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Sunset Rain Clouds Over Mono Lake

I do a lot of planning for many of my images, studying maps and moon rise times and angles, and anything else I can think of to maximize the opportunities I'll have for interesting compositions.

In the case of this shot, I looked at the Mono Lake web cam and saw the clouds, arrived at this spot an hour later, took a few pictures, and went home.  

The color onsite was just like this when I shot it… the blue in particular down by the lake seemed surreal!  I was temped to simply stop and watch it, but nah, when I capture it in camera, I can enjoy the moment a lot longer!

Mono Lake is in the Eastern Sierra region in California and Nevada, including Lake Tahoe and extending past the western border of Death Valley National Park.  Here is an album on G+ containing more of my Eastern Sierra images: https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5720045267134409521

I'll be leading several photography workshops in this area in 2013:
http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/eastern-sierra-night-photo-workshops-2013/

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59 thoughts on “Sunset Rain Clouds Over Mono Lake”

  1. There are no words to describe the magnificence of this image. I love your commentary, I always feel like you are talking to Me, not just commenting on the photo and prep. 🙂

  2. Sometimes the dynamic range of the light in the scene is too great and I try Photmatix HDR +David Williams.  But that tends to destroy the realism of the result, so a return trip to Lightroom may be necessary.  

    I had some interesting results with Nik Software's Color Efex Pro 2 recently (after some initial adjustment in Lightroom) , but the 2 week trial was too short to really dive into the many other modules.

  3. +Jeff Sullivan : Been dying to come there for ages. I definitely will be coming to Yosemite between May 24th and May 27th. What is the best time of year to Visit Mono Lake? I'm eyeing a trip in Fall (around september to the Eastern Sierras). Definitely need to visit the place especially if it has clouds like this 😉

  4. This is more common in the Spring +Sairam Sundaresan.  There often is a storm over Memorial Day weekend which leaves up to a foot of snow on the Sierra Nevada, but the ground has warmed by then, so it melts quickly.  Fall is great too or course, but rather crowded.  
    I'll be leading a lot of night photography workshops at Bodie this year, a couple of Fall workshops, plus an Eastern Sierra night photography workshop in June, and possibly August as well: http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/eastern-sierra-night-photo-workshops-2013/
    I'm wading in permit paperwork, lol.

  5. will keep my eyes peeled Jeff. Definitely want to shoot the Eastern Sierras with you. Still debating over summer or fall. I've never seen fall colors in California, so that may tip the scales, but I want to shoot that area! 🙂

  6. Yes, +wouter alblas I tend to be too busy to post-process all of my images from a given trip right away.  That gives me a great opportunity to go back and bring out new compositions when they'll be fresh, and don't have to compete with similar images all at the same time.  That also gives me the opportunity to revisit old work with newer post-processing tools.
    I've placed some of the other photos from that sunset at the beginning of this Fall 2011 album, in case anyone's curious to see them: https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5653421873323070657

  7. +Israel Israa Mono Lake is in the Eastern Sierra region in California and Nevada (USA), including Lake Tahoe and extending past the western border of Death Valley National Park.  Here is an album on G+ containing more of my Eastern Sierra images: https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5720045267134409521

    I'll be leading several photography workshops in this area in 2013:
    http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/eastern-sierra-night-photo-workshops-2013/

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