

Done