Fall in June Lake Loop

After the Bishop area, I headed up towards June Loop across from Mono Lake. Reports here still showed June at around 40-50% so I wasn't expecting much. I woke up for sunrise at Silver Lake. Unfortunately there wasn't a single cloud the whole trip which made for lousy sunrise and sunset shots. Silver lake color was coming along nicely tho.

First light on Carson Peak with some ducks that decided they wanted to be in the shot.

There was fog on the water so I lingered around until the sun came up.



Got a few with some fishermen too.



An abstract of the colors reflected off Silver Lake



After Silver Lake, I headed to June Lake. Color here was still just starting.

I drove around the area a bit, and there were a few nice groves full of yellow.

I decided to come back for some Milky Way shots, as I have never taken them from this area. I came back after dinner and drove down to June Lake. In the fall months, the Milky Way is best seen after sunset when the richest part is still visible. This sure beats the winter months where best viewing times are pre-dawn. The night I went was a new moon, so I was hoping for a dark sky but it wasn't nearly as dark as when I came last time in the winter. I took a few shots at f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO-3200 and called it a night.



This is a single exposure. Lights are from the town. I did try a few where I painted the foreground rocks with my headlamp, but I didn't really like how they looked.

Future trips I may start stacking shots to reduce noise, or start taking a separate exposure for the foreground. Nonetheless, it came out pretty good. Next update will be from Convict Lake.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com