
Lone Tower

by Mike Lee
Title
Lone Tower
Artist
Mike Lee
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
As I looked out on the water at Mono Lake (Mono County, California, USA) I saw this lone tufa tower off shore a bit. I thought it made the perfect subject for a minimalistic photograph. I shot the image using a very dark neutral density filter which allowed me to expose for nearly a minute, completely flattening the water, which was nearly flat anyway. It then got a monochrome treatment in post production and I nearly completely removed the horizon as well. I wanted the image to be just about the wonderful textures of the unique limestone formation above and in its reflection in that alkaline brine.
For those unaware, these towers are formed when subterranean fresh water springs enter highly alkaline salt water lakes (AKA “soda lakes”) . This causes a reaction with calcium and carbonate salts that forms insoluble calcium carbonate (limestone). This precipitates out and, over time, settles to form large deposits around the location of the springs.
Uploaded
January 23rd, 2022
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Comments (54)

Roselynne Broussard
Thanks for sharing your process Mike...For someone self-taught, it's interesting to learn how an image is achieved:)) This is a wonderful photograph!!
Mike Lee replied:
Thank you very much, Roselynne! I'm a fairly regular student at YouTube University 🤣🤣🤣😂🤣😂

Alex Lapidus
Congratulations, your image has been featured in the Experimental Photography group -- thanks for sharing it with us! Please feel free to add it to the July – September 2023 Feature Archive in the Discussion section (using the "embed" link on your image page).