Over a million years old, Mono Lake sprawls across 60 square miles. It is lined with ancient calcium carbonate towers that formed on the lake’s bottom and now stand exposed as craggy sentinels, caught in transition from night to day. The soft colors of glowing sky and golden sage add a lush atmosphere, a mood unique to this strange place. I used a long telephoto lens – nearly 400mm – to collapse foreground, middleground, and background layers into a single plane.