On our last trip to Mono Lake, wanting to try somewhere new (I had gone to the southern part of the lake on the previous visit), I made the mistake of suggesting we go to the County Park on the northern side. I figured that since they made a county park out of the area, it had to be just as good, if not better then the south side. It was anything but that (see Mono Lake in the 2017 Mammoth Lakes section).

So this year we returned to the southern side (South Tufa/Navy Beach) and i couldn’t have been more pleased. The strange rock formations (tufa) combined with the sparse landscape create a surreal, otherworldly feel. I didn’t get the typical Mono Lake shot (usually those are taken at dawn or at sunset), but I’m still happy how the photos turned out. I especially like the panoramic cropped shots; with the pastel tones in the sky, mountains, and flowers, along with the cinematic ratio, they have a real Wes Anderson vibe to them.

Mammoth Lakes Basin, August 2019

EQUIPMENT USED: Fujifilm XT3 with Fujinon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 in ProNegH with my custom color balance adjustment.

found in MAMMOTH LAKES