Clearing storms offer at sunset the most spectacular views of Yoemite Valley. The full moon completes the picture. Photographed February, 2004.
The month of July is famous for thunderstorms in the Eastern Sierra, and storms had been raging over the Mono basin overnight as I prepared to head to the lake. The surreal quiet of sunrise, the solitude broken only by birds awakened by the imminent dawn, were my only companions as I walked onto the coarse sand of the lake shore. The day before, the lake had been beaten to a froth by high winds whose last breath scattered the clouds just before daybreak. A more awe-inspiring sunrise I have not seen at Mono Lake before or since. Photographed July 2014.
The Milky Way rises majestically over Robinson Lakes in the Hoover Wilderness, Eastern Sierras, California. Photographed July 31, 2016.