Wild Willy's Hot Springs

• Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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We have been visiting the Eastern Sierras since the year we moved to California. It was totally by chance that I heard about the hot springs that dot the landscape near Mammoth Lakes. I found very little information online and after scouring Pinterest, Panoramio, and Google Images finally found an approximate location. So on our most recent trip, we decided to go looking for some of these elusive hot springs. What we found was this shallow pool that was created by the snowmelt and stunning wind free reflection of the snow covered Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east bathed in beautiful morning light.

This is a stitched panorama I made of about 4 images with a 1 stop ND grad. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did taking it.

• Buddha.

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The first time we took the trip up north on the stunning highway called Rt 395 we couldn’t believe the sheer number of amazing vistas that were accessible from the road. Slowly but steadily we have been exploring each and every little town that’s happened to be located along this amazingly scenic highway. This shot was taken on a trip to Mammoth Lakes after a winter of record-breaking rain and snow in the Sierras. All the creeks and lakes were swelling with water and the mountains still had a good amount of snow on them as spring was in its full glory.

This location is a bit of a secret called Wild Willy's hot springs and its heart shape along with the backdrop of the Sierras makes it a stunning location to shoot early in the morning. We reached here after spending the sunrise at the Hot Springs Creek and on a crisp cold spring morning, it was wonderful to just enjoy the morning sun and the warm steam coming up from the hot spring.

As for the technical details regarding this shot, it's also a stitched vertical panorama of two shots. I had to use a short tele focal length to bring the mountains in the background a bit closer. I like how the short tele panoramas give the whole image a slight medium format vibe, so I tend to use it a lot.