Mono Lake, Eastern California
The first panorama (ML1) of Mono lake were taken at
sunset in the summer of 2000, while we were camping at Twin Lakes.
Twin Lakes is situated just north-east of Yosemite National Park,
and is a wonderful place to vacation. Mono Lake is farther
south - almost directly east of Yosemite National Park. The equipment used included my standard Canon EOS
Elan camera with the Canon 70-300 mm IS (image stabilization) lens,
at approximately 100 mm. I used Kodak Royal Gold 100,
and took all of the images used to create the final image using a
tripod.
The following panoramas (ML2 and ML3) - much more
spectacular, due to an absolutely magnificent sunset - were
taken in June 2004, using my new Canon D10 digital camera.
I used my Canon 28-135 IS zoom lens with a tripod for these shots.
Other non-panorama shots from this legendary evening will be posted
under the California category at a later date.
Click on the
thumbnail images below to see a larger version of the image.
Panorama ML1:
Mono Lake Sunset
Copyright (c) 2003 by Eric C. Anderson
All Rights Reserved
This image is actually a crop from
a very very large 180 degree panorama. The depth of field
requirement was huge, so I used the "depth of field" setting on the
camera to determine the correct f/stop and focus distance. I
let the camera set the focus, and then turned to manual exposure and
focus mode, and set the f/stop and shutter speed as specified by the
camera, when aimed at the brighter portion of the image. Now,
with everything set manually, I captured the shots by manually
panned through the scene, using a 3-axis tripod head. The
cropped size of this image is over 8800 x 2900 pixels - over 77 MB
of incredibly sharp image data. This is taken facing north,
with the sunset streaming in from the left, on a cloudless summer
day.
Panorama ML2:
Mono Lake Sunset East 2004
Copyright (c) 2004 by Eric C. Anderson
All Rights Reserved
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This has got to be my most
spectacular Mono Lake photo! This was taken on June 5, 2004
during a spectacular sunset. We had been camping at Lee Vining
for the week, and had visited the tufa structures several times.
But this night was very special. I saw it coming, and I took
pictures as fast as I could - the light was changing so fast!
I will be posting more of the incredible photos elsewhere on the
site in the future. This was captured with six portrait shots,
using my new Canon 10D digital camera. I was using a tripod
for this, and shooting at a speed of 400. I was using my Canon
IS 28-135 zoom at 90 mm, f/8 at 1/20 sec, manual exposure to make
sure each frame was perfectly matched. I used PowerStitch
to create the final image. PowerStitch is still the
best stitcher around - too bad it is no longer supported. I
have to do it on my old windows 98 machine! The original image
is 3049 x 8323 pixels in size, and shows some amazing detail.
For example, on the top of the rock at the left, there is a mama
bird sitting on her nest, with papa proudly sitting nearby
protecting the nest. I didn't even see it when I shot the
image, but noticed it later when scanning the result!
Panorama ML3:
Mono Lake Sunset West 2004
Copyright (c) 2004 by Eric C. Anderson
All Rights Reserved
Only 6 minutes later, after taking
the spectacular panorama above, I started waking back along the
beach, in a westerly direction. I was amazed by the blood-red
water from the sunset reflection! This is looking almost 180º
from the previous shot. I had to move quickly to set up the
tripod and get the camera set up. I used my 28-135 mm IS lens
at 28 mm, f/11, 1/15 second, speed of 400. The light was
dropping fast, so I was really moving to get this before it was too
late! Also stitched by PowerStitch, this panorama is 2887 x
5247 pixels in size.
