Convict Lake
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- Hannibal.
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While our visit to convict lake was not planned this time around, I still spent a while seeing if I could get some exciting photographs. Unfortunately, the trail around the lake had a couple of inches of ice, coupled with some severe winds; it was challenging to hunt for images.
At a location like Convict Lake, it's usually about finding foreground interests, and it is not unusual to find photographers hunting for driftwood and rocks to use. Since the cold and wind was in full force, this time, I was looking for any natural framing in the trees that dot the shoreline. Then I came across this beautiful place. The ice reached the shoreline at this location and gave the whole scene a cool color temperature. It made the warm golden hour light pop, and I took extra care to retain the natural cool tones of the image during post-processing.
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- John Lubbock.
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As fall is starting and the leaves are turning, I present to you one of my absolute favourite locations in all of California, the Convict Lake at sunrise. Mammoth Lakes has so many stunning lakes and Mountains vistas that it must be quite impressive to get to be so popular. Plus, the hike around the lake is stunning providing vistas of majestc mountain peaks all around the lake.
I took this shot last spring while we visited the stunning Mammoth Falls during a beautiful sunrise. For once we were before sunrise and had time to find a nive spot with some foreground interests. I can’t wait for the next trip to the Eastern side of California again to the see the golden aspens as the fall is in full force.
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- Henry David Thoreau.
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In my post two days ago, I mentioned the first time we made the trip up Rt 395 and the incredible beauty of the area. On our first trip, we saw some spectacular locations like Alabama hills, Mt Whitney, Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes, etc. But we soon returned and made sure to explore every small town along the great highway. During one of those trips, we got to experience Convict lake.
It’s a stunningly beautiful alpine lake nestled between the foothills of the Sierra. The lake is usually choppy with the amount of wind present in the Sierras. But if you are lucky, in the morning, sometimes you can score perfect reflections. It took us a couple of tries, but eventually, we ended up at the lake during a perfectly still morning. The scenery was achingly beautiful and got us the perfect canvas to capture the beauty of morning light. I consider it one of my best sunrise shots.
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This was my second day at this location. The first day didn't pay off at all since there were too many clouds to the east. I was greeted that day...
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- T. S. Eliot.
It's been a while since I posted any photos of my favorite place to photograph, the eastern Sierras. Today's subject is the beautiful convict lake just after a spectacular sunrise. After our sunrise shot, I walked around the lake to see if we could find any driftwoods to use as a foreground interest. The water level was pretty high that day, so most of the exciting foreground items were underwater. But there was a large tree that fell to the lake during a recent storm.
As I came by the tree, I decided to take a chance and get the shot as the sun was rapidly rising. We had only a few moments of golden hour light left. If you are a photographer who leaves immediately after sunrise, this image should tell you why it is important to stick around for a bit. If you look at the light in this scene, the warm glow on the light falling on the mountain peak is almost gone, but there is enough ambient light for showing off the great details in the shadow area. This later golden hour/early morning light is fantastic when you want to showcase details in the shadows—kind of like nature’s High Dynamic Range lighting. About 10 mins after this image was taken, the light on the mountain became too strong for the camera to record any details in the shadows.
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- Bernard Williams.
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Convict lake, the jewel of the mammoth lakes system. It’s a must visit if you are a photog, a fisherman or generally enjoy a good trail. Just be prepared to share the location with a lots of people. When we fist scouted this location on the first day after spending an early morning at the Hot Creek geological site, there was a full on wedding going on along the banks of the lake. So we took a leisurely hike circum navigating the stunning Lake.
On our second day we reached well in advance and found the nice location we scouted out earlier set up my camera and waited. It initially looked like it was going be a bland sunrise with no clouds on the sky but slowly but surely the orange glow started to come in through the surrounding mountain peaks and lit up the 11,818 ft Laurel Peak. I was so faint that the d800 picked up the color before we did but in about 5 minutes we got stunning light on the mountain and nice still water on the lake. All in all a stunning place to visit for sunrise.
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- Edgar Degas.
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While we were at Convict Lake looking for sunrise location, I had noticed a nice driftwood which I wanted to be part of my composition. But when I returned next morning I panicked as I couldn’t find any driftwood at the location and ended up taking my first shot with some boulders as foreground interest. So was followed was a frenzied search for any decent piece to driftwood and finally we found one about 50 meters away from where we found it the previous day.
One thing that came good from all this was that I managed to get a stronger ND grad out of the bag to take this shot. And managed to get a bit more color in the mountain peak. Also who knew driftwood could drift.