I captured this image a couple of years ago but recently reprocessed it from the raw file as I was never completely happy with the results.
I was in Mammoth Lakes and the sky looked promising for a nice sunset so I drove up to Mono Lake. When I arrived at Mono Lake Basin all of the roads were snowed in, so I ended up hoofing it in from 395 to the western shoreline. The sunset was one of the best I have ever experienced and I was busy trying different compositions until well beyond sunset. When I was ready to leave I realized that I had left my headlamp at home. Needless to say finding my car was an interesting adventure…
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Gorgeous.
A terrific image Dave. It has a nice soothing quality about it, which perfectly captures the essence of Mono Lake. The sunset colors are sublime. I also love the placement of the tufas and the mirror like reflection.
How did you get to the western shore from Hwy 395? That is some rough terrain.
The color combination of warm and cool tones is simply stunning, Dave. The sunset light that evening certainly was magical and well worth the unexpected adventure since you were OK. I am really enjoying the light on those clouds as well as that on the hills along the left edge. This is a beauty.
Well, that would qualify as the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen, and you got it in an outstanding place to be. At least you had to work for it by coming back in the dark, sounds like quite an adventure 
The composition here is very finely crafted, the tufa and cloud placement are outstanding. And you couldn’t have asked for better reflection conditions.
I love this as presented.
This is a really fine image from Mono. Great transitions from warm to cool to warm. No suggestions here, looks good to me.
Excellent, Dave…gorgeous sunset, love the colors, and the reflections are wonderful, the hike in and out was worth it, well done.
Absolutely amazing sunset colors. They do steal the show at first, but once you can focus your attention elsewhere the fine detail on the tufa towers really comes through and makes the image an absolute winner.
Can’t really think of anything to improved here. Very nice position for shooting this. The rocks separate very nicely.
Just to offer a different perspective: to my tastes this shows too much of a HDR effect. The tufa towers look too bright. For the lake to reflect all those colors in the sky, it would need to be more in shadow. My guess is that you wanted to capture the colors, with perhaps the tufa being secondary points of interest. As bright as they are, the bright tufa confuses your image.
Dave,
Quite the refreshing and unique view of Mono Lake and it’s tufa formations. Not from the standard locations. Excellent composition balancing the tufa with the sky, horizon and mirrored reflection.
No nits or suggestions. Wonderful image from Mono Lake.
Lon
That is gorgeous. The light is sweet, the colors sublime, and the comp is fantastic. It’s mesmerizing. I don’t get the “over HDR effect” at all from this. It does feel saturated, but it also feels real. And the reflection!
Well done.
Thanks @Jim_Gavin, @Anil_Rao, @Ed_Lowe, @Ed_McGuirk, @Harley_Goldman, @Reno_DiTullio, @Alberto_Patino-Douce, @Tony_Kuyper, @Lon_Overacker, @GennyK for taking time to comment.
@Rick_Alway, Rick, thanks for sharing your honest input. Just FYI, this raw required very little processing and is a single exposure with no local adjustments what so ever - just some shadow/highlight in raw and global curves and levels in Photoshop. I suspect what you’re seeing is where I’ve set the white/point contrast.
Great image. You were in the right place at the right time with the a good eye. I darkened the image slightly and liked it better. Your mileage may differ.
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@Don_Jacobson, Thanks very much, Don. I think the darker version is a definite improvement.
I am late to the party, but this is one of the nicest images I have seen of Mono Lake. Great job on this, Dave!
I like the slightly darker version, as well.
–P
Dave, a stellar take from this location. The color is “Electric” and a wonderful evening rendition from this site. Your point about it being one of the best sunsets you’d seen from this location is well taken too. Probably one of the best many of us have now seen from here…
I like the darker version but could split the difference just for another look between the two maybe.
I’ve never had much success at Mono Lake. I’ve always thought of it as a lightly hued pastel sort of image. But this makes me reconsider. I find the composition slightly awkward so I gave this a go.
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@Igor_Doncov, Thanks, Igor, appreciate your taking time to play with crops. Your crop works well. Not something I considered but it definitely works as an alternate.