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The South Tufas at Mono Lake. I’m still getting the hang of the light painting thing…

Lakes and light painting might not SOUND like they go together, but they totally do … at least at Mono Lake. We headed back to Mono after spending about a week in the Lake Tahoe area. During our last stay here, we didn’t get to shoot as much as we’d like, so we’re back! The coolest features of Mono Lake are its Tufas, which are essentially limestone rock formations that start under water and eventually grow upward. The south part of the lake has the highest concentration of tufas, and that’s where we went to go light painting.

This whole style of photography is still pretty new to me, so I end up fumbling around a lot in the dark as I try to get the hang of it. But I’m having loads of fun with it, even if I’m not pounding out some stellar images yet. It’s easy to tell that I’m totally into something when it’s pushing midnight in winter coat weather and I’m STILL out there having fun [and not complaining] despite my numb toes.

Ben shooting at the South Tufas at Mono Lake, just before the sun went down.

Anyway, we went to the South Tufas two nights in a row and shot for several hours. I basically played with a flashlight and my speedlight with colored gels over it. (Though I’m totally not into the color pink, I thought the color worked pretty well in the above shot.)

A stop along June Lake Loop, which is only a few minutes from Mono Lake.

Aside from Mono Lake, I also took a drive around June Lake Loop, which I heard was pretty scenic. I heard right, because I ended up stopping several times to shoot. The shots below are from this drive.