About the Image(s)

This is a shot that I edited from a very recent trip to Mono Lake, near the north end of the Owens Valley in California, between the Sierra Nevadas and the White Mountains (and other small chains on the Nevada/California border.

Mono Lake, like the Great Salt Lake, has no outflow, and is only fed by relatively small creeks, streams and springs. So, the salinity is quite high, and the pH is alkaline. The lake is about 750,000 years old. Over the years, tufa (large calcium carbonate formations) have sprung up from the result of small springs and volcanic action, forming these interesting towers. Originally, they were below the surface. But, and the water level has declined (and probably also due to the tectonic uplift of the area), some tufa now jut above the surface.

I took this photo with my Pixel Pro cell phone camera, as the sun was starting to settle behind the Sierra Nevadas in the west. It was a cloudy day, so the sun was kind of shrouded, but the cloud cover reflected enough light to avoid very harsh shadows that would normally have existed, making this look almost like a long exposure night shot, or even a light-painted scene. Since color was not particularly the point, and was very muted, I converted the scene to monochrome, using Lightroom's filter set (the #8 B&W filter). Of course, I also used Lightroom to enhance the contrast, highlights and shadows, and darkened the bottom foreground.