How Good Can One Sunrise Get?

You arrive for sunrise. It’s early, 5:14 am, but warm enough that you’ve left your jacket in the car. It starts raining. Do you run the half mile round trip to get a raincoat? The light’s great. Heck no. It’s a little windy, so use a puddle for what reflection you can get, in spite of the rain.

The color fades, clouds are going back to blue, time to get that coat? No, There are columns of rain over the lake, and there’s a trace of red returning.

Direct sunlight illuminates the underside of the clouds with orange. The rain is gone except for the distant columns. Gotta love the high desert. Good that you didn’t go back for a jacket. Shoot the “ghost ship” island to the east/northeast.

Sunrise is 5:34, but mountains tot he east are blocking the sun’s direct light for a few more minutes. Don’t get mesmerized by the shiny light in front of you, turn around! Anti-crepuscular rays seem to shoot out of the Sierra Nevada near Mt. Gibbs. Run across the peninsula and shoot to the west.

But wait, there’s a column of rain to the north getting good light… back through the peninsula to shoot that way!  At 5:46 am, you’ve go it.

It hardly seems possible, but a little to your right, the ghost ship is getting even better. One minute later, a couple of compositions are on your memory card.

Be greedy. Capture multiple compositions!

A few minutes later, crepuscular rays are shooting out from the eastern horizon.

Direct sunlight is starting to reach the calcium carbonate tufa rock formations, but even golden hour light seems like a poor substitute for the spectacular sunrise that has just occurred. Time to head to town for breakfast!

If you’d like to visit Mono Lake, my 320-page guidebook “Photographing California Vol. 2 – South” dedicates 9 pages to the Lake, 20 pages to the Mono Basin, adn several chapters to the Eastern Sierra region. Or to be guided directly to the best conditions and light, consider my workshops in the area!