MINARET MOON (VERTICAL)

The Minarets - Mammoth Lakes, California, 2022

Limited Edition of 500

A full moon sets over The Minarets in the early morning twilight, photographed from the edge of Mammoth Mountain. After a failed attempt at this idea the previous year, I had a much better understanding of how to capture this incredibly difficult image completely in camera. The timing and location for this shot simply had to be perfect: hovering over the mountains glowing softly at dawn as to not be too bright. At 5 in the morning in the -20deg windchill, I rode a snowmobile up to the Minaret Vista only to realize I needed to be a mile or so further up the ridge for the moon to set in the right place. The ridge-line was very steep and had not seen any tracks that Winter and riding through the forest to get there would prove to be a tight squeeze but I made it just in time to create the photograph that I had hoped for.