Mono Lake sits at 6,400 feet on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada, just outside Lee Vining at the junction of Highway 395 and Tioga Pass. It’s one of the oldest lakes in North America — over a million years old — and the landscape shows it. Calcium carbonate tufa towers emerge from alkaline water that supports almost nothing except brine shrimp and alkali flies, which in turn support millions of migratory and nesting birds. It’s stark, it’s strange, and on a calm morning it’s one of the most photographically compelling places in California.
This collection covers South Tufa and the open lake across a few visits and multiple interpretations — color, black-and-white infrared, and 590nm false-color infrared that renders the alkaline haze and white tufa in ways standard color simply can’t. The reflections, when the wind cooperates, are nearly perfect.
