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On June26, 2015
By Chris Molina: The Auburn Sky Imaging
For The Scenestar.com: thescenestar.typepad.com/ss/
California
Minolta X-700 with MC Rokkor 28mm f/2.8 Lens
35mm Ektachrome copied into Sony A99 via Minolta bellows with Auto Bellows Macro Rokkor-X 50mm f/3.5 Lens & Slide Copier. Processed via Capture One
Mono Lake
After being up all night shooting some night shots I headed over to Mono Lake and went for a sunrise shot. The skies were anything but dramatic so I put on a 10 stop and shot a 30 second long exposure just before the sun came up. Feel free to like and share via the share button. Prints available at www.soundesignphotography.com
This is Mono Lake
Stephen Adcox, I thought you might like to see Mono Lake from the ground.
Mono Lake is located just off Highway 395 ... 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, near the town of Lee Vining, California. Mono Lake is unique. For starters, it's old--at least 700,000 years old and one of the oldest continuously existing lakes on the continent. Fed by huge glaciers during the last Ice Age, Mono Lake was 60 times larger than the 66 square miles it covers today.
Mono Lake is naturally salty and alkaline because it has no outlet. The only way water leaves is via evaporation. The Sierra streams that flow into Mono contain only trace amounts of minerals and salts but those minerals and salts stay and their concentrations, over the years, grow.
Mono Lake is a geologist's paradise. It is ringed by volcanoes--new and old. Two of the islands on the lake are volcanic domes. No area volcanoes are active at the moment but the area shows many signs of potential eruptions.
Perhaps the most intriguing of Mono Lake's phenomena are the tufa (pronounced "toofah") towers visible along much of the shoreline. Tufa are made from calcium carbonate which makes its way into the lake from underground springs. The calcium and carbonate combine to form limestone which builds up over time around the lake bottom spring openings. Declining lake levels have exposed the tufa towers we see today. Some of these tufa towers are up to 30 feet high.
Upon first glance, it would seem that Mono Lake is lifeless. Far from it, Mono supports a simple but amazingly productive food chain. At the bottom of that chain are microscopic, single-celled algae. The algae serves as food for two other species--brine shrimp and brine flies which, in turn, serve as the major food source for literally millions of water birds. It's estimated that some 85% of California's seagulls started their life here at Mono Lake. There are at least 80 species of water fowl that call Mono Lake home. The black dots that you see all over the water are the brine flies.
The large size of this photo is the best view
Mono Lake, CA has been partially drained by Los Angeles' unquenchable need for water. Today, the lake is a shadow of its former self, exposing the results of underwater geothermal activity built up through accretion. The formations, called Tufas, are otherworldly and would have been underwater if the lake had not been drained to such an extent. Currently there are plans to keep more water in the lake and perhaps someday these formations will be hidden again.
Mono Lake, near Lee Vining, CA
Tufas are mineral like growths that resulted from the water level drop of Mono Lake.
Mono Lake is unique. For starters, it's old--at least 700,000 years old and one of the oldest continuously existing lakes on the continent. Mono Lake is naturally salty and alkaline because it has no outlet. The only way water leaves is via evaporation. The Sierra streams that flow into Mono contain only trace amounts of minerals and salts but those minerals and salts stay and their concentrations, over the years, grow.
Mono Lake at the South Tufa Fields after the sun had gone down over the Eastern Sierras.
Mona Lake, California
May 2006
originally shot on tech pan. pulled this out for my desertusa.com story for next month. i rather like this image still. this was obviously shot when the water level was still very low in the lake.
on one of my first "all-by-myself" road trips - from the bay area to the mojave desert. where i first fell in love with the mojave and mono lake!
Mono Lake, CA has been partially drained by Los Angeles' unquenchable need for water. Today, the lake is a shadow of its former self, exposing the results of underwater geothermal activity built up through accretion. The formations, called Tufas, are otherworldly and would have been underwater if the lake had not been drained to such an extent. Currently there are plans to keep more water in the lake and perhaps someday these formations will be hidden again.