Mineral Water

On a secluded shore at California's famously photographed Mono Lake, I

was hiking with a friend when these interesting textures caught my

eye. There's a small spring here bubbling up underwater from which

you can see ripples in the mid-left of this image. Mono Lake's

'Tufa', shown in the background, was caused entirely due to such

springs. The Tufa formed underwater as deposits left behind by the

springs, after which the water receeded.

 

This spring was forming it's own interesting deposits show in the

foreground but you could have easily just walked right by them. The

entire lower third of this image measured less than 1.5ft across and

only 8 inches or so front to back! I used an extreme wide angle 14mm

to give the impression the foreground was MUCH larger than it is and

accentuate the textures and colors in this twilight exposure. To do

so I shot the image blind, my camera placed on the ground, surrounded

on three sides by Tufa, and scratched it considerably during the

process. I actually had to use my 5D II because my 1Ds III wouldn't

fit! I would take three bracketed shots so I could achieve focus from

2.5 inches to infinity each time I shot. Most of them were crooked

due to the fact I was shooting blind so it was a time-consuming

process. I went back several times to try to figure it out and catch

some decent light and skies above. I took the image in March and by

April the formations had become covered with gravel from the waves and

the lake level had risen from snow-melt.

Marc, this is spectacular.  You see things others don't.   And, you're not lazy, as you visualized what you wanted and kept at it until it was  right.  Thanks for the story behind the photo.  

Wonderful shot! Forground patterns are excellent and even though distorted due to wide angle, it really helps to understand the details.  Thanks for providing a good description.  Given the tough location and limited space to work with, I presume you could not use a graduated filter.  Did you apply any HDR processing? 

Chandra, thanks.  The light was quite soft by this twilight hour so the exposure wasn't too difficult - about 4 stops difference between brighter sky and foreground shadows.  I double-processed the same RAW file for the highlight and shadow areas and manually blended the two together with my painting technique to control the exposure. 

Excellent and well done!!

as our eyes slowly get used to the high level of your photos, you are always able to surprise us again and again. congrats and thank you.

Great story! You were lucky on timing maybe, but we were luckier that your skill brought us this.

Marc, this has an otherworldly look to it.  What I like the most about your photograph is the foreground is actively becoming what is shown in the background.  You have two very different-looking features, each the result of the same process but separated by very large time scales.

Your story of creating this optical illusion with the 14mm made me smile. I'm usually not a fan of images made with such a wide angle lens, but it really works here! Other bits—color, lighting, etc.—are lovely, as usual.

Strikingly beautiful!

I like to look at the image before reading any comments.

Firstly it is up to your very standard of images you share with us here at Photo.net.  My first impression was that this a tropical scene because the coral type foreground grabbed my attention and kept me focused there for a while. I then proceeded to explore the rest of the image and then it became an enigma with the 'covered' rocks or trees in the middle area. Perhaps that is why this image works, because it is a perception that those rocks are temperate zone vs a foreground has a sense of the tropics.  My congrats on a fine image

Read your description and love your work.  Thanks for telling us your experience which is very helpful to me.   Actually, lover each of yours.   Best Regards,

I've been at Mono Lake many times, and I'm quite familiar with the standard shots taken there. But your image really stands out, due to its foreground. Original. Great work.